Brass Shotgun Shell Load: Anything wrong with this?

[Dusty Morningwood]

Had this posted on the SASS Wire.  Thought I would float it by here before I set one off! 
I weighed out 492.2 gr of shot on my RCBS powder scale. This should equal 1 1/8 oz. Opened up my brass BP by volume measure and funneled the shot in. Raised the plunger until shot level with mouth. Right at the 80 gr mark. Set my powder scale back to ** gr for powder. In goes powder, 1/8" nitro card, 1/2" fiber wad and shot. Overshot card in and a dollop of Elmers wood glue (all I had in the house). This left a little over 1/4" in case.

Every bag of fiber wads has quite a few that have split in half. So on top of the overshot wad and glue goes a ca. 1/4" fiber wad. Press this down until glue comes up side. Top off with a small dollop glue flush with mouth. One Pard thought the extra wad would cause too much pressure to build up.  Is this extra step a problem?  I looked at it as a way to help hold the shot in while jostling about.

[Cuts Crooked]

You are NOT going to cause too much pressure with that BP load, at least not enuff to harm a modern made scattergun fer sure.

But you are not likely to get a very good pattern with that much wad on top of the shot. Likely will get a nice donut shaped pattern, if any at all.

Next time, try putting that "extra" wad material under the shot. Should werk a whole lot better.

[Dusty Morningwood]

Doh!  You know, I have never loaded shot shells and did not even think about the wad donutting (is that a real word?) the pattern.    Fortunately, I use a vintage SG (Armory Steel barrels) with 30" barrels, so maybe the load will hold together long enough to hit the steel.  I will take a sheet of paper to the range on Sun. and test it before we start.  If it looks bad for the boy, I will dig the offending wads out! 

[rickk]

I have to agree with Cuts Crooked... a very thin wad is all you want over the shot. The wad is going to slow down as soon as it can and the shot will be encouraged to go around it right as it leaves the muzzle. That will blow a hole in your pattern. A thin wad over the top is all you want. I don't think the 1/4 inch of space was hurtin anything.

The one thing that I do that you didn't mention is lube the wad first, to help reduce fouling. I personally use 2 parts Sheep Tallow, 2 parts Parrafin, and one part Beeswax. I throw one of my kid's broken crayons in there when I make it to add some color to it as well, just to make it look "proprietary".

What powder granulation are you using? Lots of people are using 2F, but 1F is more appropriate for a 12 g. I'm using 50 grains of 1F. I know that is a light load, but it hits hard enough and is a real pleasure to shoot in my pre-1900 double.

[Dusty Morningwood]

Howdy Rickk:
Not planning on lubing the wads.  An extra step that might not help me that much.  I can run a wet paper towel down the bores if needed.  Shooting 2F and a bit heavier than your load, but not as much as the "heavy load" on the charts.  Hoping my long barrels will keep it a mini donut! 

[rickk]

Well, it all boils down to does it work. Staple some newspaper to a big cardboard box and have at it.

[Delmonico]

The more wadding below the shot, the better the pattern, this helps cushion the bottom shot so they don't get deformed, round shot stays in the pattern more, one reason real hard shot patterns better.

Barrel length has nothing to do with patterns, muzzle constricion does.

[hellgate]

A sheet of butcher paper stapled to a cardboard box (or IPSC target) makes a good patterning board.

[Dusty Morningwood]

I figure that since my AA Extra Lights splatter a very tight pattern on our SG targets, I can use this 3x3 ft piece of cardboard to see what's up with these.

[Adirondack Jack]

Worse comes to worse, use a large drywall screw and a screwdriver to pull the wads above the shot and rebuild 'em.

[Dusty Morningwood]

AJ:
I suspect that if it is a problem, I will use my pen knife and just dig the offending wad out, leaving part of it attached to the overshot wad.  Crude, but effective (I hope).

[Dusty Morningwood]

Good news, everyone!  Even with the offending wad over the shot, I got a pretty tight pattern at 15 yds.  It did donut, but the donut was a tight shot group with hole made by wad! 

[Texas John Critter]

That will do for CAS, no problem at all!