John in WI
11-10-2012, 09:53 PM
I ordered some new Federal wads and hulls from BPI and am trying to figure out how to put some 12 gauge buck shot loads together.
If I cut the petals off the wad I can stack #1 pellets in layers of 4. As it turns out, I can't put 4 layers to get 16 pellets because it doesn't leave enough for a roll-crimp. I can fit 3 layers to get a 12 pellet load and it gives perfect height if you put a overshot card under the shot.
The pellets come in at 35 grains, so 12 pellets comes in just a hair over 1 ounce. The Hodgdon site shows 20grains of International using my wads, primers, and hulls.
What do you think about a 12-pellet #1 buck? I would pretty much be using it as a practice HD load (they don't allow buckshot for bucks around WI). But I read somewhere that regular 16 pellet #1 had like 30% more ballistic cross section than 00 does. So it seems that cutting back from 16 to 12 pellets reduces the cross section by 25% which should still be 5% than 00.
I'm not trying to start a "which one is better" fight--OO and #1 are both really mean and adequate for something like HD. Just curious if you guys believe that the a 12 pellet #1 ranks up there with 16 pellet and OO. I was under the impression that penetration is more important than diameter (were those the Fackler studies?). 12 .30" holes vs. 9 .33" holes. Does .03" make a difference in this case?
If I cut the petals off the wad I can stack #1 pellets in layers of 4. As it turns out, I can't put 4 layers to get 16 pellets because it doesn't leave enough for a roll-crimp. I can fit 3 layers to get a 12 pellet load and it gives perfect height if you put a overshot card under the shot.
The pellets come in at 35 grains, so 12 pellets comes in just a hair over 1 ounce. The Hodgdon site shows 20grains of International using my wads, primers, and hulls.
What do you think about a 12-pellet #1 buck? I would pretty much be using it as a practice HD load (they don't allow buckshot for bucks around WI). But I read somewhere that regular 16 pellet #1 had like 30% more ballistic cross section than 00 does. So it seems that cutting back from 16 to 12 pellets reduces the cross section by 25% which should still be 5% than 00.
I'm not trying to start a "which one is better" fight--OO and #1 are both really mean and adequate for something like HD. Just curious if you guys believe that the a 12 pellet #1 ranks up there with 16 pellet and OO. I was under the impression that penetration is more important than diameter (were those the Fackler studies?). 12 .30" holes vs. 9 .33" holes. Does .03" make a difference in this case?