12ga .69 Round ball load success (I think)

[BubbaLouie]

I am a long time shotgunner and avid hunter. I enjoy marsh hen, hog, turkey and deer hunting on a regular basis. As of late, with the ammo shortage here in NE Florida, I have started to reload my own shot shells. After spending some time loading birdshot and popping a few clays to check them out, I feel fairly comfortable with the results. Now, seeing as its deer season and I just acquired a new area to take hogs, I bought the Lee .69 round ball mold. It seems to cast a great ball. This morning I took my first 6 loads out for testing. Shooting freehand I was able to put (2) three shot groups on paper at about 40yrds. My load data is as follows-
Winchester AA-HS
Cheddite 209 primer
Longshot - 30 grains
DRA12 Yellow wad with the petals cut off to the equator of the ball
.69 caliber ball
8 point crimp
On three of the loads I put a little bit of buffer under the ball and left the other three with sitting in a naked wad. I didn't notice much difference shooting freehanded between the loads.

Everything seems to fit rather well with no bulging of the hull. The crimp is a little dished, which I think can be cured by a 20ga nitro card placed in the wad. Unfortunately, I am waiting for my shipment that includes my nitro cards from Ballistic Products to ship.

I was shooting from a 19in cylinder bore H&R single shot that I usually keep in the truck. I feel that with a little tweeking I may be able to put together a rather handy load for medium sized game out to 50yrds. If anyone here has experience in this field of expertise I would love to get your input, load data or advice.

 

[mehavey]

See: (Standard 8-pt crimp)

back about four years ago...

 

[BubbaLouie]

Fantastic info. Thank you. While I have been blessed with taking my fair share of medium sized game I'm excited to do it with a shotshell I have loaded. I'll definitely look into this

 

[darkgael]

I have loaded the .69 LRB. Results were similar to yours.
I have had success, also, with a .715 LRB over one of BPI’s brush wads.
Best success has been with BPI’s one ounce Thug Slug over 40 grains of Steel. Three shots = one ragged hole at 50 yds. Not a smoothbore load though.

 

[BubbaLouie]

Thank you for the reply. I do not own a rifled 12ga so I'm sort of limited on my selection for now. While I do own a few pumps, and at the criticism of my buddies, I'm determined to find a good load for this shortened single shot. I always keep it in the truck because I'm not so worried about it getting beat up a little. I also work really close to one of my hunting areas, so it's nice to slip off in the woods for an hour or three after work. In all honesty, I see a lot of difference between "minute of angle" accuracy and "minute of kill shot" accuracy. This is not to say someone should go hunting without putting in the proper bench time and know their POA vs POI or maximum effective range but a hand sized group at 50 yards will drop anything with four legs if you do your part