Home Forums Reloading Shotshells 16 GA Help

I just ordered a Browning over and under for some trap shooting and something I wanted to add to my bucket list of guns. This is what I need some help with.What is the better way to start with shells in the cheap and best way. Buy hulls, wads and powder for 1 1/8 and 1 oz loads and reload them or buy a brand of shells and after shooting them, reload them after that. How would you 16 ga boys do it now and the reload data that you used for your setup for trap shooting? I reload for 12 ga now and use clay and promo powder and have winchester and cheddite primers if you have data that I can use those would be great but I don't think my powders are good for 16 ga. I know there is some 16 ga sites but hope to get my information here but if not then I will go there if noone here has a good idea.

Thanks

Well for inexpensive target practice on clays ,get over to the nearest Cabela's and buy flats of their Herters brand 1 oz field loads in 6's or 8's, they run $69 a flat (250). it's a Cheddite hull with a plastic base wad and the crimp memory is good. Get wads from Ballistic products. Green Dot and Herco will be go to powders for you. Above all get the latest powder catalogs from WW, Accurate, Hodgon's etc. BP also sells a 16 ga reloaders manual which naturally uses their components almost exclusively. The latest Lyman manual for shotshells also. Cabelas also sells a Herters high velocity 1 1/8 oz hunting load that is in 6's or 5's for $9 a box and they work well. Kent makes a 1 oz bismuth load in 5's. Fiocchi has some good offerings as well . Remington and WW first line stuff are gold plated (price) the Rem (game loads in black beauty hulls) are pretty decent. WW doesn't use the compression formed hull (AA style anymore) for 16's and the cheapy is crap for reloading. Federals are decent but they don't have a skived crimp mouth on ever load they make. ???? Magnum Bob

Thank you Bob for your reply. I like your comment of going with Herters and after shooting them using them for a few reloads after that.I went to BP web site and ordered the 16 ga manual and the Lyman book for the latest reload data I will get from them. One question for you Bob is what are you using and if you reload what are the products that you use? Thanks again for the information.

SWC, did you go with the standard citori, or one of the lightning versions? 26" or 28" barrels. Looking at a couple too. Thanks

https://www.budsgunshop.com/catalog...OWNING+CITORI+GRAN+LIGHTNING+10+16+GAUGE

I ordered this one from buds, she looked to pretty to pass up to add to my Browning citori collection. Just need to get a 410 someday to complete it

I buy factory loads and then reload the empties.

My preference for modern hulls is the Remington Game Loads. They use the same data as the long dead Winchester AA hulls which I fortunately have a life time supply. I load 1 oz of 7.5 in the Win and 8s in the Rem.

For powder, I use Alliant Unique or Hodgdon Universal depending which I have on hand. Powder charge is whatever gets me around 1200 fps by Lyman's. Wads are Win 16AA which are discontinued but Claybuster's makes a clone that one can use. Primers are Win, CCI, Nobel, PMC, Fiocchi, or similar.

For 1 1/8 oz I use Fioochi, Federal, and Cheddite hulls with Unique, Universal, or Herco powder. I load mainly lead 5 in these but occasionally 6s for prairie grouse, hares, and crows. I use Rem SP16 wads with which ever primer the recipe calls for as pressures are closing in toward max. I load these to the 1250-1290 fps range.

I haven't used more recent powders as I settled on these as many as 35 years ago. I haven't bothered with Ballistic Products offerings as BPI has been pretty proud of their components. It helped that I stocked up on components as/when I could, especially when they were being cleared out.

SW, Ballistic Products is going to be your friend.

All the shotgun I've loaded for a long time has been with steel shot, but when I was loading lead 16 ga. for upland my favorite powders were SR7625 and SR4756. They are both gone now, but Universal, Unique and Herco are between the two so I'd try them if I were to get back to it. Probably Universal would be the first pick of those 3 for me.

Those look really nice. Got to see how big a check I need to pay .gov in April and one of those is on my short list.

I buy the Herters from Cabelas for informal clays, then reload. I also buy new, primed cheddite hulls from Precision Reloading or Grafs.
For clays I use Hodgdon International Clays with the Downrange DR-16 wad and 7/8 oz shot.
For light bird hunting(quail, doves) I use Universal Clays, either the Z16 or SG16 wad and 1 oz shot
For wild public land pheasants, I load either 800X or Longshot with 1 1/8 oz shot. With the larger flake 800x you can get away with using the Remington SP-16 wad, don't use it with Longshot in a straight wall case, it will leak by the cup and give you bloopers. Either drop back to the Z16 wad or the Cheddite 1632 wad that Grafs sells for Longshot. The Remington hull is the only current hull that isn't straight walled. The AA and Claybuster clones are made for tapered hulls and can cause trouble with fine grained powders.
Go to 16ga.com for plenty of info on the 16.

I stopped by the trap club I go to and ordered up 1000 rounds of Remington game loads, clay buster clones of waa16 and 8lbs. of long shot. I have Win. primers and after I shoot a 100 rounds or so I will start reloading using these items for 1oz and 1 1/8 oz loads and see how they work with this gun. I thank you guys for your comments and I will update how these reloads work as hodgon has a good amount data with these items.

thanks

Lot of guys really like the Rem game loads, others claim the crimp gets pretty crispy after a reload or two. The cheddites I've used don't do all that much better. There are no reloader quality hulls for the 16 unfortunately.

The Remington hulls do get crusty quickly but one can get a good half dozen reloads from them. I am not OCD regarding what the crimps look like, I'll use them until shot rolls out and I'm pretty sure I've gone beyond a half dozen loadings. Then I'll load them one last time and seal with a drop of wax to run through the autoloader.

I haven't had success loading 1 1/8 oz in the Remington hulls, they are one the smaller side in capacity. I load one ounce in the Remington's and use Federal, Cheddite, Rio, et al for any heavier loads. 1 1/4 oz is pushing it in these larger hulls but it can be done.

SWC I shoot Browning Sweet 16's and a M37R Ithaca pump.I Ioad all the hulls I talked about and use factory for hunting. I been colleting 16 ga ammo for 35 years and have a or several lifetime supply of hunting loads. Like Woodsmaster I bought 16 components whenever or wherever I found a deal on them. The Herters hull got my attention because it roll crimps very well. A buddy of mine has a very early vintage Sweet 16 A-5 that has the 2 9/16" chamber so I cut those hulls down and load them and do a roll crimp on them with a Precision Reloading roll crimper in a drill press. The guys over at 16 ga.com said that they worked better than BPI's did and so it does. ???? MB

For years I shot 1 ounce loads for all my 16 gauge target shooting and hunting. Then I started experimenting with 7/8 ounce and even 3/4 ounce loads for trap and skeet respectively. I broke just as many (if not more) targets and was quite happy to economize on shot accordingly. I figured I got a free shell with every 8 rounds by dropping to 7/8 ounce. Just that little bit less recoil wasn't turned down either. Green Dot was my powder of choice.

My shotgunning has waned but I still keep a couple 16's around for company for my 12's and 28's, and because of my reduced shooting I figure the closet full of 16 gauge 7/8 and 3/4 ounce loads should see me through to the end.

Note: 7/8 ounce loads work beautifully in the 12's to, even out to the mid-handicap trap distances. No small consideration in this day and age of usurious shot prices. More is not necessarily better, and less can be very satisfying.

I too have a "Sweet 16" and an Ithaca 37; plus a drilling that I load for. The 37 was my first shotgun I could afford and I loaded it with a Lee "Classic" tool (yeah, the shells would usually "unfold" in a few weeks if not shot!). My first reloads were withRed Dot and 1oz of shot ; for me, it was a "magic" load. Later in life I graduated to a "Load All" and SR7625 until a few years ago when my wife bought me a MEC (why did I wait so long!). The problem with having a gauge that is not real popular is that every time you find them, you feel you have to buy more in case the sellers' never restock! That motivation has gotten me more 16ga ammo than I can ever shoot or reload, and I have to sort the cases because of the different internal dimensions. (BTW our Walmart has Federal's for just under $8 a box - I will resist.) I now have a collection of 16ga cases, but mostly load Winchester AA, or Cheddite; I'm sure I'm missing out on some "bargains" out there, but I'll be glad to send my "culls" to those who can't find 16ga shells for the shipping cost. I am currently loading with "Universal" powder and a 1oz shot load; I have not used a 1 1/8 or heavier payload since the "Feds" stopped allowing lead for shooting ducks. Anyway, with our "collective" buying of 16ga loaded ammo and components, maybe we will keep the 16ga from disappearing into obscurity. I do buy most of my reloading components and accessories from Ballistic Products (BP) and have been very satisfied with their products and service.

I use the same philosophy for the 16 as the 12 ga- tapered hulls are all the same as are all straight walled hulls. I have modified this a little and stay in the 9000-9500 psi range to handle any potential pressure incursions.

In other words, the various Remington hulls are loaded with the same components as the Winchester AA compression formed hulls. Federal, Fiocchi, Cheddite, Rio, and pretty much everything else are straight hulled and are loaded the same. I am not sure where the current Winchester hull lands in this spectrum as I haven't bought any. The 12 and 20 ga versions are too thin/weak and routinely buckle on my machines. With them being more expensive than any other brand locally, I see no incentive to use them at this time.

As for pressure si have run these loads through a strain gauge giving pressures similar enough to factory I am satisfied. I don't push pressures to begin with so have some wiggle room. If I were loading near SAAMI pressure maximums I would follow recommendations closer.

This keeps things very simple and makes use of all hulls available to me. Italso allows me to sort loads by hull type to further help organize things. I have been through a couple of 16 ga shortages and learned to use anything and everything available. I still have paper hulls and card wads and old Remington 57 size hulls and primers to match f it comes down to that.

This, we must be related I'm on the same path except I use WW cheapies as 1 shot suzies because I'm too cheap to not make use of them and it is all ways a challenge to set the crimper for them and not buckle the hull ( I get bored easy at times ). MB

Great day, I got the shotgun and all the shot shells and reload stuff in today. The gun is very pretty to me and I can't wait to try trap shooting this Sunday with it and I will report on how it does. Thanks again for all the comments to help start me out right for reloading and I love the idea of 1 oz and then try some 7/8 load as that is what my son shoots in 20 GA and does well for a beginner.

Congrats! Those are beautiful guns.

Well my son and I went out to the trap club Sunday to try out the new 16 GA. I am not that great but I shot 22 out of 25 on the 16 yard line, my son try it and got his PB with 16 out of 25 and 2 boxes of shells for all the other guys who saw it and asked to give it a try. Most of them like it but most of them don't like the price of shells and the not so good reloading shells for the 16. Now my son who shoots a 20 GA semi is wanting me to let him shoot this gun all the time or get him one but I told him this is a gun that wont see the light but a few times a year...I created a monster...lol