Advice needed on making homemade shotgun cards

[Acohill1]

I recently bought a pedersoli 12ga I have yet to get my hands on it but I believe it to be a mod/full choked gun. From what I have seen pedersoli likes to make tight 12 gauges. I'm really just looking for your guys experience making your own 12ga wads and what size punch/material I should use. What are your experiences as far as pedersoli specifically? Do they tend to shoot similarly or is every gun totally different? What charge/load/card combo are you guys using for waterfowl? Small game? And lastly can I shoot steel if I use a plastic shotcup ment for steel shot? I'm sure I'll think of more questions but any answers would be greatly appreciated

 

[Acohill1]

I recently bought a pedersoli 12ga I have yet to get my hands on it but I believe it to be a mod/full choked gun. From what I have seen pedersoli likes to make tight 12 gauges. I'm really just looking for your guys experience making your own 12ga wads and what size punch/material I should use. What are your experiences as far as pedersoli specifically? Do they tend to shoot similarly or is every gun totally different? What charge/load/card combo are you guys using for waterfowl? Small game? And lastly can I shoot steel if I use a plastic shotcup ment for steel shot? I'm sure I'll think of more questions but any answers would be greatly appreciated

I plan on using bismuth for waterfowl in place of lead but if I can shoot steel that'd be sweet

 

[oldwood]

Before you go off the deep end and learn the hard way , look at what the Ballistic Products Co. offers , as far as the shotgun wads available. They offer a lot of products to try , w/o buying tooling to make stuff you might not use in the end.

 

[IanH]

If you had an odd gauge it would be one thing but you can buy 500-count bags of 12-gauge stuff for chicken feed.

That said, I'd just use cornmeal between powder and shot and a folded rectangle of old ground-pulp target paper to hold it in the barrel.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Some Pedersoli shotguns that are marketed 12-gauge are actually 13-gauge and sometimes the choke constriction doesn't match up to what it says. Ideally, you have to measure the bore and choke, or you have to pattern it and figure out what the choke is. You should not shoot steel shot through a full choke regardless. Many Pedersoli's are marked 18.3 (mm) which is .720. That is nominal for 12-gauge as most conventional 12-gauge start at .729 and go up from there. I've seen 18.5 on one, and that would make it right at nominal 12-gauge. Then you have to look at chokes. If you put a choke gauge in either of the aforementioned barrels, you'd get a false reading. If the 18.3 barrel reads .010 constriction, It's only SK-IC, although a gauge would read .710 and Mod-Full. So before you buy anything to make cards or wads, you should have the gun in hand and assess what you really need. A bag of 1000 over-shot cards is about 2-cents each. You could just use those and each shot would be about 8-cents if you put 3 over powder and 1 over shot. You still need to get the right size but they will easily push past any choke constriction if you start them on edge. Even the over-powder cards or "nitro" cards will go past chokes if you start them on edge and worst case you might need a short starter. You could just use "nitro" cards too. One or two over powder and a half of one over the shot. They are about 4-cents each, but you only need 1.5 to 2.5 to load, so actually a tiny bit cheaper than using the over-shot cards exclusively. Regarding steel shot, you can use a shot-cup if you want to. I've tried this and decided against it but here's what worked for me. Load and over-powder or nitro card on top of powder, then a lubed shot cup and you need a short starter to get it in. Then shot and a card on top. I have found Bismuth to work better at the velocities we get with BP. The steel seems to need a bit of velocity, and a bigger pellet size. #5 or #4 Bismuth has readily dropped ducks, geese, cranes and turkeys for me.

 

[Acohill1]

Yall have been awesome so far. Where can I get a tool to measure my choke? Would it be easiest to just take it to my gunsmith and have him do it?

 

[Eric Krewson]

I shoot the Skychief load out of my 12ga, I punch out tons of cards out of cereal boxes with my 3/4" arch punch.

 

[Acohill1]

I shoot the Skychief load out of my 12ga, I punch out tons of cards out of cereal boxes with my 3/4" arch punch.

Wait so am I reading this correctly. He says the order of loading goes: 2f powder, nitrocard, shot, thin card, THEN the big cushion card with the lube? Could the better pattern possibly be from the thinner nitro card not punching a donut into your shot pattern? Why would u still need the cushion card on top?

 

[Sam squanch]

You may want the punches to make your own LEATHER wads. That really increases velocity for me.

 

[Sam squanch]

Trust me . Load in that order according to the skychief load. It works.

 

[Sam squanch]

PS- the last overshot vision was must be absolutely dripping with oil, lube , whatever you use. I use cheap vegetable oil. It’s messy but worth it.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I have a Navy Arms 12 double. I believe it is a Turkey-trap. It is marked 18.3 but measures as a 13 gauge. I ordered 13 cards from Track of the Wolf and they work fine. If I remember right, measuring with a caliper the barrels are around.670 at the muzzle and around .700-.710 past the choke. BTW it is Pedersoli made in the ‘80s

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

They are really cheap to buy ready made.

 

[Acohill1]

They are really cheap to buy ready made.

Yeah I know... I'm being stingy cause the gun was expensive and my coffers are light ATM lol

 

[SDSmlf]

Yeah I know... I'm being stingy cause the gun was expensive and my coffers are light ATM lol

I make most of my rifle and pistol wads with an inexpensive punch set from a place like HF, but for shotgun wads may want to check out Mike’s Quality Black Powder Shotgun Wads. Any size you want and not that expensive.

 

[Ohio Rusty]

I have Navy Arms 12 gauge SxS. I had a bunch of 12 gauge vegetable fiber wads, and even lubed they wouldn't hardly go down. I changed to 14 gauge fiber wads and they go down bore much better.
Ohio Rusty ><>

 

[oldramrod]

I do not use over shot cards. I use a paper shot cartridge made from three thickness of news paper tied shut with kite string. The paper cartridge holds the shot in place until firing.

 

[stephenprops1]

Yall have been awesome so far. Where can I get a tool to measure my choke? Would it be easiest to just take it to my gunsmith and have him do it?

I have a choke measuring scale on my key chain. I go it from The Log Cabin Shop in Lodi, Ohio. I use it often when looking for a new gun or helping out someone else. Before retiring from the gun store, I used it most every day.

 

[Jungle Dave]

While I use Circle Fly fiber wads in my Victorian unmentionables to build the column in the shell, I use the V.M. Starr method in my percussion SxS's. I've never used or owned a pedersoli, for many reasons I won't say here, but I hear the chokes can be a pain. For the percussions in 12-bore, I punch out the same cards I punch for over-powder and over-shot in my unmentionables, from a little Amazon hole punch 3/4", it's a wonderful little thing. Before finding that a year or two ago, I just used a 3/4" punch and hammer. Cereal boxes, preferably Captain Crunch, Corn Flakes, or even Fruity Pebbles or the like, the ones that give you .030. I've never used the skychief load, never needed. I value my head, so I don't 'spit' like VM did, I have a little 'spit' dispenser with homemade 'spit'.