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Eagle shot dropping heavy...

3K views 29 replies 11 participants last post by  JGill517 
#1 ·
I just got some Eagle shot #9. On advice from a fellow club member who noticed his MEC was dropping heavy in 20 ga., I checked mine with the Spolar. My Spolar was dropping about 25.5 grams where the 7/8 bushing should be dropping 24.8 grams. A small piece of masking tape in the shot bushing brought it back down to acceptable weight.

This shot is from South America...Peru if I remember correctly.

Heads up.
 
#9 ·
This is interesting because your shot bushing should be designed to drop the appropriate weight of chilled shot and should drop light when dropping magnum shot.

When you say your bushing "should be dropping 24.8 grams," did you ever weigh what it was dropping with the Lawrence shot, for comparison?
 
#12 ·
I never check it before this came to my attention. It came already set up from Spolar. I noticed that the reloads seemed slightly "fuller" when I started with this shot.
"Fuller?" Interesting because the bushing should drop a consistent volume of shot. Weight difference come from differences in size of the shot and density of the lead it's made from.
 
#15 · (Edited)
A little off topic, but it seemed like every bag of Eagle 7.5s I bought, had #8 shot in them. Maybe I was just lucky.o_O

I try to stay away from it for any of my 7.5 recipes. I know it's only supposed to be 0.005" difference, but when I want 7.5s I try to make sure I have them.

I load by weight since my loader has adjustable shot and powder bars.

Bob Falfa
 
#18 ·
The culprit probably is the bushing. The 7/8 oz. bushings, unlike the 1 oz and 1 1/8 oz bushings, are not made according to the size shot being dropped. It's possible the bushing is made for #7 1/2 and thus will drop heavier loads with smaller shot. But that would not account for the bushing dropping a larger volume of shot, that should stay constant.
 
#19 ·
I found out years ago when my reloader was set up a 1 3/8 of #6's for annies, loaded 200 rounds with eagle shot went to the range and got the sh*t beat out of me.
Got home and cut some shells open, measured the shot drops, they were coming out close to an 1 1/2, found out the reloader was set up with west coast shot. ended up making a smaller bushing
Nebs is right the volume wont change just the weight depending on shot brands, size and lead content being the main factors. The 7/8oz #9 shot should be .570 id, and around .573 for #7 1/2's, based on west coast shot. Also shot drops will
vary 5 to 10 pellets any direction.
 
#20 ·
I found out years ago when my reloader was set up a 1 3/8 of #6's for annies, loaded 200 rounds with eagle shot went to the range and got the sh*t beat out of me.
Got home and cut some shells open, measured the shot drops, they were coming out close to an 1 1/2, found out the reloader was set up with west coast shot. ended up making a smaller bushing
Nebs is right the volume wont change just the weight depending on shot brands, size and lead content being the main factors. The 7/8oz #9 shot should be .570 id, and around .573 for #7 1/2's, based on west coast shot. Also shot drops will
vary 5 to 10 pellets any direction.
I guess in order to do that, you'd have to have the shot bushing custom made (or make them yourself). So far as I know, no one makes shot-size specific 7/8 oz bushings that will fit in a Spolar.
 
#21 ·
Your correct, diy or when you order a new spolar reloader the stock hornady shot bushings are bored out to drop the proper amount of shot based on your load data. these are the measurements used.
Back when i shot alot of annies i made 3 different bushing for my 1 3/8oz loads #7 1/2's, #6's and #5's, based on the brand of shot i had at the time. Prefer to use west coast shot, but came across a ton of eagle shot
at a good price.
 
#23 ·
I know....none of this makes sense to me. I am a bean counter by trade but I did very well in geometry back in the day. My engineering friends tell me that the size of the shot should not make a difference in the fill of the shot bushing - provided all of the pellets are the same size. If the pellets are of mixed sizes as has been suggested here, then the bushing will be "more full" or less volume consumed by air. Three of my gun club buddies are also reported slightly domed crimps in their 20's when they switched to Eagle. Still, it seems that the bushing only holds so much volume and it should not make any difference based on brand or shot size.
 
#25 ·
Data update...

I got the calipers out and measured about 15 pellets in one drop. Smallest was .072 which is slightly larger than a #10. Largest was .086 which is slightly larger than an 8 1/2. Roughly 2/3rds of the pellets were smaller than .080 (#9) and the other third were larger. None were exactly .080.

I guess Peruvian quality control is not too good.

With this variability in shot sizes, my shot drops varied as much as 0.32 grams in weight. Probably as good as I can hope for. I have taped the inside of the shot bushing so that the lower parameter is almost right on 7/ oz. Some are heavier.

Oh well....c'est la vie. These will be practice rounds anyway.

I guess we could do the math and figure out how many proper size #8's would be in .7 gram but probably not worth it unless one could reasonably sort the pellets into their proper sizes.
 
#26 ·
Data update...

I got the calipers out and measured about 15 pellets in one drop. Smallest was .072 which is slightly larger than a #10. Largest was .086 which is slightly larger than an 8 1/2. Roughly 2/3rds of the pellets were smaller than .080 (#9) and the other third were larger. None were exactly .080.

I guess Peruvian quality control is not too good.

With this variability in shot sizes, my shot drops varied as much as 0.32 grams in weight. Probably as good as I can hope for. I have taped the inside of the shot bushing so that the lower parameter is almost right on 7/ oz. Some are heavier.

Oh well....c'est la vie. These will be practice rounds anyway.

I guess we could do the math and figure out how many proper size #8's would be in .7 gram but probably not worth it unless one could reasonably sort the pellets into their proper sizes.
I wonder if one could shop for colanders at the kitchen supply stores and see if the perforations matched shot sizes. You could get one with #9 perforations and sift out all the #9s. Then switch to the #8, etc.
 
#28 ·
You can, or can come very close. For example, a No. 46 wire size drill measures 0.081 inch, only a thousandth bigger than No. 9 shot is supposed to be. Should also be able to get suitable screens from an industrial/scientific supply house.
 
#30 ·
I measured some more of the pellets today and got the same overall results (larger sample of pellets). Average of the sample was approximately .075 (about #9.5 shot size). Smallest was ,069 and largest was .085. Too much free time to be doing this (grin). I just taped the inside of the bushing and now it is dropping the correct weight +/- a few bb's.

I would be interested in testing Lawrence or West Coast to see if results are similar.

End of saga from my standpoint.
 
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