No. 1 Buck???

I think that I have found loads with #1 buckshot exactly twice in my life. For potential "social encounters", I favor the extra pellets as compared to the venerable #00 buck.

Though I don't reload for shotgun (yet...???), there is the option of making my own using nominal .30 caliber round balls from a very old multi-cavity thing here. Have never run it long enough to get hot enough to get good fill.

Does anyone here have experience with rolling their own using #1 buck?

Would the little sprue thingies on those round balls cause any undesireable increase in how fast the shot cloud scatters into a large pattern with too many "holes" in it?

Thanks!

I use the Lee .311 to make buckshot loads. I rarely ever use buckshot for hunting and I haven't designed any SD loads. The 311 is in between the 0 and #1 buck. I put 19 in a 3.5" hull. They shoot pretty decent or enough to should put a good smacking on a deer at 40 yd and possible 50 yd with good tracking. Out of the 19 about 12 go into a bread basket at 40 yd. About 5 go outside of that but might hit the deer and two go off paper. It's huntable, but needs tweaking. I WQ them then wet tumble to smooth out. I am going to start LLA coating them the next go around. Buckshot can be finicky to pattern well.

I bought a 1 buck mold for use in a 20ga. But will probably try it in a 12.

I mold my own #1 buck (.30) with a Sharpshooter mold, and it works great. You need to clip the sprue off manually, and that's a bit of a pain, but patterns are usually good, since you can cast hard alloy that doesn't deform as much as soft swaged lead. Use a little mold release or simple dry lube, run the mold hot, and it fills out just fine.

If you have a sprue simply cast a bunch, put them in a strong box, and leave them in the trunk of your car for a month or so. They will be round with no sprue!

I have a Sharpshooter #1, which I like, and I just got this which is really a # .5 at .310" - Lee round balls have little to no sprue. #1 and #0 fit wads better than #00. Liking this mold:

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/imgPart/lee-mold-6_1.jpg

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Catego...2/1/LEE-310-6C

I don't cast 1 Buck but I do cast 0 Buck with a Sharpshooter mould, hard lead alloy dropped from mould into water. Run the mould very hot and you get good cavity fill and the small sprue is just nipped of with the cutters that Sharpshooter supply with the mould. My patterns with a 12 gauge 3 inch load of 14 x 0 Buck average 12 hits in a 20 inch circle at 50 yards, that's good enough for me.

I think your mould would be just fine and the sprue would not be an issue, or you could just get a Sharpshooter mould they work great. If I was in US I would have a whole set of them. Good luck.

Having used the Lee buck molds and sharpshooter, I prefer the sharpshooter. You still have to cut ea of the buck from the sprue on a sharpshooter, just seems alot easier to do than cutting apart the strings of 3 you get from a Lee mold. I had to dig thru my pliers drawer to find something that would do the job. Most wire cutters just can't get between the buck from a lee, not without damaging one in the process.

"You still have to cut ea of the buck from the sprue on a sharpshooter, just seems alot easier to do than cutting apart the strings of 3 you get from a Lee mold. I had to dig thru my pliers drawer to find something that would do the job."

I like Sharpshooter molds and have at least six or more. The Lee mold I linked is a round ball mold with a sprue plate cutter making six individual round balls that are not linked/connected in any way. Again, the is little to no sprue, as with all Lee round ball molds not the Lee buckshot molds.

Attachment 153672

I just finished clipping apart about 5 -6 Lbs #4 buckshot from my Lee mould. This Anvil Cut (from Home Hardware in Canada) uses a heavy duty razor blade and works fairly well.

When I got my sharpshooter mould I got these at the same time. Forget what I paid for them, but I understand they're available elsewhere. They work great.

Attachment 153677

I use the LEE .311 RB mold and get outstanding results loading 9 ea. (3x3) inside the wad in 12 ga 2 3/4 using 1 oz load data. Got my SharpShooter Combo #00 & #4 Buck mold yesterday. Preheated the mold and set the PID on the Lee 4-20 to 750 and it worked like a charm....gloves required. I was surprised and pleased that a set of flush-cutters came with the mold and they worked great. Found that 8 ea. #00 that stack 2x2 (inside the wad) weigh exactly the same as 9 ea. of the .311 RB's. I'll see which patterns better. Looks like I can get 24 ea. #4 (inside the wad) stacked (4x6) for a for a 1 oz 12 ga load.

Sharpshooters is a bit odd. Says on their website you have to order 2 molds to get a free set of cutters. But my first mold came with a set anyways. Then recently I ordered 2 more, and they sent 2 more sets. Add it to my extensive collection of various types of wire cutters that have piled up over the years.

Yea the 0 buck stacks nicely in a 12ga shot cup, but it is a bit monotonous to try and fill them up with the 2 ball .311 Lee mold. You can put 0 buck in a 20, 2 to a layer, no shotcup, but 1 buck does the traditional 3 to a layer. Tried 4 buck in 12 ga, but even the Lee 18 ball mold doesn't make 1 shell.

I load #1 Buck in the 10 gauge and the 16 gauge . I don't cast it however I bought a 25 pound bag of Remington #1 Buck that should last me a good long time !

I also bought a flat of European 20 gauge shells (2 3/4") loaded with #1 buck . These things were like $100 by the time they were delivered . I kept three boxes and sold the other 7 and got all my money back and a couple bucks to spare . Oh they were 25 round boxes I might add . I tried them in a pair of Fox Sterlingworth 20 gauges , my little Parker VHE and a pair of Browning Superposed . While they weren't the greatest patterns they weren't the worst either !

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tackleberry41

Yea the 0 buck stacks nicely in a 12ga shot cup, but it is a bit monotonous to try and fill them up with the 2 ball .311 Lee mold. You can put 0 buck in a 20, 2 to a layer, no shotcup, but 1 buck does the traditional 3 to a layer. Tried 4 buck in 12 ga, but even the Lee 18 ball mold doesn't make 1 shell.

---

I load 0 buck in the 10 gauge as well 3 per layer in the SP-10 wad 4 layers , but I can do the same thing with 00 . But I gotta say both do nicely in all my 10 gauge guns . In my 12 gauge loads I get three layers of 3 of 0 Buck in the Remington SP-12 wad and it patterns pretty well in three Parker 12 gauge guns I have .

Yea I have experimented with what fits in what. 0 buck will stack easily in a shot cup of a 12ga. 0 buck will stack by 2 in a 20ga with no shot cup. Of course 0 buck by 3s in a 16ga w no shot cup. I bought some Rio 'game loads' which is 1 buck in layers of 3. I sort of stopped making 4 buck, takes so much of it to fill up a shell, especially 12ga. But works on top of a 54cal RB in a 20 ga shotcup.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tackleberry41

Yea I have experimented with what fits in what. 0 buck will stack easily in a shot cup of a 12ga. 0 buck will stack by 2 in a 20ga with no shot cup. Of course 0 buck by 3s in a 16ga w no shot cup. I bought some Rio 'game loads' which is 1 buck in layers of 3. I sort of stopped making 4 buck, takes so much of it to fill up a shell, especially 12ga. But works on top of a 54cal RB in a 20 ga shotcup.

---

I only load it if I can get it to fit to suit me inside a shot cup wad .

I've had some thoughts about loading "0000" in the 10 gauge but I can't do it with the SP-10 wad . I may break my rule and load some in the more traditional manor with fiber wads maylar wrap etc etc .

You know I've got decent loads for the 20 gauge using #2 and #3 buck in wads . I may see if I can get eight of the #1 pellets inside a SP-20 or Claybuster knockoff WAA-20 wad .