Loading BP in 20 gauge magtech brass shotshells

[awaveritt]

I have assembled all the necessary bits required to load my first box of 20ga. BP shells for cowboy action shooting.

I have:

Magtech 20ga. brass shotshells
CCI lg pistol primers
Goex FFg
18 gauge .125 over-powder nitro cards
18 gauge .500 fiber wads
#9 chilled magnum shot (for 7/8oz. loads)
17 gauge .025 over-shot cards
tube of Duco cement
I should add that these loads are to be used in a modern Turkish-made CZ 20 ga. double with screw-in chokes and 28" bbls. Will use the skeet/IP chokes for CAS.

Couple of questions:

1) Would you lube the wads with something like Emmerts (I have that on hand) or would you leave them dry (so as to prevent the lube from seeping into the powder).

2) What would be a reasonable charge for the FFg? Goex site says 65grs, Lyman BP book says 80 gr. I have flask spout that measures 72 grs. so I'm thinking of just starting with that for convenience until I have some actual experience with these babies.

Thanks for your suggestions.

[Andy Griffith]

I'd highly recommend lubing the wads, otherwise the dry wads will become confetti. I personally use a beeswax/crisco lube which at room temperature is fairly hard, and melt it and drop the wads into it when hot and let them soak for a bit, and pull them out and let cool down on a cookie sheet coated with either wax paper or you could just use some cooking spray. The dense wads will soak up very little of the mixture- more like you are just coating the outside of them.

If you are going to be using them for cowboy action and not hunting, I'd back down that powder load. Load five, try them and see if you are getting the results you want. The "square" loads work well for hunting and give good dense, tight patterns- but "tight" is exactly what you don't want for cowboy shooting at close range. 3/4 oz loads may be what you want, with charges of 55-62 grains.

One last thing to mention, if you put a hard card under the shot, the pattern will be more dense, but if you place the shot directly on top of the cushion wad, the patterns tend to be more open, but a little less evenly distributed.

The last note on cushion wads- they are completely unnecessary to develop a good load- they are there primarily for the shooter's comfort and secondly to sometimes take up room in the shell. I love comfort and that's why I always use them.

The last thing to note about brass hulls, is they aren't as forgiving as paper or plastic hulls if you are trying to load them quickly. Unless they are given a slight crimp, they have to be more "placed" in the chambers rather than "thrown" into shotshell chambers. I learned this the hard way. Also, concrete will do a number on them, especially the rims if you eject them out onto it or pavement.

One other tip- get a jug or container that you can fill with water and put the hulls into right after shooting. I use a nalgene style bottle with a water/dish detergent mixture and throw the hulls in there after finishing a stage- clean up is very easy when I throw them in there and let them soak the rest of the day before throwing in the stainless steel media.


Try loading four with the load you first suggested, then load three or four more different loads in lots of four and see how you like them...or your gun does. It's so much easier to tailor a load in blackpowder.