Newbie to black powder shotgun reloading questions

[Tripplebeards]

As I most of you here know I have finally tried loading for shotguns. I loaded up a dozen FG black powder 2 7/8” 10 gauge loads to try in my Damascus 10 gauge SxS a few weeks ago and I’m hooked! I tried a square load of 116 grains of FG and 1 5/8oz of #6’s. I also tried a 100 grains of FG advised my another member here which turned out to be a pretty darn good load. I put 40 hits in the kill zone on a turkey target at 25 yards with the left barrel. I used RST spent hulls and I glued in the overshot card. I just bought a quad pin roll crimper. So now, instead of gluing in the shot cards I am changing over to roll crimping them.

How much, if any, pressure increase will I gain going from gluing in an overshot card to a roll crimp? Will my pattern stay the same,or close, from changing over to a roll crimp vs a glued in shot card with the exact same load?

Also, I forgot to resize two hulls that were shot in my Gold. I already had packed 2 hulls with 100 grain FG load and a 1/4” nitro wad over it before I remembered to see if they would easily chamber in my SxS. They chambered with a little pressure so I resized the brass with the powder and nitro card already installed(trust me, I won’t be doing it again like this). Both the loads were GENTLY tapped out of the MEC screw in sizer die with a chrome rod that comes with the lee loader 2 7/8” kit. They now chamber easy. The question is I could here powder crunch when I seated the nitro wad over the FG load pretty good. Im sure tapping it probably broke up some of the larger granules as well? So is it possible to use to much pressure to seat a nitro wad over black powder?..and if so “how hard is to hard” when compressing black powder in shotgun hulls? My goal is to stay under 7000 pressures. The only load data I have seen a pressure listing using 1 5/8oz of shot with black powder charge in a 10 gauge 2 7/8” hull was using 130 grains of FFFG and a 1 5/8oz load. It was listed at 6700 pressure. So I would assume I am way under 7000 pressure even if I crunched powder?

[centershot]

Tripplebeards, I really don't know much about loading BP into shotgun shells, did it many years ago for an old Damascus SXS, but tat was long, long ago. My best recommendation is to get on Shotgunworld.com and post this question there. They will know!

[longbow]

What powder granulation did you use? I used to load 12 ga. Cartridges with up to 4 drams of FFFg with no issues and same with my Pedersoli side by also 12 ga.

If you used FFg or Fg I wouldn't worry about it. I doubt there's enough compression from sizing to compact or crush powder.

Also, not sure if you have seen this. It might be helpful for your reloading:

http://www.tbullock.com/bpsg.html

And... Happy Easter!

Longbow

[Tripplebeards]

I used a measured 100 grains (a hair under 4 drams)of Fg on my RCBS digital scale. I have seen load listings all the way up to 130 grains of FFFg and 1 5/8oz showing 6700 pressure. When I googled how many grains is 1 5/8oz is came up as 692 grains. I saw a chart at BPI saying it is 710 grains after the fact. I have been loading at 692 grains so I’m a little under a 1 5/8oz load...I guess. I figured if I crushed it down to FFFg powder size I would till be way under the 7000 pressure as advised to stay under by RST for Damascus barreled guns. I can tell by the recoil o don’t need to load my gun past a 100 grains. The 116 grains didn’t bother me as far as recoil goes but figured I won’t push the gun any harder with a 1 5/8oz load since my patterns opened up above 100 grains. I watched a couple people really crunch it down with force on YouTube since I posted so I figured it was probably the normal way of doing it. So I’m not going to loose any sleep on crunching my powder with good force anymore.


So has anyone seen a pattern difference between gluing in an overshot card VS roll crimping?

[Cap'n Morgan]

I strongly doubt there will be any difference in the pressure between gluing and roll crimping.

Black powder behaves very differently from smokeless. A good crimp can make the difference between a blooper and a proper bang when smokeless powder is involved, whereas a black powder will go boom with only a tuft of tissue paper to keep it inside the case.

I once celebrated New Years Eve with a four gauge flare pistol loaded with black powder only. I forgot the amount of powder involved, but it was large enough to produce both recoil and a smokescreen.

[Tripplebeards]

I shot a few of the roll crimped loads today. They patterned the same as glued in shot cards.

[David todd]

Sorry about the late reply, I haven't logged in for a while!
I run about 30 pounds of pressure on the MEC scale when loading my BP brass cases on the overshot wad in the 12 and 10 after I pour in the shot and place the OS wad..
I have shot muzzle loaders and cartridge black powder rifles and shotguns for 40 years or so, and always compress the powder so I get a slight crunch when I seat the ball.
David

[missionary5155]

The true test will be to go out and pop a few crows !

[warren5421]

My Speer No. 7 showed 50 pound on the MEC for all 10 ga loads.