Handload your own buckshot loads

I've been busy lately, that's why no recent posts. It seems that you can either DO something, or you can TALK about it. Hard to do both at the same time. At least for a 65 year old like me. "Happy birthday to me".
Anyway, roll your own buckshot loads. That is, handloading 12 ga. buckshot loads. I figure it's a no-brainer. Buckshot loads are expensive to buy and much cheaper when you make your own. Here's how.

To load shotgun shells you need the various components and a few tools. You can get the high-dollar shotshell reloaders, or you can buy a Lee Load All II. I elected to go cheap.

NOTE: buy or borrow the shotshell handbook BEFORE you get the components because you have to have a "recipe" that shows which hulls, powder, and shot go together. DON'T buy the hulls and powder and then try to find a load that uses them. They may not work together.

I was lucky and found a load that uses Federal Gold Medal Plastic cases. I say lucky, because brassmanbrass.com is selling once-fired "Federal Medium Base Shotgun hulls" 500 ct for $12.50 Otherwise find some once-fired hulls somewhere THAT ARE ALL ALIKE and that are listed in your Lyman's Shotshell handbook with a load for your gauge and size. Ballistic Products sells some for around $10/100. (No hazmat for hulls.) You can order shotshell primers over the internet, but then you have to pay a "hazmat" charge to have them delivered. Best is to shop around and get some cheap locally. I was all set to place an internet order for some Wolf shotshell primers at $21.00/1000 from Wideners (plus shipping, plus hazmat!), but then I found a place near me (ammunitiontogo.com near Brenham,TX) that had NobelSport 209 shotshell primers for $21.95. I was able to pick them up in person at their store so no shipping and no hazmat!

OK, here's what I did. YMMV.
Lee Load All II (12 ga) $45 (Widener's Reloading & Shooting Supply)

Lyman's 5th Ed. Shotshell handbook $16.50 (Widener's Reloading & Shooting Supply)
"Federal Medium Base Shotgun hulls" 500 ct for $12.50 (brassmanbrass.com)
 NobelSport 209 primers (ammunitiontogo.com) $21.95/1,000 (in person- no hazmat)
2 lb Bluedot powder from McBrides in Austin TX at $20.95/lb (in person- no hazmat)
Claybuster CB1138-12 WAA12R wads 500 pack (Ballistic Products) $8.99 + shipping
Lee 18-cavity bullet mold (330 diameter) 00 buckshot  (MidwayUSA or Ebay) about $46
Lee Production Pot IV $47.69 birthday price from MidwayUSA

I also bought 8# of 00 buckshot from Ballistic Products just to be able to get started and make sure that everything would work OK. But you don't need to do that. The 8# of 00 buck cost $34.90 + about $10 shipping. It loaded about 91 loads using 12 @ 00 buck. That is what the load I selected calls for.

What that tells me is that every 8# of 00 buckshot that I cast myself using free lead that I had is saving me about $35-45 over the cost of store-bought buck shot pellets. So far I've cast about 48# of buckshot pellets, so that means that I've saved about $210-270 so far on pellets alone.

I need to load a few more loads before I can give an estimate of how much I've saved by making my own rather than buying them. But here's the kicker. The hulls can be reloaded a few times. You can probably scrounge more lead or wheelweights. If you have enough primers, powder, and wads that means that you can turn 500 hulls into one or two thousand loads!

The shotshell reloading handbook, the buckshot mold, the lead Production pot are one-time purchases. The more you load/reload, the cheaper your loads wind up costing.  Post SHTF you probably won't have electricity to run the Lee Production pot. But then again, hopefully you can load up enough before that happens so that you are ready. I also inherited a cast iron melting pot and dipper. In a survivalist situation one could be improvised and lead could be melted using a wood fire, assuming you have some lead. Since the lead in batteries these days could have harmful alloys and you really don't want to have to be out and about scrounging post SHTF anyway, the best thing would be to get a stockpile of lead now. I recently priced lead locally at $.65/lb and wheelweights at $.75/lb. They will go up soon. Get 'em while you can.

I am posting a couple videos about casting the buckshot just to give you an idea. I went faster when I wasn't making the video. It's hard to concentrate on doing something like that and try to make a video at the same time. More details later.

Well, I uploaded 3 videos about casting the buckshot called buckshot_start, buckshot2, and buckshot3. In buckshot2 where I said I didn't think the lead and mold weren't hot enough, that really probably wasn't the problem. What I realized is that sometimes the pour spout gets partly clogged. When the lead comes out too slow, then it cools too quickly - which is similar to the lead not being hot enough to start with. Also, if the distance the lead drops from the pour spout to the mold is too far it cools too quickly - which is similar to the lead not being hot enough to start with. In any of the cases where it cools off too quickly the result is that not all of the cavities will be filled completely. To prevent the pour spout from getting clogged, use purer lead, clean the spout from time to time with a suitably sized paper clip, stir the lead and dip off impurities.