Lots of moving pieces in my life of late, but I managed to start making shotgun ammo in a cold, damp shed.

I got the shed moved away from the house. It is now 6'2" away from the house, and code compliant.



It moved it closer to the wall for the beauty bark hill, but it's Ok, - it's on the far side of the property:



A little crammed and disorganized, but I can make ammo now :



Humidity crept up to 70-80% today, so I had to act. I went to Home Depot and got a really nice dehumidifier. it's got it down to about %50. I'll let it run all night.

Just prior to that, I went to WalMart and got a nice oil-filled header. Boy, it sure takes the edge off! I loaded out there last night w/o a heater, and it was like 41 degrees out there. That was sucky.

They want 3-feeet clearance from the heater to any other object (furniture, drapes, etc.). If I wheel it out in the center, it's not quite 3-feet, but it's close enough. I might put a fan in there too. This is a *really* nice heater.

Looking back at the doors, I seal myself in with a Bunjee cord. If I set off a keg (or two) of powder, those doors should easily blow open for my safety valve :



I *knew* I saved those scraps of HardiBoard from when I did the remodel. So I made a series of makeshift 'powder boxes' out of them, and various pieces of dry wall that I had stored in the shed :



I'll make something a little more substantial as I get situated.

Lots of updates in the garage, but I'll post those updates in another post/thread.

I did get out today to chrono 4 loads today. I tried to substitute a N.S. 686 for a Rio G-600 in my all-time favorite go-to 1 ounce load of 19.8 grains of AS in a Rio/Fiocchi hull with a CB-6100.

Oh man, that did NOT go well. Bloop-city, off-sounders, thick smoke rolling out the the chamber. Yuks-ville.

Crono'd them and the Avg velocity was 1110 fps, with a E.S. 105.

I was sweating it because I have (got back) ~13K of some older N.S. 686's, and so I was scrambling for a suitable load to use them in.

Anyways, I found a 7/8th's ounce load that they are gong to work in :



Not quite the "Neil Winston" ideal EV/SD of 35/11, but it's close enough. Plus it was pretty cold this morning, and 41 degrees is below what I'd ever recommend using a Noble Sport N.S. 686 in (at least previously).

I gotta say, I was pretty surprised to see this load work as well at it did. AWESOME 16-yard load!

Which is good, because I got 3X cases of 2,000 count Fiocchi H27 wads, and 22+ Lbs of A24.

So we'll see. It's good to be reloading again. Components are tight, and the local clubs have a pretty good lock down on the components, and limits etc. Bleh ....

All of the gunpowder and primers are out of the house (and garage) now, so that part of my goal is met!

Ironically, my Allstate homeowners insurance was due this week. Reviewing the policy, I see that's its a bit too low, and the statement said to contact them if I wanted to raise my coverage.

I do, but now is not the time (in case they want to do a walk-thru). I'll get the place cleaned up, and on the straight and narrow, and maybe up the coverage next year.

And MokeMates are flowing again too. I just shipped 6 pedal kits this week, with the 7th to go out Monday.

Unfortunately, I don't yet have a dedicated place too build them (since I burnt that area down in the garage), and have to resort to building them in an already busy ham radio room :



Which already had another project underway: troubleshooting an old home-brew ham radio linear amplifier that was given to me by a nice old timer at my ham radio club.

But the upshot is, that I'm done with it. It's getting parted out and scraped. It was close to the blast zone in the garage and got covered with the yellow dry chemical powder from the fire extinguishers. Nice looking piece, but it's a boat anchor, and a pig, and it's outta here. I'll save the knobs, tubes, meters, and some other internals, and then it's off to the dump.

Then I'll set up a small assembly table in it's place to assemble MokeMate pedal kits until the garage is done.


Thanks for the support everyone !

rep,
use those weak primers on loads that are pushing its maximum payload, maybe ~9-10k minimum . they should perform really well. its whats done in europe. it`ll be a decent usage of those primers.

But here's what I don't understand :



How and why could substituting a Rio G-600 in the second load turn my trusty, go-to load of ~1250 fps into such a crappy load just by switching to a N.S.686 ?

And the same charge and payload weight with the same primer in a Remington taper hull turn into such a hot load (which was actually a tad bit too fast for me in a 1-ounce load) ?

I don't get it.

But yet the N.S. 686 makes such a nice 7/8th's ounce load with Vectan's A24 ?

that could be a hull volume thing?

#clutching at straws

i`m not sure, i`m not really going to speculate. but is the gunclub high basewad and the primer flash hole sits flush with the base wad, or is it like the cheddites / fiocchi that sit with the primer flash hole above the basewad, so that sits right in the powder charge vs below the powder charge.

i`m guessing and flappin.

ps
Republican -welcome back.

Nice to see your getting back at it. Best of luck to you.

Can not keep a good man down!

Welcome back, Steve.

Nice set up. Would do the same but our HOA does not allow un-attached out buildings

the case difference is the difference.
it's like sticking your favorite 300 savage load in a 308 case, really kinda close,,,, buuut no.

I will agree with this and go a bit further and say your results are what you should expect. You went from a tapered walled Rem to a straight walled Fiocchi and kept the powder charge the same. This dropped the pressure considerably leading to inconsistent performance. I don't think the different wad is the culprit, but it is another difference between the two loads. Add some more powder, a grain or a bit more, and I bet the consistency would improve.

And, welcome back.

Hi Nebs. And yeah, it's good to be back, - even with all of the (literal) chaos in my life right now.

And yeah, that was my initial inclination as well - add a bit more powder. But consistency isn't the only issue, - MV is. I need them to be in the 1250-1265 fps range the original load (with the Rio G-600 primer) were.

But another issue (along those lines) is that I'm pretty much out of head room - max charge weight for AS is 20.3 grains, and I'm already at 19.8 grains.

I can see a grain, to grain and a half making a difference, but I can see .5 grain (19.8 -> 20.3) making a difference.



Bit I can give it a try. I can go to the next bushing up, which in MEC land is typically ~.7 grain.

Or do that *and* wait for the temperature to warm up and maybe make a summer load.

But I do have 10K Rio G-600's (now), so I can just go back to the original load. I was just thinking about "plan B's".

Which, before I got 2/3rd's of my Rio primers back from the kind man that I sold them to was "plan A" .

I didn't know you had a fire. Glad you're OK. I hope kitty is OK too. She prolly won't be helping in the shed though.

Steve:

You're not thinking clearly, snap out of it. Those max loads you circled are with Fed 209A primers, the hottest of the hot. You are using NS primers, the lowest of the low. You should have plenty of headroom. You need to load some up and send them off to be tested.

Just say'n....

Holy smokes, is that even LEGAL ?

My HOA probably doesn't allow them either. I didn't even think to ask/check, - I just had one built some years back.

Check the covenants, conditions and restrictions in your deed and whether the HOA has authority to modify them. If it's not in the CCRs, the HOA is blowing smoke.

You will like the A24 load. The fast burn rate goes well with the 686 primer.
I am finding the same issue with colder weather low psi loads with Fiocchi 209 primers. The orange sleeve all silver primer.
If I use a 10,000 + psi load I am fine, but use a 7/8 - 1 oz low psi I get of sounding shells in cold weather. Just wished my Fiocchi primers were Rio primers.

Yes, it’s clearly written into our deed restrictions. It doesn’t matter whether the HOA decides to enforce it. Any other homeowner(s) covered under the same deed restrictions/covenants/conditions can also bring a lawsuit. Been there, seen that

I did the conversion Noble Sport AS load data from there website.
Here is what I got. It is quite a bit more powder than BP data.
Note all 12 data is now the hotter 688 primer.
As powder 688 primer.
22.8 gr 24 gram 1361 FPS 7997 psi
20.8 gr. 28 gram 1230 FPS 8702 psi

Ok, so it seems I can go up by 1.0 grain. Now, to find a bushing to do that.

I'm wondering why they don't publish a 28-gram load with a bit more velocity (and pressure).

Just seems "odd" to stop at a load that only develops 8702 PSI.

But thanks for that info, - I'll go up one bushing and see what happens. I think I was using a #36 for 19.8 grains of AS. Hopefully I have a #37 bushing. I do know that I have a #38 (because I'm using it for the 19.5 grains of A24 shown above).

Thanks for this info !

Looks about right