Bernie P.

The thing with loading shells is there's little to no room for error experimenting with different components other than whats listed in the manuals because of pressure issues.

Vapodog

Bernie....you're right but there's more to the story.....every combination of powder, wad, and shot must fill the hull to the correct height or it won't crimp well. Once the reloader has the bushings and powder he is pretty much relegated to a specifit hull and wad.....and yes there are similar hulls....but substitution has more drawbacks than pressure.....often it just isn't practical for reasons of "fit".

I think the reason so many folks stick to the recipes and don't do much (if any) fudging is simply that it gets quite complicated in a hurry.

That said....it's really relaxing to sit at the old reloading press and hammer out a case of shells in a short evening.....and have every confidence that they are all safe and worthy of your shooting.

I can't imagine the number of trap loads I've loaded with a MEC 9000-G and other MEC loaders. Fudging the recipe has never been of interest to me as I could never find a real good reason.

bigcountry

Well, I am up and running. First load is AA hulls, WAA12 wads, and 21gr of Unique with 1 1/8 #5. Well see if she goes bang.

Pawildman

.......bc... How did it crimp up for you? Always a sign of proper components.......

bigcountry

I played with the final crimp and it seems to have started crimping deep. But seems fine now.

bigcountry

Ok, so I got a big ole bag of CB 1118-12 given to me. I have poured over hodgdon's data, and it appears all loads min and max for WAA-12 are within 0.5gr of CB 1118 wad loads.

Is it safe to say with other mfg like Unique, I can substitute WAA-12 wad loads with CB 1118-12?

Reason I ask is I want to use these wads, and have 8lbs of unique. But alliant doesn't list too many CB 1118 wad loads. Get the picture?

Holy cow, I feel like a newbie like when I started reloading 2 decades ago. But difference is, I didn't have the internet.

Pawildman

...... I'm gonna have to admit it's been over 30 yrs. since I did much shotshell reloading, and guidelines back in those days were sketchy at best... and you think it's bad now?... Anyhow, I switched wads lots of times in AA hulls. I was shooting 17.5 gr. 700X in AA hulls with Win. 209 primers and generally Rem. RXP wads. I would, on occasion, switch to AA wads if the RXP's were unavailable. I also used a wad called a "yellow wad" sometimes. The powder charge remained the same weight and producer and the oz. shot held by the wads was constant... same as original load. The only thing that changed was the wad itself. They all crimped up exactly the same. I never had one bit of a problem changing wad components if the wads were all of the same measureable charactaristics..i.e. shot cup at 1 1/8 oz, distance from base of shot cup to powder, overall length. Never had any problems with performance or noticed any radical signs of problems.
... Don't know if this helped or not.... Been a long time for me, and a lot of info and terminology has changed and evolved.

Vapodog

I just happen to have a bag of CB 1118-12 wads here and it says right on the bag..."WAA12 Replacement Wad"

Go ahead and make the substitution....it's a safe sub any time!

bigcountry

Thanks all.