somebody got some Splaining to do Casting Buckshot

So my first trip into casting buckshot .. Been doing lot of reading
keep seeing people talking about buckshot deforming and hurting patterns .. talk about adding buffers ect to help
Why not cast in linotype and add buffer ?
Is it because they are worried of hurting chokes or barrels.

I remember years ago when I hunted on deer drives and shotguns the best patterning buckshot I could find was a Remington load with nickel plated 00 buckshot .. seemed no one then nhad any issue with it

What am I missing or unedge-amacated about

help me please the all knowledgeable buckshot gods

Yes, hardcast buckshot or plated gets more pellets on target, especially longer ranges. Buffer unnecessary with hard pellets and adds pressure to a given load. Deformation does occur in the violence of ignition with soft lead and those deformed pellets become fliers in a pattern. My best load after a BUNCH of combos is out of an older IMR book I've got in pdf format. AA hull, Win 209 primer, 32 grns 800x, AA12r wad (not made anymore but I've got a stash), 8 - 00 hard pellets, 20 gr original BPI buffer, fold crimp. The buffer just gives a firm base for crimp. 1545 fps, 10,700 psi. More pellets = less energy on target per pellet. Heap good load.
http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/FIR..._reloading.pdf

I believe the main reason factory buckshot is soft is because it's swaged. Large dropped shot, unlike small bird shot, doesn't form properly when dropped from a shot tower. Stands to reason nickle plating would be easier than trying to swage with a harder alloy for the factories . But cast buckshot is a different story, you can cast them as hard as you like.
Give it a go .
Gary

Ive played with a .360 (000) round ball mould, cast with wheel weights and rotary tumbled to remove the sprue tail, I never patterned it on paper just loaded a hand full for giggles. I had a 18 inch round steel plate at about 35 yards it whammied the heck out of it shot through a modified choke.

I use a Lee 00 mold that makes 18 at a time, I water drop, clip them and tumble in a rotary tumbler to clean them up. I've used them with buffer and without. My current favorite load is 15 pellets with a gas seal, and teflon wrapper in a 2 3/4" shell with Bluedot. They kick on both ends...

Single cavity round ball mould takes a long time to get a goodly amount... Main reason i only loaded a handfull

like moonie, I have a 18 cavity lee mold. it churns a bunch of them out quick. I only load 9 in a win 1 1/8oz trap wad (3 stacks of 3)

you will find the old fiber wads work better no shot cups.

I have only had a minimal amount of buckshot testing. But, I have read a bunch even from the days before I was born, before Moses. Tighter choked guns like hard and open choked guns like soft is what I got from an old book from the library. The book showed a number of respectable patterns with both hard and soft @ 40 yds. It really matters on what you are going to use it for. I watch episodes of Bubba Roundtree's Outdoors on YouTube with the deer drives of the south with dogs, very interesting. They are trying to get buckshot to shoot past 60 - 70 yds. Even though we have drives in the north they are not like that. I have been on drives once in a while, but my main focus of using buckshot is to stand sit in stuff where the furthest possible shot is 50 yds and most shots would be 20 to 35 yds on deer coming towards me or flanking me and possibly them noticing me about the same time I notice them. Shots coming towards me would be shot in the neck where all there is to go through is hide and windpipe before hitting the vertebrae. Flanking shots would be put in the rib cage, so basically I would be using buckshot like in turkey hunting, but for deer.

Just a couple of threads below this one is a thread about penetration. Just about any buckshot will go through the hide and into the lungs as well as going through the hide at the throat to hit the vertebrae. So, with my style of buckshot usage doesn't have the requirements of shooting at running deer on a drive. Just like Hogtamer mentioned above about velocity, it does matter depending on usage. A lot of factory buckshot is loaded with more pellets, but with slower velocities. They usually range from the 1100 to 1200 fps. If you load your own you can get much higher velocity with lighter payloads and generally in that velocity range with heavy payloads. The pattern is still the key. It just matters where do you want your 80 to 100% 15" pattern to at which range and if you have to go through the heavier meat and bone to get to the vitals or just the ribs or neck vertebrae from running deer to the turkey shoot type of hunting, respectively. My load is a moderately heavy load of 19 WQWW Lee 311s in a 3.5" hull with MOD choke out of a single mold, so it is between No. 1 and 0 buck. Time consuming, but I don't shoot that much of buckshot. I have also thought about lubing them with LLA after the wet tumble. I do believe you should have a load of buckshot in your deer hunting arsenal though. I get about 12 to 14 hits in a bread basket at 40 yards. It needs tweaking, but I think it should do the job on a deer in the fashion I use buckshot.

If I was to hunt on drives like down in the south with dogs I think I would try to come up with a different buckshot load. I think I would go to the heavier buckshot and push it fast for more downrange energy at shooting at the whole front half of deer. Maybe a 10 to 15 pellet count of 00 or 000 buck pushing above 1500 fps. I use an 835, so I load to the 14000 psi limits. The WQWW or harder buckshot worked better for my gun choke/s that I tried. Choke tubes, WHOA, why do you think they make so many and why do you think them boys down in the south with those deer drives are always looking for THAT gun/load for shooting buckshot. You could go through a 1000 primers finding that one load that you like reloading buckshot for your gun.

Thanks for all the info.
Now I have to ask how many of you did the Ricky accent :bigsmyl2:

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Originally Posted by Hogtamer

AA hull, Win 209 primer, 32 grns 800x, AA12r wad (not made anymore but I've got a stash), 8 - 00 hard pellets, 20 gr original BPI buffer, fold crimp.

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Claybuster Shotshell wads 12 ga CB1138-12 (Replacement clone for the WAA12R) 1 1/2 oz are available. I know Claybuster wads are a tad soft, but so was the WAA12R. I used up all my old Reds a few years ago testing for slugs and turkey loads. I used to use them back in the '70s along with the RP12 for squirrel and lead shot duck hunting. That's when I found out that Blue dot and soft wads don't work so well when ice starts forming in the cattails. They do subside pressure in a number of loads.

i have tried and reloaded alot og buckshot in the last 5 years and the thing is that just built a load for the hunting/defense purpose you need with the gun you use. the BPI buckshot manual or lyman shotshell book is a good place to start. that will give you multiples option for all scenarios. then just perfect them to your taste.

You can cast hard-alloy round balls like Buck is, but don't run hard alloys into a cold mold or let the sprue harden, as Alu RB molds are very thin and fragile at the opening and can be ruined instantly when you tap open the sprue plate with a well set hard alloy sprue. I lost 2 before it dawned on me what the heck was happening.

I wouldn't go along with the Fiber Wads as the best Patterning Loads. Every Gun is different, and Buckshot can be erratic from Gun to Gun. If You use the LBC Wads from BPI and stack layers of 2 Pellets using Precision Reloading Buffer some good Patterns can be obtained. It seems to work better than others in a wide variety of Guns.

Hard Pellets work best, and HT ones are good but extra work. I seem to recall a max load of 14-00 Pellets in the 3" Load using the LBC Wad. 0 size buck and 1 work better in some cases. I try and keep the Velocity around 1050-1100 FPS. Additional Velocity just beats up the Shooter.
Greg
AKA 12 Bore

One other thing about buckshot: WEIGH YOU PELLETS!!! I bought the nickel plated 00 from BPI once and they weighed 47 gr each and actually measured size 0. Reference stuff calls 00 pellets 54 gr and .333". Manufacturing specs allow for a wide range in size and weight and you could wind up 70 - 100 grn per load off that could make a difference pressure-wise.

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Originally Posted by Hogtamer

One other thing about buckshot: WEIGH YOU PELLETS!!! I bought the nickel plated 00 from BPI once and they weighed 47 gr each and actually measured size 0. Reference stuff calls 00 pellets 54 gr and .333". Manufacturing specs allow for a wide range in size and weight and you could wind up 70 - 100 grn per load off that could make a difference pressure-wise.

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Excellent advice Hogtamer!!

Don Verna