10/89 load data available.

[Bantti]

Greetings from Finland.

Hunting season is starting here soon and its getting time to start loading shotshells.
Theres very few sources for shotgun load data in Finland, especially black powder.
Is there some sites or books or even your own recipes available for "basic" hunting
loads with black powder.

Loads i'm looking for are for ducks and small game, black grouse, rabbits and such.
Availability of black powder is quite bad at the time in Finland and only fg powder is at hand.
Customs policy in Finland is ever changing conserning ammo and "weapon parts" wich
at one point at least also considered even empty shells. Ordering reloading components
is quite difficult by yourself but luckily its possible to order overseas via hunting shops etc.

I use 10, 12, 16 and 20ga shotguns. Older Suhls, Valmet, Hunter, Tikka and couple others so all info
is very welcome.

Thanks in advance.

[MT Chambers]

sir: You don't need loads from a book for black powder.......a dram of black is 27 grs, so a 3 dram load is 85 or so grains of black which is a mild load, you don't need a press but a small roll crimper to use on a drill or drill press. Buy or make a proper sized punch and punch out wads of solid cardboard and felt. Build your wad column start with the card wad over the black powder, then some felt wad and if you have room a bp lube cookie. Scoop the proper amount of shot in leaving enough to roll crimp your shell tightly......enjoy!!!

[MT Chambers]

Just a further bit, the crimper can be ordered from Ballistic products or others on the net, for waterfowl hunting a 4 1/2 dram load in the 12 may be best, we've loaded BP shotgun shells like this since forever. You'll need some diff. small scoops for powder and shot or use a powder measure for the BP, it will take some experimenting to get the right height of your wad column. None of this is meant for smokeless powder except that you can reload without a press, using modern plastic wads and your roll crimper. Load data is on the Hodgdon site among others.