12 ga Buckshot Loads for Coyotes using # T and # 4

Alliant's Steel powder may be a good powder for cold weather. Alliant says it is not effected by temperature change and it is slower burning than SR-4756 and Blue Dot powder.

I am using Steel powder in the 3" 1-1/2 oz loads I am reloading for coyotes. I got the data out of BPI's Hevi-Shot reloading manual.

Many years ago I had some 10 ga 1-5/8 oz 50 gr of Blue Dot loads give me problems when it was around 10 degrees. They were low pressure, fast loads. I switched to a 10 ga 2 oz load with Blue Dot and they shot fine on that same cold morning.

I have shot 1-3/8 oz and 1-1/2 oz lead loads in 2-3/4" Federal Gold Medal hulls with Blue Dot powder for many years and never had a problem. But most of my shooting of those loads was at above 30 degrees.
 
Jeez, wonder how I killed all that stuff back in the 80's? Jeez, it must have been a fluke?

We hunted pheasants in Kansas were you could not leave skin exposed for more than a couple of minutes. 38g of Blue dot in a Rem 3" hull with a BP12 wad and BP gas seal with 1 5/8 oz of copper coated 4's just massacred the pheasants.

I am sure that there are better powders today.
 
I ended up loading 1 1/8 oz load of lead BBB buckshot with a pulbished Hodgon load. Fifty pellets per load @ 1585 fps. FGM 2 3/4" hulls, Win 209 primers, Fed 12S3 wads, 38.1 grains of Longshot. I had all the componets on hand, except for the BBB buckshot. Patterns much better than #4 buckshot.
 
on the fiochhi load that I gave with Blue dot, I was using a Win Red wad, there is a replacement for this wad now. I hate cheddite hulls, they don't stay crimped over time, maybe they would with a roll crimp, but I have never tried a roll crimp on a previous 6 point crimp hull.
 
As a experimental load a long time ago, I added h4350 to my long range blue dot loads. Will maintain velocity and patterns in cold weather.
 
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