I loaded up a few test rounds of 12 GA 7/8 oz #7 1/2 in REM STS hulls with DR-XXL pink wads and 15.0 gr and 15.5 gr of Perfect Pattern and WIN 209 primers. Wanted to see how they chrono’ed and patterned at 35 yds with a MOD choke in my Browning BT99. I always try to spot the wads down range and inspect them. I’ve used the DR XXL wads for many years with many different loads with no issues. Today was my first time loading with Hodgdon’s Perfect Pattern powder and almost all of the wads that I picked up down range had the base ring either completely ripped off or mostly ripped off. See attached photos. Anybody have any ideas as to what is causing that?
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Wads getting ripped up
ppelaez
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They are also getting bloopers.Who cares what the wad looks like after it had been fired? It was in an explosion in the gun barrel. Don't worry about it.
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Yep, who cares if pattern isn't blown. I would have gone to the pattern board before ever posting about this if I wasn't happy with the breaks on the clay field. If bloopers then we have a problem. I tried one wad from DR and it sucked, sorry but won't buy anymore from them. Claybuster makes good wads.
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There's a reason. Its not just the recovered wads. Inconsistent velocities,poor brakes on targets. This is an issue for some. If you don't good for you. Guys that used straight walled hulls and claybuster wads had a similar issue some time back. Wads looked very much like the ones OP posted. The fix was Gualandi wads instead of claybuster. Powder was migrating past the powder cup.
Having the gas ring seal ripped off and allowing gas to escape from around the base of the wad tends to result in a poor performing shot shell. I don’t know what your motivation is for reloading but a big part of my motivation is to produce well performing, quality shot shells. Also, curiosity leads to knowledge. I’m curious and I like to know how things work. Feel free to continue being un-curious.Who cares what the wad looks like after it had been fired? It was in an explosion in the gun barrel. Don't worry about it.
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Your PP loads that puncture the DR wads are minimum pressure loads. Larger powder drops mostly eliminated the problem with the punctures and torn skirts. Any chance the skirt is not sealing well to the hull wall or the (dirty) bore, letting either some powder or even combustion gasses get up into the cushion section of the wad? You may just have to reserve the DR wads for your 1200 FPS + loads. Could be that Hodgdon techs don't do enough testing with DR wads to know if they fail like this at lower pressure ranges....
good luck, garrisonjoe
For anyone interested/following along... latest update - yesterday I tested 10 rounds with 15.3 gr. Perfect Pattern in once fired Rem. STS hulls with Cheddite primers, 1 oz of #7 1/2 shot and Claybuster CB4100-12B wads. I recovered 8 out of 10 wads and they all looked great. Except for a few crazy velocity readings from my Chrony (1800 - 2000 fps which I excluded), avg velocity was 1246 with an ES of 52. This is from a 32" Browning BT99. Earlier I tested a similar load but with DR-RT12 wads and those looked good also.
While this is not by any means an exhaustive comparison, I've come to the conclusion (for my purposes only) that Perfect Pattern when used in 7/8 oz loads, generally results in wad burn thru of some form or another. On the other hand, comparable 1 oz loads show no such abnormalities. I wish I could get to the bottom of what's happening with my 7/8 oz loads but for now I'll just accept that Perfect Pattern is not my powder of choice for 7/8 oz loads.
While this is not by any means an exhaustive comparison, I've come to the conclusion (for my purposes only) that Perfect Pattern when used in 7/8 oz loads, generally results in wad burn thru of some form or another. On the other hand, comparable 1 oz loads show no such abnormalities. I wish I could get to the bottom of what's happening with my 7/8 oz loads but for now I'll just accept that Perfect Pattern is not my powder of choice for 7/8 oz loads.
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An ES of 52? Not good. That is well beyond a decent target load. If you have target loads that aren't well under an ES of 35 FPS. Find another load.
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