Featherlight BP Shotshell Load

[Capt. Augustus]

Last year, when my neck and shoulder acted up, I missed 3 months of shoots with the pain.  I finally gave up shooting BP and switched to Featherlites for my shotgun loads.  Last week I tried coming up with a BP Featherlight and I am happy with the results so far.  I am writing this in case it will help some other brokeup cowboy.

I used a AA hull with a red wad, 40 grains of Giex Cowboy BP, Winchester 209 primer, 7/8 oz. 7 1/2 shot and a cushion wad under the shot in the cup to fill the shell for crimping.

The load took down 5 knockdowns at 10 yards with no failures out of a Stoeger coach shotgun.  Recoil was comparable to a Featherlite.

[Cactus Cris]

You might try a white AA wad--should give ya the extra distance that the fiber wad & red wad were taking.   

[Mason Stillwell]

I got a serious neck problem and cannot stand recoil.

I use mostly a claybuster orange wad and a Winchester Red hull with about 30 to 40 gr of bp and fill the shot cup with shot.

Works for me

Mason

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[Capt. Augustus]

I am using the fiber wad to take up volume in the shot cup, not to change the length of the column.  I tried the gray wads for the 7/8 oz. and the column length was too long to get a good crimp.

[REELFOOT REGULATOR]

Hey cap, Glad you got a load you can live with. It's hard to go back to smokeless after shooting black for a while.

[Surly Bob]

I've been dropping 50 grains with the red wad and 7/8 oz of shot and it still feels like a featherlite to me.   

[hellgate]

Capt'n,
The AA wads are pretty versitile. You can shoot them long, medium & short. Long= intact. Medium=cut the wad "legs" right through the middle transversely (horizontally) then rotate 90 degrees and push the two parts together. Short= cut the "legs" out completely and just stack the shot cup on top of the over powder cup. That way you can load all kinds of powder & shot combinations. As long as your gun has chokes the loads are pretty forgiving. Cylinder bore guns sometimes shoot donut patterns if there is too much powder for the shot charge so you should pattern the gun at 10-15 yards to see what it does on a piece of butcher/freezer paper stapled to a piece of cardboard. No need to get fancy with the patterning.

[Capt. Augustus]

Finally tried them at a shoot with the Memphis Gunslingers.  The targets went down when I did my part, but I had to hit them just right.  I have bumped the powder up to 55 grains and will try them at Byhalia.  They have tougher targets.

[Arcey]

Cylinder bore guns sometimes shoot donut patterns if there is too much powder for the shot charge so you should pattern the gun at 10-15 yards to see what it does on a piece of butcher/freezer paper stapled to a piece of cardboard. No need to get fancy with the patterning.

A little late here, boys.  Whut I got ta say may not be werth spit ennyways......

AA hull, somewhere at 50 grains Goex 2f 'n 209 Wimpchester primers.  Powder, a scoop full of grits, 1/8" nitro card, a squirt of Crisco 'n 7/8 oz. of anything from 7 1/2 to 9 shot.

Them honeys ain't much to shoot, maybe a l'il bit more than FeatherLites - precious little more.  Been takin' knockdowns of various manufacture down without a problem.  Everything was lovely.

Hit a shoot late August.  One stage was all shotgun, two Texas Stars.  Clear 'em, whatever it took.  End of stage.

My Coachgun, 'n I had an Uplander with tight chokes in the cart I decided not to use, didn't wanna get it dirty, is Modified and Improved.  Figured I'd alternate Stars.  Give 'em more of a chance to settle down.  Took the top plate off the left one, left the top plate on the right one and that was the story of the stage.  Had a fit with the improved barrel.  Took me 16 shells to clear the things.  The last four were the 'knock-'em-down-stomp-all-over-'em' 1 1/8 loads I carry for stubborn targets 'n thems a bunch worse than FeatherLites.  Damned near melted the barrels down......

One ah the fellas watchin' was an ole time skeet shooter.  Told me it looked ta him like I had a hole in the pattern 'n suggested a shot cup.  I'd say Hellgates onta somethin' here.......