Light recoiling hunting load for 9 yo daughter.

[Austringer]

Hello,

I am looking for a light recoiling hunting load for my 9 year old daughter. In my search I came across TSS, and the benefit of being able to use much smaller shot than with lead and especially steel shot.

I raise my own quail so my dog and I have something to do during the off season, and they are what I will be starting my daughter on.

She will be shooting a 20 gauge, but I plan on getting her a little skeeters insert so she can shoot 410. Would a 1/2 oz (181 pellets?) load of TSS #9, at around 1100 fps, be possible out of a 410? All shots will be under 40, more in the 25-35 range. I used a basic recoil calculator and that load should be around 3 lbs, so very light.

Are there other loads that make more sense? What is the lightest load in a 20 gauge?

Thank You!

[Austringer]

Hello,

Hope this won't show up twice, wrote it up once already, but can't find the post....

Anyway, it looks like I've been wasting my time researching 410, since I discovered 1/2 oz loads are possible in 20 gauge. The suggestion I found online was to find a 3/4 oz load that suits you, then reduce to 1/2 oz and use a filler for the empty space. I can reload a shell, but I don't have the knowledge of what happens when you change components and/or weights, so I would very much prefer to have a tried and safe recipe to follow.

Is it true that you can safely reduce shot weight for all loads, as long as all other components/weights remain the same, and that the only thing that will happen is that pressure will drop?

In that case I guess all I am looking for is a 3/4 oz TSS load that is fairly slow, sub 1200 fps, and load with 1/2 oz and a filler.

Marc

[Dave in AZ]

Marc,
yes you can take a load and just reduce the shot payload and it will be safe. Pressure will reduce though, if it gets too low you get big variations is fps sometimes due to unreliable ignition. Someone recently posted a load at 5000 psi with 800 fps and some at 1400 fps. So you want to start with a donor load that is high pressure up near saami limits before reducing a lot of payload, so you still have a reliable load.

Hal is the TSS supplier most of us use as he will give you his proprietary test data for your personal non-share use. On 8/3/16 he posted here a 9/16oz 20ga TSS load. Same day he posted a 10,436psi 3/4oz TSS 20ga load. I am sure that since then he has posted more light 20ga loads if you search this forum a bit, he has posted maybe 200 pattern pictures. Look at the tSS suppliers area or just find "hawglips" . Here you go, this is his thread:
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=60
get hold of him and he has plenty of data if you get your shot from him.

[Austringer]

Dave in AZ,

Thank you for your detailed reply! You narrowed it down enough to where I should be able to find those 2016 posts, I already read through the one you linked.

I'll get in touch with Hawglips.

Thanks Again,

Marc