My dad and I have recently bought a clay machine and really enjoyed it, but he wants to get into reloading shells. I know it's not really cost effective but it could potentially be a fun hobby for the two of us to bond. Does anybody have any websites or books to help us get started? Assume we know nothing.

Has anyone else’s ballistic products orders been taking a while to ship. My order was confirmed on Tuesday and still has not shipped. Maybe I’m just a little bit impatient and excited to get to loading!

I am new to waterfowl hand loading and wonder what powders are best? I know Alliant steel is best but I’m not finding that anywhere, what would you use as a substitute? I have lots of longshot but that can be sketchy for steel and bismuth loads from what I read

I’m wanting to load some 3 inch shells. The only new hulls I can find online are Cheddite hulls. The Hodgdon website does not provide any 12 gauge cheddite shell load data. What’s up with that?

As I was searching on the line (movie quote) I found this site that will do custom diameter size, which will work for me since I already do that with pistol and rifle. Since I have 20ga rifled barrel and a lym sabot slug mold now, this will do me good.

20ga Fiocchi (new)

1/2 card wad

Barrel .608

Lyman sabot slug .573 resize to .557

CSD Wad .552 wall thickness .029

.608 - .029 - .029 = .550

Would this be too tight to shoot ? My thought would be to resize to .557 as you would treat a cast boolit .002-.003 larger.

Do any of you load waterfowl shells with Longshot? I am seeing loads ranging from 22 grains to 34 grains online. The label on the bottle of long shot has loads around the 36 grain mark for 2-3/4. What range should I stick with? I am hunting mallards on a big lake and take some longer shots. Want to pattern well at distance

Ballistic products L0AD# 60110-999 calls for 34 grains, will this be way too much? I want to make sure my duck loads are effective but safe.

Does anyone have information on which line to set the the rammer tube on a mec 600 jr using a 1 1/4 or 1 5/8 oz loads. Just want to make sure I have the right pressure I’m using 3 inch Winchester compression formed super X type shells and 30 grains of 800x. Load data thanks to Hodgdon website. At first I was just seating the wad and then pressing it down into the powder with light pressure until I could not hear any loose powder rattling around. Is this ok to do or should I be using the right line setting for the rammer tube. TIA.

I have an old shotgun that can’t handle steel shot and I want to use it for hunting. But I can’t find bismuth anywhere. Is there anyone with it in stock or do you have a brand of shells you recommend in bismuth.

Does anyone have an 12ga Federal gold medal plastic 2 3/4 hulls with an 8 point crimp that they would like to get rid of? I’m wanting to reload some 00 buck.

What are you guys doing Steel shot for. Currently I’m right around $14-$15 a box and I would love to be down at the $10 range. If anyone is able to get lower then me please let me know where your getting your components

I'm fairly new to shotshell reloading and I need a little advice. I reloaded 250ish 20ga Remington gun club hulls with no issues, but I have some brand new Fiochi hulls that every time I go to crimp they collapse. What can I do to prevent this? Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

I reloaded a lot of lead shot rounds for trapshooting , pigeon shooting, as well as pheasant and other upland game hunting. But now that my goose and duck season has opened, I can already see myself spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars all of the ammo. Is there a reputable spot I can buy steel shot to load myself. I already have a couple of shotshell presses and plan to get the mec steel conversion if I find some steel to load.

It’s a big ask but can anyone give me a complete list of all I need to get started from nothing. I want to reload buck shot and slugs. I realize the ask so just ignore me if it’s too much. I can locate everything just don’t want to buy then need something else and have to keep waiting for shipping.

Curious if there is a downloadable version of the lymans shotshell reloading manual 5th edition I can legally buy online. pdf ebook kindle etc. Google is coming up short. I'm aware of the online data available on hogdons and alliant. I just want to buy a downloadable version I can use without being online. I have the physical book but it would be nice to have a copy on my devices. Especially my laptop. More than happy to buy it.

Do any skeet/dove shooters do any reloading in the mig Ga area? Where do you get supplies and machines? Thanks so much. Rick in Macon

Please comment any improtant data (eddited)

Lee Load-All 12 ga 2 3/4 shells

Hull-Winchester AA Primer-cheddite 209 Powder-Hodgens HS-6 (3 1/4 dram or 88.87 grain) Wad-Claybuster 1 1/4 oz Shot-#6 magnum lead shot

Using the load data with the Load-All for powder measure and shot weight Note: no.128 bushing powder drop at 1.055 Dram

1 1/4 oz bushing w/ #6shot dropped at 1 1/3 oz

So I live in a shotgun only zone for deer and love my rifled barrel 20 gauge with factory ammo, but it's prohibitively expensive. Since the sabots for 45 or 458 pistol projectiles aren't for sale anywhere I can find, I designed and 3D printed my own sabots for Hornady 458 325 grain flex tips, but I have no idea where to start with a powder load or what powder to use. I cant seem to find any data on this, but this is the projectile used in many factory 3/4oz sabot loads. If anyone has any leads on data, a recommendation on powder, or even a personal recipe they would be wiling to share (I will start with an underload and work it up for my sabot and projectile) I would really love something to use as a starting point. Any data, advice, or personal experience is welcome. Thanks.

I see it's a deprimer. When plugged in it gets hot. I thought it was to possibly help straighten out crimps. I tried my theory, it made a mess of the shell. Only writing I can find is a sticker that says Texan.

I recall reading a review on Lee Key drive slugs and the picture they posted of the finished roll crimped rounds had one loaded normally and one loaded backwards. The text of the review didn't say anything about the backwards load.

Has anyone tried this? I can imagine that it could give it some drag stabilization depending on whether the air interacts with the hollow portions (filling them in with something lightweight that wouldn't overly increase the slug mass might work better), or maybe they were hoping for a poor man's hollowpoint.

If anyone has done serious testing of this I'd be very interested in the data!

I have a perverbiable dump truck load of led that I have gathered over the years because ooo free led and was wondering if anybody had any leads on cheaper molds, then the Lee, ones that are 50 or 60 bucks. I was just curious if such a thing existed. If not then it is what it is I was just curious..

Load: 12 gauge Win AA hull Win 209 primer 1 1/8 oz 7.5 shot 17.5 gr Titewad WAA12 wad

According to the chart I should be using a 417 bushing but that gave me 16 gr. 420 gave me 16.5. I don’t have the 423 or 426 so before I go buying more I figured I would ask what you guys or gals would use. Seems like I should be closer but I’m pretty new to reloading shells. Is this normal with Titewad?

I’ve been trying to find a good low recoil recipe for clays. I have tite wad, aa hulls and win 209 primers. The lightest I can find with hodgedons data is around 1250fps using 17.3 grains of powder. Anybody have any recipes they want to share?