frkelly74
05-16-2021, 08:59 AM
It all started when My son in law got himself one of those shockwave otherguns. Then he needed some ammo and told me he wanted number 4 buck to shoot in it because he read that that was the most effective defense load. I had gotten him some #8 one ounce loads thinking the recoil would be manageable. So he shot those all up and seemed to manage okay. He is not previously a gun guy and I wanted him to start easy. Mission accomplished. So I had some .69 balls and contrived to re drill an old mold to make some "buck shot" and ended up with cylinders of about .28, I can stack 9 of them in a AA 1 1/8 oz wad. I used some international powder at a charge weight one grain less than the load listed on the can for 1 1/8 oz loads in AA hulls. They go bang, and give about a 3' pattern at 25 yds , which makes it strictly a short range load.
Naturally the round ball was the next thing to try. I used the same hull , wad, and powder charge, but put a 20 gage card wad under the ball inside the AA wad cup. These proved to be a pretty useful combination. I could hit a full size silhouette at the 25 yards with only a bead front sight. I loaded all these with my Lee loader kit and was happy with the result.
So the next step was getting a short gun to shoot these and I wanted something with a butt stock. A Mossberg 500 with an 18.5" barrel showed up at my favorite gun store and I got it. Recoil is snappy but not out of the fun zone.
And the upshot of that is I have to load up some more of the round ball loads . And don't you know, I sold off that mold a few years ago so I will have to replace it when I can. I have a few of the balls left so I am not dead in the water yet.
Naturally the round ball was the next thing to try. I used the same hull , wad, and powder charge, but put a 20 gage card wad under the ball inside the AA wad cup. These proved to be a pretty useful combination. I could hit a full size silhouette at the 25 yards with only a bead front sight. I loaded all these with my Lee loader kit and was happy with the result.
So the next step was getting a short gun to shoot these and I wanted something with a butt stock. A Mossberg 500 with an 18.5" barrel showed up at my favorite gun store and I got it. Recoil is snappy but not out of the fun zone.
And the upshot of that is I have to load up some more of the round ball loads . And don't you know, I sold off that mold a few years ago so I will have to replace it when I can. I have a few of the balls left so I am not dead in the water yet.