BeachBob

Full disclosure about MY Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol LE (or ANY defensive semi-auto shotgun that resides in the hands of a NJ citizen) .... it's not a 7+1 capacity shotgun, it's 6+1 - thanks to MF'er A-Hole murphy and his retarded tyrannical Jersey firearm laws. The 6+1 maximum mag capacity law only applies to semi-auto shotguns owned by NJ residents. There is no NJ mag capacity restrictive law for pump shotguns. How sick is that? F'in Jersey sick.

Only for defense. It doesn't kick like a mule, the onboard recoil system works well and it pays to mount as push-pull. With the right shells, it's a pleasure to shoot.

Yes.

Got the Marty .310 16 cavity mold and it's .... Excellent. Much better than the Lee 18 cavity molds. Both of these molds will require cutting off the sprues, unlike the Lee twin cavity molds and their tangential cutters, but that's okay. Got a flush cutter off Amazon for 8 bucks. The Marty mold is $107/shipped off the TRN website - much cheaper than the other sources I checked out (over $130). Unlike the Lee 18 cavity mold, where you need to buy the special handle, the Marty comes with handles. I'm getting more of these molds. I use a Lee LA2 for 6 point star crimping, but also use a TRN 4 pin roll crimper that seems to work okay, but it takes getting used to knowing when the fold is just right and if too much pressure is used on the drill press the hull gets buckled. At least now for me, star crimping is faster/easier. I have another roll crimper coming from Canada that's s'posed to be the best ... I'll see. Another problem was that after fully setting a star crimp, the shell mouth gets slight expanded. This can be a loading issue, and was for the Beretta A300 but not for the Mossberg M88. The fix is a taper die that fits into the 8 point star crimp location on the LA2 press. A few easy passes and the shell mouth is perfect. This special taper die is only available via Ebay and the maker is in the Ukraine (of all places) and it took a little over a month for it to arrive, but well worth the wait. Casting up .310's right now ...................

The Beretta A300 Ultima Patrol LE with Pro lifter installed, Romeo 5, Tacticon V5 light/laser ... just awaiting the GGGAZ sling mounts and sling.

The difference 'tween a clay game shotgun and an HD/SD shotgun is primarily handling/size/weight. My Beretta is a fixed cylinder Law Enforcement version, no chokes, but if I'd gotten it with adjustable chokes it'd be fine for plinking trap or skeet.

Depends on the main usage of the shotgun. For me, it's HD/SD and that's why I have a Beretta A300 Ultra Patrol LE. You could plug the magazine down to make it commie jersey legal.

Thank you. Yes, it is a deluxe burl walnut. I normally don't go for gun bling, but couldn't resist this wood and its added cost.

Case annealing is important, too. I anneal after every firing and I have dozens of .45-70 Starline brass that have been reloading over a dozen times each. If there is a need to resize, better than belling the case mouth is to straight wall expand it - BACO has these special expanding dies. As to crimping, I never did it for greasers, maybe it's a jkt'd bullet thing as a tube mag requirement ... another reason I avoid lever actions.

I've tried several different PC methods, but what I'm doing now for coating shell pellets is quite easy ... and fast. I've also powder coated .690 balls and Lee 7/8" "drive key" slugs, but haven't loaded them yet. I'll probably start off with brass shells, fiber wads, and lubed patched PC'd balls first, with black powder, using a Stevens 301 12ga break open.

Not taken that way at all, just answering yer good question, no problemo.

Sometimes it's a good idea to reduce the black powder load, for short distances, like 200 yards or so. That's where wad stacks come in handy to take up powder space. Unlike smokeless cartridges, there can be no air space inside black powder cartridges, else a bbl bulge may occur, or worse.

Loverly little ICBM's awaiting their turn in the chamber ...

I never said all my loads use plastic shot wads; I also load with fiber wads and no shot cup wad ... and one gun loads metallic cases with black powder. Besides, are you sure that all the pellets will remain in the wad cup, particularly since most loads will have at least a few pellets above the cup's rim. Better safe than sorry, sez me - I'll powder coat pellets, cheap insurance for an expensive bbl.