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As a long time rifle and pistol caliber reloader I can load better ammo for cheaper pretty much across the board. What I used to do with shotgun shells was buy and shoot up the cheapest ones I could find and load them back up as more high end shells with 4 buck or 1 1/4 oz bird shot. Now I want to reload for sporting clays so the load I'm thinking of is a 1 oz load of #7 1/2 shot at around 1200 fps. I can buy this ammo for about 8 bucks a box so that seems reasonable to me. So my questions are can I make this type of load significantly cheaper and more importantly is there a benefit to trying to hand tailor a just right load to the shotgun like is done with rifle loads?
 
is there a benefit to trying to hand tailor a just right load to the shotgun
Absolutely. I've bought hundreds of dollars of hunting loads that don't pattern for bubblegum in one gun, but pattern just fine out of another.

Velocity isn't really as important as shot density at a particular distance. Getting the right load tuned with the right choke is everything.
 
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A much higher percentage of the people that I know who shoot clay pigeons for sport on a regular basis reload than compared to the people I know who shoot pistol or rifle regularly...
I am assuming this is primarily for cost savings, but I don't know the actual amount saved..
 
.410… like .300 BO, I have no idea how people shoot it regularly without reloading.
.410's have always been more expensive than 12 or 20 ga. In my experience of buying them since 1966, anyway.

.410 has been especially hard hit by Covid and "supply chain" issues the last few years. Within the past year, 3 inch shells have finally become available again. For $25 to $30 for the major brands, box of 25. When business gets tight or labor / materials get scarce, manufacturers have to decide what to continue making and what to discontinue. The slower moving products, naturally enough, get sacked. If they don't disappear entirely, they become "seasonal runs." Where they set up for a limited time, make a run, cease production of that specialty item, and change over to something else. One thing that some shooters don't understand, ammo and component factories tend to due rotational runs. Said another way, they usually cannot make every line item in the catalog simultaneously. The really strong products actually do stay in continuous production. Forget .410, .25-20, .32-20, et al.

When I was a kid, you could go into a small town hardware store in Iowa and buy single shells. Like buying loosie cigarettes in bars. I used to knock off pigeons flying out of barns.

Just for kicks, over the years I've bugged gun shop owners about the price of .410 shells. Conversations like, "How come .410 shells cost three times what 12's cost, yet they are a third the size?" Typically, the answer I've gotten is, "Supply and demand." And my response has been, "Have you ever considered that the reason the demand is low is BECAUSE they are so much more expensive??!"

I've been socking away .410 shells for years. In more bountiful times, I've waited until I've found them on sale, then added to the hoard. During the Covid era, I chose to sell several hundred of them, knowing I'd never use them all. I've still got hundreds left that I will probably never use. Mostly these days, I reload shot shells in specialty loads. In .410, I'm loading BPI Thug Slugs. Fun to shoot in my short bbl. crack-open gun.
 
I hunt nontox areas. Steel sucks. I buy bulk bismuth or hevishot and load my own for at least 50% savings over premade. Bismuth is nice because you can use any wad meant for lead, and the new bismuth doesn't shatter on setback or impact, plus it's 50% cheaper than hevishot. I'm current rolling 16ga 1 1/8oz loads.
 
Haven't been shooting shotgun much the past 20 years but have 6-8 cases of the small gauges and 30 or so of 12. Most of my shooting today is either the semi annual 100 sporting or 410.

I'm using Magtech 2.5" brass shells and 9.3x74R fireformed for 3" hulls. 410 is a blast and 1/2 - 11/16 oz of shot.

For Sporting, I generally load 11/8 8/8.5s and 7.5s. I still have about 200 lbs of shot @ $20 a bag from a 1 ton purchase years ago and 8-10k primers @ 4 cent ea and plenty of wads.


Pricing components from Midway and shot @ $60 per bag my cost is 9.25 per box. Until primers and shot fall that is the best. I only use Winchester or Remington wads. Federal is my was of choice in 410 as it is a little taller and I get a better crimp.

I think the last time I loaded 12, the cost per box was 3.25 or 4.25.

There is a break buying wads by the 5k case.
 

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