no. 1 buck load

[ted60]

I had a lady whos husband passed, give me about 13 pounds of 1 buck, the only powder I have is HS-6, hulls AA and AA-HS, primers Win 209, I have W12r, w12f114,
and 7/8 oz wads, now I figure 12 pellets in a WAA12F114 wad with a under card or two to set for crimp, and 30 to 32 grs. hs-6 for a low pressure load, any help,I cant find much on no. 1 buck loads , each pellet weighs 40.5 to 40.7 grains, lyman shows 00 #4 loads with BPGs and felt wads, I have no money to buy a few pounds of powder which if I could would be a keg of Bluedot and I'd be reloading this shot with 16 balls and not asking for help. all I have is HS-6, now a 1 1/4 load of shot I can use the WAA12 f114 wad and 32 grs hs-6, what amount of pellets would come to ! 1/4 oz. ?could I copy my #4 birrdshot load ! 1/4 oz load with #1 buck? any help please!

[oso]

You figure pretty good on the 12 #1 (about 504 grains of my #1 or 487 grains of yours, about 1 1/8 oz) in the no longer made WAA12F114. 30 - 31 grains HS6 about matches the Hodgdon web site for 9 00 (about 477 grains of my 00) pellets in the same wad.
I load the #1 in 4 layers of 3 pellets and don't use any cards with the WAA12F114, crimps are excellent.
With an Air Wedge + 3/8" fiber wad or BPGS + !/2" fiber wad in an AA case old Hodgdon data lists 16 #1 in 4 layers of 4 pellets (672 grains of my #1 or 650 grains of yours, about 1.5 ounces) with 31 grains of HS6.
Your #1 seems 1.5 grain lighter than mine. About 13 1/2 of your pellets would make 1.25 oz.
13 or 14 #1 won't fit like 1.25 oz birdshot. With the larger buckshot it may help to think in layers and fit rather than weight. This is why I prefer straight wall cases with card and fiber wads for buck shot. Intended use and consideration of pellet deformation may lead to buffer consideration.

[ted60]

OSO, right on with 13 pellets =526.5 close enough to 1 1/4 oz. and my starting load is 28.6 grains of hs-6, wierd pellet count and thats what fell from my number 24 mec powder bushing,
I used no cards and with the Claybuster copy of AA12F114 it crimps out perfect, will fire 5 rds in the am, I would think this is a low pressure load, and the balls stacked nice. thanks for your help
I'll post results.

[ted60]

28 grs. works but I cant say how well, not much recoil with13 pellets, my 870 improved choke
barrel put 5 pellets in a 12" target at about 40 yards, and penetration on a 3/4" plywood at same distance was thru and thru, so not much more to say on this load,I guess shot loads CAN be used with buch shot, I wouldnt try these in a full choke it would deform pellets,ok for varmints and home defense.

[oso]

To me the Claybuster clone of the WAA12F114 looked closer to a WAA12 than the original WAA12F114. I'd a thought 12 pellets would fit better than 13 with the clone wad as I can just crimp an AA CF with 12 pellets #1 in a WAA12 wad. Guess your stacking 3,3,3,4?
I suspect pellet deformation occurs before the pellets reach the choke.

[ted60]

I did stack them that way, but if ya notice 3 stacked the next 3 stack right in the spaces between balls, and the 13th ball just barely fits and crimps, the weight of balls comes
a 1 1/4 load = 546.87 grs., 13 balls 526.5 its as close to 1 1/4 oz load I can fit in this AA hull,the hs hulls would leave a large open spot in crimp,now if I used a AA12R red wad I could fit 15 balls in a for a 1 1/2 oz load,I see some manuals say 16 balls and same manusal Lyman say 15 ballsin other hulls and wads plus HS-6 isnt used HS-7 is and alot of other powders, maybe that 16 balls is a 3" mag load, but what ever I only have hs-6 and it works, 30 grs. is max on some ! !/4 load but I use 28.? grs because of unpublished DATA, I figure a ! 1/4 load is same if I loaded it with lead shot and ground up Doritos, which might make a good buffer, it all works and thanks for input.

[oso]

Are your Doritos unsalted? I use bran, run through a coffee grinder, for buffer. I've seen flax seeds mentioned. See the thread below: "Converting 'regular' loads to buckshot."
Cut the petals off the WAA12R and 16 balls #1 fit in the 2 3/4" AA hull, 4 layers of 4. The red wad is compressed when the shell is crimped.
Don't forget plastic wads run pressures higher than an Air Wedge or BPGS + fiber, so although old Hodgdon data lists 31 grains HS6 with 1 1/2 oz birdshot and 31 gr HS6 with 16 #1 with AW + fiber in WW CF shell (Hodgdon Data Manual Number 23) I wouldn't go over your 28 gr HS6 with the red wad if Hogdon's Reloading Data Manual #19 recommendation is valid for a 10% charge reduction when going to a plastic over powder wad + fiber to a 20% reduction in charge is when changing to one piece plastic wads from card + fiber. (Does this mean reduce the charge 10% when changing from plastic over powder Air Wedge + fiber to one piece plastic WAA12R?)

[ted60]

oso,I tried figuring a no# 1 buck load with 15 balls WAA12R wad and 28 grs. hs-6,I come up with 607.5 gr. weight for shot charge,I figured 656.25 grs. for a 1 !/2 oz.weight load, I have Lyman 3rd edition, old data I know, in this manual they have HS-7 not HS-6, I wish I could afford Bluedot, because that would cover all these loads, but I trying a load on the cheap, my wife would beat me,I have over 20 ponds of HS-6 and the free 1# buck, so thats as far as I can go without losing a body part to my wife, shes serious! limited income as so many americans are
and I get enough charity from SSI we can feed ourselfs and pay for meds and bills, I dont need any pity pr charity, I get what I earned thru 60 some years of work, screw OB. I just would like to fit 15 pellets and use hs-6 and have a safe load, and 15 1# fit PERFECT in a AA12R wad, crimps out perfect and 28 grs. is still low pressure I GUESS?! because I read so many articles that play at why pressure can spike for no reason beyond the fact Im not following a published load data,

[oso]

Don't forget that W540 and HS6 are the same powder, so you can use W540 data. For example Lyman Shotshell Handbook 2nd edition page 275, 2nd load down would be worthwhile with 15 #1 in a WAA12R with the charge reduced to 28 grains HS6. The old Hodgdon data manuals from 1983 and back had lots of HS6 data.

[ted60]

thanks OSO I'll give it a try, one more question, what is weight of 15 #1 balls in a fraction?

[500cadillac]

should be around 1 3/8 oz.

[ted60]

thank you