New to shotshell reloading questions?

[rjones_wlm@yahoo.com]

Hey Y'all,

I am very new to shotshell reloading. Being a greenpea I rushed out and bought components before doing much research. I have however, bought a Lymans reloading manual since then. I have also found a deal on a MEC 761 Grabber and a MEC 650. The gentleman that sold me the presses threw in 3000 RXP12 wads and 6-700 once fired Remington Premium hulls. I found a recipe that I would like to try, but the recipe calls for Remington 209 primers, the primers that I bought are Winchester 209's. Are primers interchangeable? I did read in the Lymans manual that the Rem primers cause a little more pressure than the Winchester primers. Also, does anyone have a favorite powder? The manual seems to recommend the fastest burning double based powder which looks to be Titewad.

any help will be much appreciated.

 

[Khewitt]

Yes primers are interchangable. My favorite powder for field loads is Red dot, but it is hard to find right now.

 

[rjones_wlm@yahoo.com]

Thanks Khewitt, when loading with the primers that generate more chamber pressure should I back off the charge a half-full grain of powder?

 

[jglenn]

when switching components on any listed load it's always smart to start on the lower side of the load.

personally for shotgun shells I run exactly the right components for a given load. they didn't list them for giggles

 

[jpdriver]

You can also go to the powder manufacturers website. They usually have load data recipes. I would follow the data and not interchange components. Shotshell data is pretty easy to come by since there are so many possibilities for any given load. You should easily be able to find data for what you have. As far as powder selection goes that depends on how heavy or light of a load you are wanting to shoot. Alliant powders are very versatile but tend to be dirty. Others are a lot cleaner burning but tent to be more so at higher pressures like Nitro100. My go to load for dove is 7/8oz with Nitro100 around 1400fps with Winchester wads. I try to stay away from the smaller grain powders like some of the Winchester powers as they tend to slip between the cracks per say on my Mec Sizemaster and if l'm loading a case or so of shells the powder tends to get scattered around the reloader some but not much. Hope this helps and good luck with your new addiction!