Volume of shot vs weight

[Albanyco]

Did some poking around, but didn't find the info I was looking for. Does anybody know what volumes on a powder measure equate to the weight of a charge of shot? I was able to find that 70 grains of volumes equals about a 1oz charge of shot. Basically I have a 21 gauge smoothie I'm going to use for turkey, trying to figure how much shot I can stuff in it.

 

[Rifleman1776]

You need a shot dipper or other measure specifically calibrated for shot. The weight can change with shot size. However, a good rule of thumb is to use equal VOLUMES of shot and powder.

 

[BrownBear]

You need to do one more poke job. Poke right here for a handy chart here on the site that does just what you want.

One proviso not mentioned there: Weight of shot dispensed by any volume measure is going to vary with shot size, as in, lots more small shot fits into the same space than big shot.

Learned that lesson when we were kids running a dad's shotgun reloader (Dangerous combo! :shocked2: ) trying to contend with high flying doves. Put in the 1 7/8 oz measure to dispense a bunch of #8 shot into 3" shells. Like to beat us to death, and I'm surprised we didn't blow up a gun or two. By going to a scale to actually weigh the shot, we learned that 1 7/8 oz measure was actually dispensing almost 2 3/8 oz of shot!!!!!! Holy macaroni, did those load pound our young bodies when pointed straight up at doves.

Read the fine print from MEC and learned that 1 7/8 oz measure was calibrated to deliver that weight of #2 shot. :grin:

 

[George]

If your measures are accurate, this will give you a close approximation of ounces of shot, drams and grains of powder. There would be some differences for different sizes of shot and granulations of powder, but nothing noticeable in the field.

Oz. Shot Dr. Powder Gr. Powder
3/4---------2----------55
7/8---------2 1/4------62
1------------2 1/2------68
1 1/8--------2 3/4------75
1 1/4--------3----------82
1 3/8--------3 1/4------89
1 1/2--------3 1/2------96
1 5/8--------3 3/4-----102
1 3/4--------4---------109
1 7/8--------4 1/4-----116
2------------4 1/2------123
2 1/8--------4 3/4-----130
2 1/4--------5---------137

You can find some other useful math here.
http://home.insightbb.com/~bspen/math.html

Spence

 

[Albanyco]

Thanks for the info! You guys are great!

 

[TNGhost]

Less powder, more lead, shoots far, kills dead. :wink:

 

[Col. Batguano]

Good story.

Though affected to a lesser degree, the same volume of 4Fg will weigh more than 3Fg and so on. Another good reason to back off your charge a bit when going to finer powder.

 

[Black Hand]

All of this is a moot point if you have a crappy pattern. Work to maximize your pattern density rather than your shot capacity.

 

[Albanyco]

I'm going to be doing some load development this week. I haven't been able to shoot this gun much. What I have shot though is a 70/70 pattern that had some holes in it. The gun is a Lyman trade rifle flintlock that I found a .58 barrel for and had Bobby Hoyt bore it out as big as he could safely go. It's bore is .605 so kind of an odd size. 20 gauge components are pretty tight but they work. Just looking for an adequate 20-25 yard turkey load.