Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters very light 20 Ga load

I'm taking a youngster hunting this year and will use a 20 Ga for the "kid"

I have lots of Federal plastic target and small game hulls, several makes of primer.....I can get whatever powder is needed, and Just happen to have a fair amount of lead shot of various sizes, and Winchester wads for 1 OZ and 7/8 Oz loads as well as a full bag of RXP20 wads.

All I need to get the youngster started is a very mild 3/4 or even 5/8 OZ load at 1,200 FPS or less.

Anyone have a recipe for light 20 Ga loads using federal hulls and normal Win or Rem wads?

I'm posting this here as this forum gets a lot more traffic than the shotgun forums.

Shotgun choice? Hope it's a gas auto, or maybe pump?

Take a look at this site for 3/4 oz loads:

http://www.claybusterwads.com/index.php/component/content/article/5-load-data/33-load-data-cb1075-20

excellent.....I can use this nicely.....thanks a bunch.

From my Hercules Guide it shows:Federal plastic shells,1OZ load,1220 fps,Fed.209 primer,wad-wwaa20f1,with 23.0 grains of Blue dot powder.

Same shell,primer,wad,Unique powder,15.5 grains speed 1650.
Same shell,primer,wad,Herco powder,16.0grains speed 1650

Hope this helps.

I came across a 3/4 oz load using Green Dot on Trapshooters.com.

If I remember it was 12.5 grains and produced a load in the 1100fps range.

Very light recoil and clean burning.

I see the same load is listed in the chart from Claybuster Wads that czeh1022 listed except they used 12.9 grs for 1150 fps.

I used to load up light target loads with 3/4 oz. of shot and red dot powder. The load was either from the Hercules or Lyman manual. It shot well but if you dropped velocity much below 1,200 fps they started to burn dirty. High Score 700X same load seemed to burn cleaner. Also any less than 3/4 of an once and the crimps would cave in. I think plastic wads require a certain amount of compression to function well. Did not have this problem with felt and cardboard wads. You just added more wad height when you reduced a component.

I have loaded 3/4 oz 20 gauge loads using Hodgdon International and Alliant 20/28 powders. Both were very clean burning soft recoiling loads.

Although not Federal, I loaded “light loads” in Win AA cases with 3/4 oz 7 1/2 lead, AA wad, 13 gr. Unique for 1150fps and used them on Doves last week. I shot a 6 1/2# Garbi Sxs and the loads had more felt recoil than I expected but kills were very impressive.

This is probably the most complete 20ga. 3/4 oz. thread I've read.

https://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=421067

A timely and useful thread. I have been considering a light 3/4 oz. load for my little Fox Sterlingworth. Even with the normal 7/8 oz. loads the recoil is lively. One round of skeet is enough before I reach for a heavier gun. I’d shoot it more with lighter loads.