dave@ucscb.ucsc.edu (66350000) (06/06/91)
Not long ago, I was out shooting with a couple of friends in the San Gabriel Mountains north of LA. Among our weapons was a Mossberg 500(?) 12-gauge pump shotgun. Having the smallest build of the group, I have no trouble handling the recoil of the shotgun with most loads (we prefer #8 bird). This time, we tried a different brand of shells (Activ). Even with #8 bird loads, the recoil was substantially greater than Remington, Winchester, or other brands of shells using the same load. (I actually had a nice bruise on the shoulder after that day.) Even my friends, who are much more built than I, noticed the difference. Shooting Activ's #6 bird loads was downright painful! Is there anybody out there who has used Activ loads and noticed the heavier recoil, as compared with most brands of shotgun shells? If so, any infor- mation on the reason for the harder kick? Higher powder load? (we checked, these were not high-powered or magnum loads, they supposedly were the same as the Winchester shells we also happened to have) Another possibility: these shells did not have the usual brass casing on the outside, the plastic covered the outside, with the metal _inside_ . Would this cause a difference? Any info posted regarding this subject would be most appreciated. David Ferrell UC Santa Cruz (for the moment)
brian@swdev.waterloo.NCR.COM (Brian W. Gamble) (06/11/91)
In article <35304@mimsy.umd.edu> dave@ucscb.ucsc.edu (66350000) writes:
#
Delete key here ....
#
#I, noticed the difference. Shooting Activ's #6 bird loads was downright
#painful!
#
And here ...
#Is there anybody out there who has used Activ loads and noticed the heavier
#recoil, as compared with most brands of shotgun shells? If so, any infor-
#as the Winchester shells we also happened to have) Another possibility: these
#shells did not have the usual brass casing on the outside, the plastic covered
#the outside, with the metal _inside_ . Would this cause a difference?
#
#Any info posted regarding this subject would be most appreciated.
#
#David Ferrell
#UC Santa Cruz (for the moment)
One more time with the shotshell noise. I just increased my stock of Active
hulls because they please me greatly. I'll try to shed some light here.
Active hulls have a larger internal capacity than other brands of hulls.
All else being equal, they will have lower pressures and less recoil.
However, measuring shot shell characteristics by the size of the pellets
inside is a very common failing. This is not the way to to choose the
velocity of your loads (and hence their recoil)!
The recoil you felt was the combination of the mass of lead pellets
(measured in ounces) and their velocity (stated in drams). The Active
loads that brused you had either more shot or were loaded to a higher
velocity (or both).
For less than ten dollars you can get a shotshell loading manual and
learn the basics of shotshell construction and loading. Try one
and then you can start choosing loads that do the job you want them
to.
Don't feel bad about the basic error here, most people who come into the
shop looking for shotgun shells do the same thing. Does get to be fun
trying to get them to learn some basic physics, sigh :-)
You want details about load for Active hulls, send me EMail and I'll
dig out the info. Don't have the load tables at the office, eh!
--
Brian W. Gamble, Brian.Gamble@Waterloo.NCR.COM
NCR Canada Ltd.
E&M Waterloo Charter Member -- The ShoeString Racing Teamwdo@inel.gov (william d orr) (06/12/91)
In article <35455@mimsy.umd.edu> brian@swdev.waterloo.NCR.COM (Brian W. Gamble) writes: # #In article <35304@mimsy.umd.edu> dave@ucscb.ucsc.edu (66350000) writes: # # #However, measuring shot shell characteristics by the size of the pellets #inside is a very common failing. This is not the way to to choose the #velocity of your loads (and hence their recoil)! # #The recoil you felt was the combination of the mass of lead pellets #(measured in ounces) and their velocity (stated in drams). The Active #loads that brused you had either more shot or were loaded to a higher #velocity (or both). # # #Don't feel bad about the basic error here, most people who come into the #shop looking for shotgun shells do the same thing. Does get to be fun #trying to get them to learn some basic physics, sigh :-) # Also some people get confused when referring to shotshells as "high brass" and "low brass". Generally speaking, in modern shotshells heigth of brass has nothing to do with velocity. A handloader can usually load low brass AA hulls to hunting load velocity with no difficulty. In fact I used to do just that. If anyone had fired one of my AA 1 1/4oz #5 pheasant loads at a clay target they would have been very surprised. Bill
mike@uunet.UU.NET (Mike Higgins) (06/16/91)
I would like to try loading "specialty" shotgun rounds, like "bird bombs" (an M80 firecracker instead of shot that goes off 100 meters downrange. Used for scaring birds off of crops.) I've done some experiments with normal shotgun powders and learned some lessons I could probably have read about: Modern shotgun powders are designed to work with the back pressure from the inertia of the shot. When you have a light load, the load jumps out of the barrel before the powder finishes burning. I've had it recomended to me that I use black powder, since it it faster burning than moderns, but I'm unwilling to deal with the corrosion problems (even from black powder substitues, which are still more corrosive than modern powders). Does anybody on the net have a recomended shot reloading book that would go into specialty details? How about a specific powder and recipie that will do the job? Thanks for any pointers.... Mike Higgins mike@everexn.com