Good shotgun reloading manual for 3 and 3 1/2" 12 gauge buck shot

smallblockfuelie

smallblockfuelie

New member
Gents, I am going to start loading my own again and need a recommendation for a GOOD 12 gauge reloading manual for 3 and 3 1/2 inch stuff. I will load lead and some non-toxic stuff as soon as this blasted CA lead ban goes into effect.

Thanks. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
There are several good manuals for buckshot, but I have found this to work best for dogs, 3" 4-buck 40 pellet count, 32 grains IMR 4756, Remington SP-12 wads. They come out at 1175 fps. out of my Rem 870 super mag. I've tried 3 1/2" also, but dont care for the pattern as well as the 3's. As far as the non-toxic stuff, they don't offer anything big enough to do the job for the reloader. Now, with that being said, factory Dead Coyote works awsome, but very, very expensive. It is only T size but workks great. We regularly kill yotes from 30 to as far as 75 + yards with factory full or modified chokes. As far as manuals, check out Ballistic products.
 
Another great shotgun manual is forum member GC! from what I've read, he's kinda like the shotgun master. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
As BoomSplat said, BP is a good place to start. Not real happy with the Precision Reloading Manual, it seems to show the same loads over and over. Best of all is to try to find the previous edition of BP's buckshot manual. Their new one is not near as good.
John
 
+1 on Ballistic Products manual. Loading larger shot is addictive, whole new world opens up, Super hard #4 buck, F Buck, T Shot, BB's, etc.

You will find that every shot gun you shoot is different and fickle in what they like.

Ballistic produces wads for large shot columns, invest in some.

One of my favorite loads is with the 2 3/4" Active hull or the green Rem 3" hull, 32#4 Buck+13 BB's, 36.0g of Blue Dot, BP12 wad, BGS, 2 slits in the wad 2/3 of the way down, I put BB's on the bottom, then stack the #4 Buck, 4 to a row and put a BB in the middle, then add buffer. This load patterns extremely tight at 40 yards with a velocity of 1275 fps. If you bump the load to 38.0g of Blue Dot, the velocity will be over 1300 fps, and you will loose a little pattern density.

I have been loading large shot since the days of goose hunting with lead shot...no doubt it is a labor of love. The hastle of finding 3" hulls, cost of loading components, etc, and don't forget that many, many load recipes do not pattern worth a flip. You will no doubt need a Mec 12 ga Sizemaster loader due to the fact that it will load 3" and 2 3/4" hulls. Your fisrt order to Ballistics Products will no doubt be in the range of a couple Hundred dollars to get you started, Wads, shot, loading manual, primers, powder, buffer.

The Buffered #4 Buck shot from Federal, Winchester, and Remington are fantastic loads in the shotguns that I have shot them in. It would be prudent for you to take that $250 + the $150 for the Mec Sizemaster that you were going to spend on reloading components and go to the store and buy you a life time supply of #4 Buckshot and be money ahead. Also, go to www.gunbroker and do a search on "Federal BB". Federal is now making a load of 1 7/8 oz of lead BB in a 25 count box that sells for about $25...best money that you ever spent.

Please don't get me wrong, I love to reload my own buckshot, but it is a very expensive proposition to get into and for the guys that think that they are going to save some money, forget that notion.

I think that I outsmarted myself on the hobby of loading Buckshot.
 
Thanks everyone. I have an old Du-o-matic 375 for the 3" stuff and a MEC single stage unit for the 3 1/2" stuff. I still have quite a bit of #4 buck that came with the Du-o unit from my uncle along with the crimper for the 12 gauge shells and a mess of hulls, wads and other goodies. I've also got a couple pounds of blue dot I picked up last year when I thought I was going to load up some 3" stuff for crows. Stuff happens and I never got around to it.

I've done a little loading once the machine was already setup but am basically new to shot shell reloading. I ordered the Ballistics manual and will place my order for the remaining components once I've read the manual and decided what I want to try.

Thanks again.
 
Quote:
Another great shotgun manual is forum member GC! from what I've read, he's kinda like the shotgun master. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif



Thanks. If he doesn't chime in here next week I will drop him a PM and see if he has any pointers.
 
Heath try getting a hold of derbyacresbob, he's pretty darn good on shotgun reloading also, especially the buckshot stuff... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
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