Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters advice on a light 12 ga. load

A 7/8oz load out of a 12ga. will break clay targets further and with more authority than many realize. They all essentially get there together with minimal shot string.

You're right about that. When my boy was young (around 10-12) he was using a 12 loaded "light" (7/8 oz. loads) and nailing them way out. Even surprised and shocked myself with the damn things . Funny though you could hear the shot and it took a second or 2 to get to the bird , he really had to lead them though.

Thanks to those who answered my original request for specific loads

My favorite load for singles and first shot on doubles is:

Win hull
Win 209 Primer
17.2 grains of Alliant clay dot powder
winjammer XL-1
1 oz of shot.

Works wonders on the trap line with little to no recoil at all. Hodgdon Clays is another favorite for light and fast loads as well.

Jack

Check both Alliant and Hodgdon's web-site for full recipes of course.

I shot a sh*t load of quail back in the day with a mod 26" Rem 1100 in 12ga. My pet load was over max. I used plastic wads over 21gr of Red Dot with 1 1/8 of #8 shot.

Gee's I must be lazy, I just buy Remington Sure Shot!

Not exactly a light load that I was seeking

Clays is a clean powder. For your hunting, I would suggest 7/8 oz of no. 7 1/2.

Winchester components, except powder. AA hull, Winchester 209 primer, 18.0 grain Clays, WAA12SL wad. Runs at 8,000 psi, 1245 fps according the the Lyman manual I got it from. (Lyman 4th ed., p. 197). For a denser pattern you can load an ounce and cut the powder to 17.5 gr. Clays, and still get 1200 fps. But 300 pellets is all you need, so why deal with the recoil?

I love those light doubles. I have an LC Smith 12 ga that weighs an honest 6.5 pounds. It's rough as a cob in appearance, but it shoots great and I love it.

My most used 12 gauge load is pretty nearly identical to BSA's: AA hull, W-209 primer, 16.7 gr. Clays, Win. Grey wad, 7/8 ounce shot (9's for skeet, 8's for 16 yard trap, doves, grouse). Thousands of dead skeets will attest to the efficiency of this load!

Since I too mostly use classic doubles anymore (L.C.Smiths in my case) the load is light enough to not cause worrying about cracking tangs and shooting loose while firing thousands of shots.

Also, since chokes are fixed, in order to get more open patterns for skeet and certain hunting applications, I switch to a AA 1 oz. wad (or a clone) and 7/8 oz. shot, with a Ballistics Products X-Stream spreader appliance stuck in. The bigger wad is necessary because of the space the X spreader takes up.

I just loaded 500 of my favorite 1 oz loads for 16 yard trap.
I use to shoot 1 1/8 oz loads but found it really made no difference in my scores.
Any Remington hull (STS, Gun Club, Game Load)
Fiocchi 616 primer
Downrange XL1 (lime green)
17gr's Alliant Claydot
1oz of #8 shot
1180 fps.
I shoot this load through an IM choke, (.25)
It's a great round for woodcock and grouse up here also, but I prefer to hunt those with my 16ga or 20ga. Don't really need a 12 for those birds.

You received alot of good advice on quality handloads others spent time and money researching and testing that gave good results for them. If you don't load ,pickup a couple of boxes of Federal Game Loads with 1 oz of 6's and some with 7 1/2 or 8's and do alittle clay birding and some patterns too. Not very fancy at 5-6 bucks a box ,but Federal has been selling them since the beginning of time and they do work fairly well without alot of recoil at a inexpensive price. for ordinary shooting and the 1 st shot in a 2 barrel gun. Obviously premium shotshells are the way to go for 35+ yd shots but how big a % are 35+yd shots?They are a pleasant surprize and easy on the shoulder. Magnum Man

WAA 12L wad
7/8 oz shot
AA hull
WW209
Clays, forget the charge but it's in the Hodgdon manual.

Very similar to cowboy action loads. I use the STS and AA hulls. The STS are slicker for easy extraction in CAS shooting and seem to get a few more loads before cracking around the crimp. I love Clays and use it with my CAS rifle and pistol. I use AA to duplicate the Winchester Featherlite low recoil loads. AA is very fine grained and with the MEC I need the powder baffle device for spring tension on the charge bar to keep powder from drifting out on top of the bar. That doesn't happen with Bullseye and Clays.

DF