16ga.com ~ View topic

It works good nice low pressure loads but it is dirty like Unique alot of unburned powder.

I've been using Green Dot for years in all my 3/4 and 7/8 ounce 16 ga. loads. Green Dot is a reasonably clean burning powder for this application if the shell is properly crimped. Weak or poorly formed crimps do cause powder to burn poorl with lots of residue.

However, the most important reason I like GD is how the loads pattern. They throw a nice even pattern that kills birds and breaks targets very reliably and effectively. I've yet to find anythiong better--as good, perhaps, but not better. since GD is so easy to find and often more reasonable to buy, I rely on it. What more can I ask for. Works for me.

Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 224

16gaugeguy,

I didn't see many Green Dot Loads on the LPG. Which hull are you using, and where did you get your recipe?

Thanks

Member Joined: 27 Jun 2005 Posts: 1545 Location: Michigan

Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 224

Low pressure is not my concern. I joined the LPG for recipes...not because they are low pressure. I actually think the LPG should change names and become the 16 Gauge Recipe Group...and include any and all loads (which they seem to do already). That way we could get the most out of our 16's from one great spot.

What I want is a fairly clean, good performing powder for lighter loads with available recipes, that is bulky enough that I won't need much or any filler. I have it narrowed to Universal or Green Dot.

Thanks

Joined: 19 Feb 2008 Posts: 443

The 3/4 ounce load using GD in the Fiocchi section is mine. (1219fps/7840psi) I have shot tens of thousands of these to great effect. Comfortable and relatively clean. I love it.

sv

I've been using the Remington GL16/Express hull ( modern 16 ga Remington hulls are identical inside regardless of color). I use any standard 209 primer-- Rem, Win, or CCI. 16 to 16.5 grains of GD under an R16, 1 ounce wad with one (7/8 oz. load) or two (3/4 oz. load) 1/8th thick, 28 ga. card wads under the shot in the wad cup. The range of powder from 16 to 16.5 grains can be used for either shot load depending on what velocity you want. I use 16.5 grains for hunting loads, and 16 for target work.

The 3/4 ounce load is my standard skeet load. I can shoot them all day without any discomfort. The 7/8 ounce load has a bit more recoil. I begin to notice it after 3 or 4 rounds of trap or skeet, especially in one of my lighter guns.

However, as a hunting load, the 7/8 ouncer is hard to beat. It is very effective on early season pheasant if loaded with #6 hard shot. That load is also perfect for late season grouse and prairie chickens.

Load with hard #7 pigeon shot and you will have a perfect load for any grouse and a fine close in pheasant load over dogs in the earliest part of the season. We can legally take hens in most of MA since our birds are 90% stocked. #7 shot drops hens like lightning. It also downs young roosters out to 30 yards just as well.

Load with 7.5 shot and you will have an ideal dove load. You can shoot them all day over a dove field without any problems like gun fatigue. They reach out very well if used with a tight IC to mid- modified range choke. I've cleanly dropped common feral pigeons with them out to 40 yards or so over a local millet field.(We can't dove hunt in MA, but feral pigeons and starling are fair game all year long.) Doves are more lightly built and should drop just as cleanly.

Go to #7.5 or # 8 hard shot in the 3/4 ounce loads and you are all set for woodcock, snipe, rail, and quail. I'm certain the 3/4 ounce load of #7.5 will drop most grouse and chukar as well. I just like #7 shot better here for insurance. 8.5 shot will also work for snipe and rail and is deadly on trap targets. I don't use #9 for hunting at all. It will kill, but it also purees too many birds and gets in my teeth. Use it for targets and save your fillings. Wink

GD will also work in a Cheddite/Fiocchi hull. Just up the charges 1/2 grain across the board to allow for the more spacious hull and use a suitable wad and filler as needed. good luck.

The LPG lists a similar load to that above using 19 grains of Universal clays - I've been shooting them this season since getting my machine. I can tell you the Universal burns cleanly leaving the bores shiny, there is some carbon at the muzzle and I need to wipe it down in between rounds of skeet. Aside from that, I'm very happy with the way the clays break/powder when I do my part.

If my scale is correct the #25 bushing drops 18.5 +/- gr. of Universal and that's close enough to the listed 19gr. for my purposes.

good luck,
Sprocket

Member Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 238 Location: Lodi, CA

FWIW I have used Unique, Universal, and Longshot. I think Longshot out performs the other powders by far. Also, there seems to be a more consistent and complete list of possible loads, with greater components choice, using Longshot.

I second Dave with 7625. It burns cleaner than other powders I have used and breaks targets with authority. Just my 2 cents.

Brian

I tried Unique for a 7/8 ounce low pressure load. The results were erratic and not acceptable to me per tests by Tom Armbrust.

On Dave Miles advice I bought a pound of SR7625 and immediately had a good range of low pressure loads for 7/8 ounce, again per tests by Tom Armbrust. Last night I ordered 8# of SR7625. It's good stuff for low pressure 16 bore loads.

Unique is still my go to powder for 28 and 20 gauge, some 12 gauge loads and virtually all of my handgun loads. If you were to look in my powder magazine you'd correctly guess that about 20# of Unique shows that I do like it - but SR7625 is better for low pressure 16 bore loads.

I've found that Green Dot is just as perfect for 3/4 ounce 20 ga loads as it is for the 16 ga load. It is also very good for 7/8 ounce, 1100- 1175 FPS 20 ga skeet loads. Any 1200+ FPS 7/8 ounce 20 gauge load calls for Unique or its equivilent. Unique is also suitable for lower velocity 1 ounce 20 gauge loads. Max 20 ga loads do well with 800X in my experience.

However, in the 16, Unique is the best one ounce load propellent I've ever found. It throws the same uniform patterns as the lighter shot weight Green dot loads do. It has long been recognized as the go to powder for standard 1 ounce 16 ga hunting loads. I load 20.5 grains of Unique under a 1 ounce shot charge of hard #6 shot in an R16 wad in the Remington GL16 hull. This has been my staple pheasant and bigger upland bird load for 70 percent or more of the season for a long time now. It has never let me down if I do my part and do not push the range past 40 yards to the bird (when the shot arrives) as absolute max.

Any range past 40 yards calls for bigger shot and more of it. Unique is too fast burning for these quick, heavy long range loads. I like 800X for 1-1/8 ounce loads, and Blue Dot for the 1-1/4 ounce, 16 ga heavy hitters. I try to keep velocities near or at the top to ensure enough clout on target at the longer ranges. Clean kills are important to me. I hate wasting time tracking down clipped runners. Dead in the air is far better for the bird, the dog, and me as well.

Guest

16GG and some others still equate low/moderate chamber pressure with reduced shot charge loads and slower muzzle velocity. It just ain't so. With the right combination of components and by selecting powders with slower burn rates such as Solo 1250. Unique and some of the IMR powders you can achieve some pretty fast loads with moderate to fairly heavy shot charges while maintain chamber pressures in the fairly to very mild range. Green Dot is not one of the powders I would choose for moderate or low pressure 16 gauge loads.

Joined: 23 Jan 2008 Posts: 224

16GG wrote