I just started shot shell reloading for 12 guage. I loaded up some Remington Uni-bodies (not STS premier) 2 3/4" hulls with 19.6 gr of Green Dot. I was playing with the press today, and I found out the more powder I put in the bottle, the heavier the charge it throws. When I started loading yesterday the scales read 19.6-19.7 gr. Alliants data sugests 19.5., which according to them is 3 dram equil. The 2 3/4 dram load was about 17.5 gr. Today with the bottle 3/4 full I threw a couple charges as heavy as 20.5 gr. Do you think these are dangerous to fire? I think that would make these about 3 1/4 dram.

It depends on your primer, wad and shot weight, but Alliant's site shows up to 22.5 grains of Green Dot in your shell. It looks like you used 1 1/8 oz shot, a Remington 209 primer and a WAA12 wad, which is a tight one. I'd say you're up there, but Alliant's data is a bit strange, because they show 10,000 psi for both the 17.5 grain load and the 19.5 grain load. My paper manual from 1997 has the same data as the website. Phone Alliant. The contact link is on the home page of the website.
http://www.alliantpowder.com/

I've found that 1/2 a MEC powder bottle does 100 12 gauge loads with room to spare. That's where I fill to unless I'm running low on powder. One thing to watch is that the flake powders flows better and faster after half a dozen drops. Don't assume you're spot on by weighing your first two charges. IMR PB is the exception as the first charge is the same as the last.

Bye
Jack

That was the load I used. I e-mailed Alliant last night. As of 11 am today I still haven't heard from them. I'll try to call later today.

I got a reply from Alliant Tuesday afternoon. She said they be fine. I took'em out Wednsday evening and they shot better than I did. It's only my second time trap shooting, and I still haven't got all the mechanics figured out yet. I took out two other loads too. The cheap federal target hulls with WAA 12, CCI 209, and about 21 gr of Green dot did really well. The 3rd load was STS preimer, Rem 209, Rem fig 8 (actually, The Clay buster wanna be), and 19.6 gr of Green Dot. Shot pretty dirty. I don't think those wads were giving a very good seal.

I bought a bag of Remington Fig 8 wads (not Clay Busters) and loaded them up with 4 different powders for some pattern testing. Shells were older Remington green RTL, Remington 209 primers and 1 1/8 oz of shot. I needed some clay practise and I thought I could run a fouling test at the same time. The barrel was fouled (lightly) with a few factory loads, and cleaned with one patch soaked with Hoppes #9. Five shots were fired with each powder and a Hoppes soaked patch was run though the barrel after each powder. There wasn't much difference, going by the fouling on the patches. 700-X was the cleanest, followed by Red Dot, PB and Green Dot dirtiest. These were 2 3/4 dram equivalent loads and PB and Green Dot might burn cleaner at the 3 dram equivalent level. I'm not sure that the PB loads kicked less than the others, as the old timers claim, but it definitely meters better.

Bye
Jack