I'm in a bit of a pickle here...finishing up a session of about 800 hulls or so, I ran out of International Clays so I figured I'd finish up the last five or six boxes using some Universal Clays.

In my spreadsheet, I found this recipe:

STS hull
Rem. 209 primer
Fig.8 wad
1-1/8 oz. payload
Universal Clays 24.0 grains

So, just to be cautious I decided to verify this load...and I can't find it anywhere. I have the Lyman 5th edition shotshell manual and I've looked at the Hodgdon website. I even looked at a webpage I saved way back when, and the load is not shown with Remington primers. So now I don't even know where the recipe came from (I recorded it in my spreadsheet five or six years ago).

Is there a more extensive data source that might have what I need? I'm pretty sure---but not absolutely positive that I used this recipe at one time and had no issues with it...but I sure would like to be more confident before proceeding with it.

Thanks in advance.

Problem solved, for now at least---I found some Winchester 209s I didn't know I had. I've got data for that.

I am still curious about the recipe I have, though.

I have Hodgdon manuals going back to the introduction of Universal Clays. Your combination is not in any of the manuals. R209/STS209 primers are the mildest of the US primers and it may be Hodgdon technicians noted some cold weather problems with Universal Clays which is a bit slow slow-burning for 1 1/8 oz loads.

It is generally accepted that substituting a milder primer will result in a somewhat lower pressure and muzzle speed, and adds the risk of poor ignition in cold weather.

Interestingly there is a STS/R209/UniversalClays 1 1/4 oz 1220 fps load with the SP12 wad 24.0/9600 psi.

Michael

Thanks for the response, Michael. I am really bumfuzzled over this.

I suppose it's possible I made a mistake when I recorded the data, but I am also pretty sure I have fired several hundred of these. Most of my shotgunning is during September, and cold weather is only a distant dream here in Texas that time of year.

Whatever the case may be, I've taken care of the problem by ordering a bunch of W209s.

Thanks for looking around a bit, I do appreciate it.