Reloading shotshells

[sisu]

I was was talking to a old time friend at another friend's house Sunday night about shotshell reloading. He still does so with steel and bismuth. He was telling me that I should get back in the game again. He and my other friend were telling me of the results compared to factory loads.
If I decide to do this I'll start posting my reloading data and results. John and Rick have always impressed me with their results on their reloads and the quick kills they get on ducks, geese, and pheasant.

[Coasthunterjay]

good to hear. I have all the equipment for a shotgun shell reloading but have never used it. Powder, shot, plugs, wads, and primers. Etc...............

If you post it ill use it eventually............AJ

[Intruder]

Ballistic Products has some good reloading info and supplies.  You can normally find stuff there that you can't get anywhere else.  I've only loaded steel a few times.  You can definitely get some great performance.  I've loaded tons of lead.  Seems to me it pretty much only pays if you're trying to do something real specific or if you just shoot a ton.  The gauge you shoot has a lot to do with getting your payback on reloading.  Hard to make 12s pay.  20s and all the less popular 28, 16, 410 you can really make pay.  I load some pheasant loads for my 20 that are flat awesome... 1 1/8oz of nickel plated 6s and 5s.  They're fast and pattern well.  Often times hard to get 3" to pattern in a 20. 

[jackelope]

i agree with making it worthwhile loading 12 gauge rounds. we shoot sporting clays and can buy cases for $30-35 per case depending on how many we buy. it's just not worth the time to reload when you can buy them at that price IMO.

[Ironhead]

Intruder, do you like the nickle plated better than the copper?

[Intruder]

Intruder, do you like the nickle plated better than the copper?

Generally speaking... Yes.  I've been told by some folks that are into this a lot deeper than me, that sometimes copper plating is used to cover up inferior shot and that it will still degrade and deform.  Supposedly ya can't do that w/ Nickel.... not sure why.

Now, I've seen some very good performing copper plated shot.  It always seems better than straight lead.  But, I have seen some copper that for whatever reason didn't pattern as well.   That's when I found out about the whole nickel vs. copper thing.  Since then I switched to nickel and haven't had any issues.

[Ironhead]

I have reloaded and shot copper plated lead for upland game for a lot of years and I keep hearing about the nickel plate. Looks like I better give it a try. Thanks