3/4 oz 20ga recipes?

[OkieCruffler]

I just started shootng the 20 at skeet birds and I've been loading a 7/8. Would like to find a good 3/4 oz load using win209's, Unique and rem/fed hulls. Push comes to shove I could probably change powder but I'd love to work with what I have on hand.

 

[zippy13]

Ol' Zip's shot tens of thousands of Skeet targets with standard 7/8-oz 20-ga loads and most of them were with reloads. My friend, are you thinking of going to a 3/4-oz load to save money and/or reduce recoil or what? I can give you Unique recipes that will be really low recoil, but they use more powder (cost more) than Red or Green Dot (I'm guessing you want to stay with Alliant powders). What's your pleasure?
Oh... Do you have adjustable powder metering on your 20-ga loader, or are you stuck with bushings?

 

[OkieCruffler]

I'm looking to reduce recoil, even dropped down to 3/4oz loads in my 12. The only reason I'd like to stay with Unique is because I use a ton of it already in my 45 loads and have about 14lbs on hand. If I had to change powders it isn't like that Unique would go to waste, even at 6gr per load I go thru it pretty quick. I've never been able to stop the powder leak from the Mecs (Funny, my cheapo Lees never had that problem ) so I actually use my Lyman 55 to drop powder charges, gives me more flexability that way anyhow.
And I thought Red Dot was a nono in the 20 now, which was a surprise to me since I had been using it before.

 

[zippy13]

Here we go... first the bad news, the rest of the world pretty much doesn't load 3/4-oz in 20-ga hulls, so you're going to have to make due with the wads that are available for 7/8-oz loads. You'll need something to take up the space in the shot cup, or your crimps won't be satisfactory. I'm gonna assume you have common Remington RXP20 or Winchester WAA20 wads or their knock-offs. Get some card stock and a 1/2" wad cutter (now on sale at Harbor Freight) and start punching. You'll be adding paper to the bottom of the shot cup (up to a 1/4") to get the crimp right -- you can do a dry run to see how much it takes to get the shot to the top of the cup.

For 2-1/4 Dram Eq. (1,200 fps) 3/4-oz, 20-ga, reduced Skeet loads:

Remington Shells
Rem 209P primers, RXP20 or WAA20 wad with filler, 15.5 gr of Unique

Federal Shells
Fed 209A primers, RXP20 or WAA20 wad with filler, 16.0 gr of Unique

This is from an Alliant Reloaders' Guide and they round their loads to the nearest 1/2 gr. I suspect the 16.0 for the Federal hulls can be reduced a to 15.9 or 15.8 without any ill effects. My preference would to be to start with the Remington hulls and keep your Feds for your 7/8-oz loads -- easy to tell them apart that way.
​

Happy shooting.

 

[OkieCruffler]

Thanks, excellent info. I was afraid I would have to cut cards since I couldn't locate 3/4 wads anywhere. Luckily I have a set of cutters from making my 1/2 oz 12 ga loads (don't ask, I was curious). I was going to load 9 shot in my rem hulls for skeet and 4 in my feds for hunting, but I'll probably keep my hunting loads at 7/8th anyway. Should be a learning experience.

 

[oneounceload]

You can do what I do and many of my fellow shooters - take your basic 7/8 oz load and load everything the same except for the shot - drop 3/4..............I like Universal now over Unique, but the basic formula is the same - 15.5 give or take, the AA clone, the AA or Gun Club hull, the 209 from Win or the Nobel equal, and drop that 3/4 load - works great!

 

[zippy13]

Yep, 1-oz, and he can sent me that 14 pounds of Unique he has.

 

[oneounceload]

OH right......I'm wanting "dibs" for my recipe!..............

 

[dalecooper51]

I really like shooting a 3/4 oz load in my 20ga Wingmaster.

Rem Unibody Hull
15.4 gr of 20/28
Win 209
Orange Duster Wad
3/4 oz of shot with a little filler.

I've been dropping a cheerio in each shell. It crushes and it crimps nicely. Without the filler, the crimps are unacceptable. This way I also don't have to readjust my press. I just swap out the shot drop bushing.

 

[OkieCruffler]

Spent the day loading 45 so I probably only have 13 pounds now (6grX400rds=2400gr not even a half pound. WOW this stuff really does last awhile) so as you can see I won't waste it. I do have about 4lbs of blue dot I need to find some use for now that I've switched over to #9 for my mag pistol stuff. (why does alliant have so many different sized jugs anyway?)
What if I used a fruit loop instead of a cheerio, would that increase pressure? Wonder if you could use a load of grapenuts for close range pest control?

 

[oneounceload]

I really like shooting a 3/4 oz load in my 20ga Wingmaster.

Rem Unibody Hull
15.4 gr of 20/28
Win 209
Orange Duster Wad
3/4 oz of shot with a little filler.

I've been dropping a cheerio in each shell. It crushes and it crimps nicely. Without the filler, the crimps are unacceptable. This way I also don't have to readjust my press. I just swap out the shot drop bushing.

I had that issue for a while and was using a Cheerio; however, I read about adjusting the cam on my MEC, and when I did that, the crimps came out perfectly with no need for filler. If you are using a MEC, you might want to try that

 

[zippy13]

1-oz, my friend, if you're gonna mess with the MEC's crimper cam, that's almost like cheating. If you knew how long I spent when I initially set up my loader, balancing depth and cam settings to get my crimps just where I like 'um, you'd know why I choose a filler over changing the cam.

 

[BigJimP]

Oh come on now .....getting the cam setting just right isn't that big a deal on a MEC loader ...

( just swear at it / shake a big chain at it ....and tell it you're going to drag it thru the gravel parking lot if it doesn't behave ...) ....

But seriously, its why most of us shotgunners - get set on a load / and then leave the loader adjustments alone once we get it dialed in. I don't think any of the shotshell loaders out there are "as adjustable, or at least not user friendly adjustable" as they could be ..... But once you have the MEC adjustments figured out / its not that big a deal.

 

[oneounceload]

I had those for decades before I even know you COULD adjust the cam part - but then, mine came out of the box set up for what I initially reloaded - a 1oz load of shot.......now that I am using 3/4, gotta love the reduced recoil AND the 530+ loads per bag over 400

 

[dalecooper51]

I had that issue for a while and was using a Cheerio; however, I read about adjusting the cam on my MEC, and when I did that, the crimps came out perfectly with no need for filler. If you are using a MEC, you might want to try that

Thanks for the suggestion. I used a 600 jr until a guy at the club offered up a 20ga Hornady 366 for a price I couldn't pass up. I just don't like dickering with it too much since it is dialed in for my primary load. If I shot more of the 3/4 oz loads I would readjust the press, but a cheerio seems to work alright.