What diameter buckshot mold should I buy next?

[Barry54]

Don’t you just love being deceived!?!

[RMc]

SAMMI Voluntary Industry Standards:

TOLERANCES – SHOT SIZE AND WEIGHT PER SHELL

I. Shot Weight per Shell
a. Game Loads +4% -7% *
b. Target Loads +3% -5%

II. Pellet Count per Ounce
a. Nominal ±10%

III. Buck Shot Pellet Count per Shell
a. 0 and 00 Nominal -1 pellet
b. 1 and smaller Nominal -2 pellets

IV. Diameter
a. Game Shot Nominal ±0.010” (0.25 mm)
b. Target Shot Nominal ±0.005” (0.13 mm)
c. Buck Shot Nominal ±0.015” (0.38 mm)

Page 46

https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads...2019-04-23.pdf

[Barry54]

So they can deliberately use smaller buckshot pellets and save money on materials.

What about the pellet count discrepancy? Can they print a tractor trailer load of boxes that say 9 pellets and then decide to load eight pellets and keep rolling? Or if a random load is caught a pellet short during inspection, it’s no problem? What’s the intent with that tolerance?

[Hogtamer]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...rfect+buckshot
Here is my #1 buck load. I did have a big boy (250-300 lb boar) take this load broadside at 40 yds and shook it off. That was disconcerting. So came up with a little stronger pill, 10 pellet 00 buffered load in 3” hull. Bad news for pigs.
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...pretty+in+pink

[Barry54]

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...rfect+buckshot
Here is my #1 buck load. I did have a big boy (250-300 lb boar) take this load broadside at 40 yds and shook it off. That was disconcerting. So came up with a little stronger pill, 10 pellet 00 buffered load in 3” hull. Bad news for pigs.
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...pretty+in+pink

I hope you stocked up on the PT1265 wads before they were discontinued.

Thanks for posting those links! Great patterns you got!! If you ever need help shooting those wild hogs, I’d love to give it a try! I could even bring you a domestic hog for you freezer.

It’s looking like stacks of two is one of the keys to tight buckshot patterns. Then back to sorting out the black magic of wads, and pellet size, along with the bore and choke relationship.

After reading about a boar soaking up #1 buck, I’m thinking working on 000 loads again for the overbored Mossberg barrel.

[barnetmill]

I hope you stocked up on the PT1265 wads before they were discontinued.

Thanks for posting those links! Great patterns you got!! If you ever need help shooting those wild hogs, I’d love to give it a try! I could even bring you a domestic hog for you freezer.

It’s looking like stacks of two is one of the keys to tight buckshot patterns. Then back to sorting out the black magic of wads, and pellet size, along with the bore and choke relationship.

After reading about a boar soaking up #1 buck, I’m thinking working on 000 loads again for the overbored Mossberg barrel.

Here is another thought. Buck and Ball. I think that now someone is selling a buck and ball load.
https://wolfhillammo.com/12gauge2-34buckandball.aspx

[Barry54]

I’m sure you posted that for visualization purposes. Wow! $4 each is harsh!

My research and reading of other members testing buck and ball loads has been unimpressive. I might pick it up as a challenge one day, but it’s low on the priority list.

If I need a buckshot load I’m confident without a doubt of stopping a big boar, I will load some more of the Dixie tri-ball loads.

This is a casting forum. 000 was my first buckshot mold. I wanted to use that diameter but got fantastic patterns with smaller pellets. For my buckshot loading, 000 is the next challenge.

[RMc]

Could be that. Why,oh why, can't we all just talk about actual pellet diameters instead of a bunch of zeros...

EDIT: I googled Monarch ammo. Got headache. It is made in Philippines,Spain,Serbia,Russia, Brazil and Canada,to name a few.

No way to find out. Better stay clear.

Well, there are many aspects of the shotgun world that are, shall we say, a bit befuddling.

I recall Winchester's early foray into low-recoil buckshot for the law enforcement market. The first itteration had a white,"low brass" hull. Yes, most will equate low brass with low power shells and that perception led to an LE market flop! OK, "let's give them what they want." In this case - a lower power buckshot round that "looked" powerful was forthcoming. Yes, a traditional red high brass low-recoil shell!

Consumer response can be interesting.

A few years back, when RIO introduced their 9 pellet "00B" shells to the American market - there were rumblings that these shells, with a weird clear plastic closure,* were longer than "normal" 2.75" inch buckshot!

* Roll crimp

On the other hand, I don't recall any complaints about RIO's use of larger .34" pellets.

[Barry54]

Well manufacturers are selling to “the public” which is largely unaware of how things work.

I’ve never cut open expensive factory buckshot loads and measured or weighed the pellets. And only here recently after loading my own buckshot have discrepancies from factory loads stood out. The monarch 20 gauge load being the best example.

Deception is rampant though to sell things. The 5.0 mustang is less than five liters displacement, but “five oh” sounds and sells better than 4.9

[Barry54]

I wonder how these guys are doing it ?

Recently, a fellow forum member sectioned one. They are in stacks of three but the pellets are smaller than normal American sized number one buckshot.

Special thanks to Texas by God

[Hogtamer]

That soft lead deforms terribly going down the pipe, especially packed in 3s. The more you choke the more they deform producing flyers. HARD lead in stacks of 2 in a wad cup with buffer yield incomparable results. At 20 yds or in- house distances no biggie and some people are happy with that.

[Barry54]

Attachment 327337

Buckshot Bliss!

And I feel like luck and persistence were equal factors in finding it.

Well ten weeks later, I discovered the buffer has left these five rounds that lived in the elastic shell holder in the ready.

Time to add another step to the loading process. Fingernail polish or Elmers school glue for a crimp sealer? Or?

[Barry54]

Well the buffer definitely helps. 19” spread at 40 yards and they weren’t all inside the 20” circle. Still useful though. Three on the 8” splatter target. Only two outside the 20” ring and all ten accounted for.

The large hole At the top is two distinct holes from a 0.600” tri-ball load. Not sure where the third one went. I was hoping to have a couple of those in the front of the magazine tube for an upcoming hog hunt as a last resort. I don’t like the high point of impact though...

[RMc]

You’ve got me curious now. After coming up with the best patterning buckshot load I’ve ever tried, you say there’s a likelihood it could be improved. I don’t know that I would want a tighter pattern of buckshot at 40 yards, but better uniformity is appealing. As in a less elongated pattern.

Let me ask you this. If the magic happens with pellets in stacks of two, due to the contact angles of the pellets, then why didn’t 000 pattern great? No shotcup? Too little space in a 12 gauge barrel?

Space between pellets in the two pellet per layer stack, combined with the shallow angle between pellet layers, tends to facilitate a smoother pellet flow through forcing cone and choke constrictions.

Check this visual:

[Barry54]

Works great with 0 buckshot in the MG42 wad!

So how do you get great results with 000 in 12 gauge, since they don’t fit into a shotcup?

Space between pellets in the two pellet per layer stack, combined with the shallow angle between pellet layers, tends to facilitate a smoother pellet flow through forcing cone and choke constrictions.

Check this visual:

[barnetmill]

Works great with 0 buckshot in the MG42 wad!

So how do you get great results with 000 in 12 gauge, since they don’t fit into a shotcup?

Do not use a shot cup.

[Barry54]

Do not use a shot cup.

That’s profound!