Home Forums Reloading Shotshells Is anyone loading 2 3/4" steel loads?

I was given several pounds of steel BBB shot that I would like to load and make use of. I have Rem. gun club hulls. Does anyone have experience loading these? If so could you share powder, wad, and load info.
Thanks

I'm not an expert, but I'll suggest you go to the Ballistic Products website & order their Status of Steel manual and some Multi Metal wads. I don't think you'll be able to get more than 1 1/8 oz of shot in those hulls. I use Alliant Steel, but Blue Dot & I believe SR 4756 work well too - but read the manual first.

Thanks S of G, my Lyman manual lists an 1 1/8 load with Multi metal wads, looks like in most of what I have seen, Steel is the go to powder. I'm thinking about using the loads for fox calling in brushy areas, the steel BBB should work well for that.

Last weekend I loaded an ounce of steel BBB in ancient (blue) one ounce wads over 29 grains of Herco and tested them in my coach gun.

The good news:

My short coach gun barrels show no marks from steel at all and at 12 yards my loads absolutely destroyed a paper target. All 33 pellets were on paper in about an 18 inch group. That looks like a GREAT bedside home defense load.

BUT - the bad news is that at 25 yards not one pellet from both barrels touched a milk jug. NOT ONE PELLET!
I have no idea where they went! I suspect that I will need a BIG piece of cardboard to find out the 25 yard pattern.

I didn't have any luck finding Steel powder but I found some Blue Dot and ordered some PR TUPRW12 wads per my reload manual.

I've been reading the manual on steel loading. An 1 1/8oz = 492.19gr. so, using my scale that equaled 72 steel BBBs. According to my calculation with 61 steel BBBs = 1oz. ....69 pellets should equal 1 1/8oz so somewhere between 69-72 pellets should be right. I read somewhere to use an empty primmer tray and tape off the extra holes as a quick way to scoop up and count each load of shot, seemed like a great idea. I plan to measure each powder charge with my pact.
I plan to use the load from the Lyman manual: Rem. Gun club hull, 27gr. Bluedot, TUPRW12 wad.
Thanks for the help and input, let me know if you see something wrong with my plan.

Let us know your results!

Wille, that should work fine. I have an adjustable shot measure that came with a 16 gal Lee Loader 40 years ago. Thru careful experimentation I found what gives charges which actually weigh 1 and 1 1/8 oz with the #6 &#7 shot I use.

I loaded and fired a couple test loads yesterday before running out of daylight. I had to really crank up the wad pressure to push it down to were it needed to be in the hull and it seems that 69 pellets fit best in the wad to give the best crimp. My Remington 870 turkey gun with a full choke didn't like them. The pellets were in small clusters of 6-8 with several inches between but my son's benelli with a mod. Choke patterned them more evenly but not as tight as I would want. I'll keep working with it.......

willecoyote,
I have alot of experience loading 2-3/4" steel loads and would suggest shooting that load thru a Imp cyl choke or even a skeet tube. Ive found that once you get up to the larger steel shot, (BB and up)more open chokes shoot tighter patterns. The reason is, those big hard pellets tend to bounce around because they have no give like lead shot when pushing them thru a tight choke so they have a tendency to fly erratic as they leave the barrel.

Thanks for the info Chrissy, I thought that might be the problem thats why I tried the mod. I wouldn't have thought to go even more open but I'll give it a try.
Thanks
Will

I patterned the load again, at 25yrds in an IC it put 95% of the pellets spread evenly in a 1 1/2' circle. The Mod. shot just as tight but the shot was in clusters within the pattern, not spread evenly. I went ahead and loaded a couple boxes.
Thanks for the guidance,
Will