Handloads.

C

Clinton John

New member
Like the title says gents. Who is handloading and what y'all handloading?

The last few years I have been doing tss/steel duplexes and pure tss handloads for 🦆/geese/🦌 hogs and predators.

1 oz duplex of 50/50 tss/steel at 1450 fps with a cylinder choke is amazing on waterfowl inside 50 yards

1 oz tss with different chokes for yardages has been a goose and deer/hog hammer

1 1/4 oz load of number 4tss buckshot at 1400 fps is pure brown and down, spoon and crockpot magic.

Also do a few 1 oz steel swatter loads for those pesky Woodies in the creeks or to finish off birds in the decoys.
 
Dang I would have thought with all the folks on here who like to do things their way and build things to fit their needs, that some of y'all would be handloading your own waterfowl loads.

Oh well guess I will save those conversations for other forums I'm on.
 
I,ve been hand loading 3" 20 gauge Bismuth 3, & 4,s past 3 years for waterfowl. I Do occasionally load other lead hunting loads for 20. Got a 28 gauge on order. May have to set up a Mec 600 for that gauge instead of paying out the nose for shells.
 
Sorry, I don’t personally know anyone who still handloads shells. There are a few guys here who I think do.
 
roy brewington said:
I,ve been hand loading 3" 20 gauge Bismuth 3, & 4,s past 3 years for waterfowl. I Do occasionally load other lead hunting loads for 20. Got a 28 gauge on order. May have to set up a Mec 600 for that gauge instead of paying out the nose for shells.
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I haven't used any bismuth myself but have seen friends and family use factory bismuth shells and they seemed to give a bit of advantage over steel shot.

I still load my own lead shells for tree rats, rabbits, use to load my own lead turkey shells s well. But the last few years I started loading tss for turkeys as well.

I loaded my own steel shot waterfowl loads for a few years before I went to tss. Just got tired of not getting performance on birds that I wanted. Great speeds and great patterns but even over the decoys. There was times that I had to use two or three shots to knock down and then finish off a bird.

So I went to the bestest most high performance shot type I could get.

I had a 28 gauge Beretta a400 but got rid of it in short order. Great gun, shot great patterns with my handloads of steel/tss and pure tss. But the internal parts just had to much wear on them to fast for my taste. If Beretta would bring the 28 gauge out in the a300 line. I would buy another one. I have been eyeing one of the TriStar viper g2 pro's in 28 gauge.

What I have noticed shooting waterfowl with tss and steel/tss duplex loads. Is i have much less cripples, when I do have a cripple it takes exactly one shell to finish it off.

Another thing I have noticed about tss, is there never seems to be any in the bird when I clean them. Doesn't matter how many tss pellets hit them or where on the body they get hit. 100% of the tss pellets goes straight through.

I'm using number 8 sized tss mostly.
 
I reload all my lead skeet and trap and pheasant loads, but just never got into non toxic loading.
If i could get my hands on bismuth or TSS shot at a reasonable cost, I'd load them too. Even lead is expensive now. I have a stock plie of components for my lead loads that makes them cheap to load. With the current cost of power, primers and shot, it would barely be a cost savings to buy the components at current prices.
I've been reloading for 30 or more years, and also enjoy my time reloading
 
MIKE-SID said:
I reload all my lead skeet and trap and pheasant loads, but just never got into non toxic loading.
If i could get my hands on bismuth or TSS shot at a reasonable cost, I'd load them too. Even lead is expensive now. I have a stock plie of components for my lead loads that makes them cheap to load. With the current cost of power, primers and shot, it would barely be a cost savings to buy the components at current prices.
I've been reloading for 30 or more years, and also enjoy my time reloading
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Triple b metals owned by Brent merryman.

Has the best prices, around 35$ a pound with a discount of you buy 10lbs or more if I remember correctly.

Hal over at super-18 shot.com has a ok price per pound not the cheapest but he has the most extensive, most detailed load data library for just about any gauge or length shell you could want and gives you the data of you buy shot from him. And all his load data is pressure tested.

I can load a 50/50 duplex for right at the same money per shot as what most guys pay for premium factory steel shot shells.

Pure tss loads cost a bit more for sure, so I save them for deer/hogs and snow geese.
 
Loaded up a few 1 oz number 8 tss loads tonight.

Going do a lil woodie jump shoot tomorrow.
Carlson's extended non ported LM choke
Al390 12 gauge
1600 fps muzzle velocity.

Hopefully might find a green head or four in the mix 😂😂😂.
 

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