TN Lone Wolf

Years ago, an older cousin's husband and some of his friends took me on my first ever duck hunt on Reelfoot Lake. During periods of low activity, we'd swap stories and shoot the breeze. One story my cousin told me stuck with me because I've wondered how much merit there is to it. It's one of those "friend of a friend" type stories, so make of it what you will.

My cousin told me he either new a guy, or knew a guy who knew a guy who reloaded shotgun shells. Back when steel shot was fairly new, he began experimenting with different loads to find what he thought would work best. He developed an obsession with speed to compensate for the steel pellets' lower mass, and ended up developing a load for his 12 gauge that utilized a 3.5" shell loaded with 7/8 oz. of steel shot. He supposedly chronographed it at over 1900 fps.

Is it possible to load loose shot that fast? Safely or otherwise? I've occasionally thought about that story and attempted to see if anyone online has done something similar, but I've never been able to do something like that.

Mike Salyards

I don't know about the 3.5 12 but I have a recipe for a 3" active hull that shoots 1800 fps. Contact Bucks Run , they have a manual that has many fast loads.