20 Gauge TSS-18 Fox Load - Simple, Effective and Relatively Cheap

[mchughcb]

I had a plan to develop a cheap load for foxes. I knew what the minimum requirements were in terms of penetration and pattern. I needed a load that gave better than 22 pellets on a 350 x 450mm target at 50m and could penetrate at least 75mm as that was to do better than the gold standard down here which is the Winchester XX 70mm 42 gram copper plated BB loads. The cost has to be a bit reasonable given I can shoot up to 20 cartridges a day and the hunt season starts in April and can go through to November. Shooting AUD$10/round cartridges would get expensive. Each fox is worth AUD$10 as government bounty.

Reloading components down here are getting almost impossible to source to the point I thought I'd just grab target shells and start reusing them. I have the only 3 barrel 20 gauge in Australia and the reason is because it is very difficult to get semi autos. The foxes can be very fast and multiple sometimes requiring more than 2 shots and the recoil of the heavy 12 gauge loads makes bad viewing as I film all my hunts. Looks like I have little load that only costs about AUD$3.80 excluding labour.

This is the start of the journey, I'll see how much higher or lower I want to go but I'm off to a reasonable start.

https://youtu.be/9tK7wC8t5KQ

https://youtu.be/KMtQWIMU9zc

https://youtu.be/3TcwX7pWFR4

[mchughcb]

I dropped down in size to test some #9 TSS-18 in 410 and 20 gauge for ducks. I loaded up 27 grams of #9 into the 20 gauge repurposed cartridges and shot a fox with my bock drilling modified choke at 62m or 68 yards. It ran 20m and dropped dead. I'll need to shoot a couple of dozen in the #7 and #9 to compare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE_WAf4EDug

[mchughcb]

I have been checking my forcing cones and they are getting the heck gouged out of them so I don't recommend doing what I did otherwise you will severely damage your gun in the long term. Unfortunately as I can't get right loading components I'm going back to factory lead. Was great while it lasted

[Dave in AZ]

I have been checking my forcing cones and they are getting the heck gouged out of them so I don't recommend doing what I did otherwise you will severely damage your gun in the long term. Unfortunately as I can't get right loading components I'm going back to factory lead. Was great while it lasted

So what was it you did? Think I'm seeing you just replaced lead in target shells with TSS?

[mchughcb]

I have been checking my forcing cones and they are getting the heck gouged out of them so I don't recommend doing what I did otherwise you will severely damage your gun in the long term. Unfortunately as I can't get right loading components I'm going back to factory lead. Was great while it lasted

So what was it you did? Think I'm seeing you just replaced lead in target shells with TSS?

Yes but I cut the shells too short, 2.5" in a 3" chamber and I though I had enough freeboard to the end of the wad but somehow the shot was still getting out in front of the wad. It is a nightmare to get stuff in Australia now with Covid for reloading shotshells so I'm pretty limited on options. I need to get 3" shells and powder is my first problem. Second problem is wads long enough to hold the shot and somehow stop them getting in front of the wad.

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