Loaded #0 buck shot at 25 yards
Recently a friend gave me about fifteen pounds of #0 and #00 buckshot he got from cleaning up the floor inside a van trailer used to transport lead to the factory. So the buck shot was all mixed up so I loaded as a duplex. I used brand new RIO shells and primers. BPI had the new high brass (25mm) hulls on sale at a great price, $7.50 per 100. Used Alliant Herco powder and a BPI wad MG42. The recipe called for min. 24.0 gr to max. 26.0 gr. Ten pellets stacked two per layer for five layers about 518 grains. Folder crimp and a overshot card on top. Also I used wad slick on the wads.
Test shoots were at twenty-five yards on a Fort Leonard wood thirty-five meter silhouette. Shot over a Caldwell chrono. My chrono was malfunctioning due to a visor missing… Thanks for shooting it Nik. I did get a enough data to determine the FPS. the range was 1204 fps to 1240 fps. I measured six of the nine with my auto-powder trickler and used the MEC bushing for the other three. These three had a huge spread, 1160fps on the low and one spiked to 1400fps, hence why I use the auto-trikler and not the bushings. The pellets held tight and I am really happy with the results.
I start with charging the hull with 24.0 gr of herco. Then I start the MG42 wad into the hull and seat it with an allen wrench.
Then I stack five rows of two pellets into the wad and top with a over shot card. I use this to get a good crimp otherwise the crimp can fall in on the voids left by the buckshot.
Then using a BPI six point star crimp starter I crimp the hull shut. I do two final crimps to set the crimp deep. The finished product is a brand new #0-#00 buckshot shell, ready to go.
#0-#00 buckshot over 24.0 gr herco
Here you can see what nine rounds shot at 25 yards will do to a man sized target. I am very satisfied with this round.