Shotshell Questions

[Larryjk]

Skinny Shooter, The weights and measures table in Daniel Webster Collegiate Dictionary says a dram is equal to 27.343 grains. That multiplies out in my book at 82.029 grains for a 3 dram load. The guys at Hodgdon once told me to use about 80 grains of double F in a 12 gauge load. That sounds reasonable. Mr. 16 Gauge, drams are not listed in the volume tables, only weight.

[fabsroman]

Originally Posted by Larryjk

Skinny Shooter, The weights and measures table in Daniel Webster Collegiate Dictionary says a dram is equal to 27.343 grains. That multiplies out in my book at 82.029 grains for a 3 dram load. The guys at Hodgdon once told me to use about 80 grains of double F in a 12 gauge load. That sounds reasonable. Mr. 16 Gauge, drams are not listed in the volume tables, only weight.

82 grains of any powder on one of those shells is about the equivalent of a bomb.

For a 1 1/8 oz. load at 1,200 fps I use 19.2 grains of Hogdon Clays in the Nitro hull, which is the same as the STS hull. 82 grains could possibly blow the gun up and I don't even think it would be possible to crimp that shell closed with that much powder and shot in it.

[skeet]

I was off on the amount of black powder in the 3 dram load. I used 76 grains of FFg. It fit in a AA shell just fine. The dupont powder guy told me that about 83 gr was 3 dr equivalent but that was with card wads. With a plastic overpowder he said to cut the load back a few grains because of the better gas seal. So I used 76 grains. And yes Fabs..80 somethig grains of SMOKELESS powder in your load, if you could fit it in, would blow the gun. It would not be pretty.