Old Pacific 'blue' wads.

[DeanWinchester]

I picked up some older reloading components for 12g.
Now, I've always been a bit puzzled by the nuances of shotshell reloading. There's great big bag of blue plastic wads made by Pacific. There's load data on the bag but they don't list a type of hull. They only differentiate between paper or plastic. Well shucks! How'd they go about things back then, when now, it's SOOO bad to change anything from the recipe?

Also got a big bag of fiber wads. Different thicknesses and some nitro card wads too. AND I got some AA Nitro 100 (old formula). Reckon it'd work to use these card wads with the listed powder charge for a Win AAHS hull; matching shot charge and building up to the old standard of 1/2 from the top of an uncrimped shell? I'd like to put these to use with my new (to me) 12g Lee Loader.

Lastly, it's always been heavily stressed to me that you do not monkey with listed recipes, but is it really dangerous to reduce the listed charge by 10% or so? After I injured my shoulder a while back, I ain't interested in aggravating it.

Thanks.

[lancem]

I'm with you on the questions... I think the biggest problem with shotshell loading is that there is no way of telling the pressure of a load by looking at a fired shell, so without pressure indicators to go by moving from standard load data can easily put you into the danger zone. That being said, I was loading some 16 ga using published data that all I can say is if it is right, holy &*%$, flattened primers, a kick that I wasn't getting from high brass factory loads, and pretty much scared the **** out of me, went from 27 gr down to 23 and no more flattened primers and the load performs as I expect it to for a 1200 fps load, so I'm sort of shy now of powder mfg load data, and if you can't trust them????

As far as back in the old days... I do remember as a teenager loading many a 12 ga, seems we switched primers, wads, to whatever was available and loaded away, the only constant was the powder. Not saying it was right, just saying...

[LeftyDon]

Looked on fleabay and found this listing - look soon as it is a closed auction.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150-Pacific-Verelite-Blue12-Gauge-Plastic-Wads-1-1-4-/370898925509?nma=true&si=4qQifmhQwWRcRcwoVT88xFRnMHs%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Also on SGW there's this:

http://shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=71600

[UNIQUEDOT]

Lastly, it's always been heavily stressed to me that you do not monkey with listed recipes, but is it really dangerous to reduce the listed charge by 10% or so?

Most load data nowadays gives performance with reduced charges. As far as the data on the wad bag you have it's just a loading chart and it can still be used, but if using tapered hulls you will want to reduce the listed charge for the plastic base wad by 10% to start working up your load til a clean burn is achieved. What one doesn't want to do is monkey with published data that's in the maximum pressure range unless you know what you're doing is going to actually lower the pressure. I've been loading shotshells long enough now that I only use load data for my heavy hunting loads and if I run across old wads/hulls/primers that I want to use I'll just know where to start depending on the hull I choose to use. Once you've loaded every type of hull and used every type of wad and primer along with old and new load charts as well as published data you'll be able to put your own load charts together from memory.

[DeanWinchester]

Can anyone tell me if its possible to use these wads with AA HS hulls and a 9 pellet buck load?
9 pellets weigh 1 ounce so saith my scale. (About 5g under actually)
The bag lists a 1 1/4 ounce load of shot over 26g of Unique with a large capacity hull (old red AA hulls)

I'm not looking for super destructo loads here, just a get off me varmint load.

This morning I loaded (NO I WONT SHOOT IT!!) one round with 24g of Unique in a grey HS hull to see how the thing would work out. The shot column is a little low but I layer with the crimp a little and everything is snug. I'm working with a Lee hand loader here btw.

My question, how far should I reduce a charge of Unique to be safe in a bolt action shotgun? This is going to be a truck gun and a reduced load would be very welcome to a bum shoulder.

[sargenv]

Unique should be able to go down to about 20 gr... Unique in a 12 ga is a medium burn rated powder.. eventually if you go low enough, it'll just go "poof" and stick the wad... so you want to keep a stick of some sort to ram the wad out of the barrel... 24 gr of Unique with the Pacific wads with a AA12 HS should be ok.. According to the Alliant web site, most wads in that powder range with 1 1/8 oz are in the range of 9500 psi or less.. Since you are firing a 1 ounce load with that range of powder, you will gain velocity and drop pressure.. it should work fine... might be a little loud.. If you add another pellet to gain yourself to near 1 1/8 oz, it would likely improve your burn rate while dropping velocity a little.

If you want to continue to use an ounce, you may want to switch to something a bit faster, like Red Dot.. with it's loads listed in the 16 to 18 grain range.

I too have been loading for over 20 years with many different combinations of wads, powder, shot loads.. I agree with Uniquedot's statement above.. I was basing the data off of the Win AA (old style) hull listed on the Alliant powder web site (www.alliantpowder.com).

[DeanWinchester]

Awesome. Well, I'll load a couple more and see what happens. Some water jugs for a test medium and I'll get back to y'all.

Thank you.