Lyalvale 9/16oz/16gm H-27 Reversible wad

Gamebore 9/16oz/16gm H-27 Reversible Wad

Fiocchi 11/16oz/19.5gm Full length wad

Remington 11/16oz 3/4 length wad

In addition to the factory loads my pet heavy hunting loads were tried with excellent results on everything from Pigeons and Crows to fast running Rabbits and Squirrels. With a full house payload of 3/4oz (21.27gm) of shot these shells really are the ‘bees knees’ for maximum hunting potential. I load with either UK#5, 6 or 7 shot depending on the occasion (2.8, 2.6 & 2.4mm).
However for situations where the likely quarry is undetermined UK#6 seems to be a good compromise, dropping big crows with authority out to full distances for this type of gun. With the PC Orange wad and 4% antimony shot these ‘beasties’ clock a genuine 1125fps at 3 feet from the muzzle. This is achieved without undue pressure levels, which always destroy the pattern potential with a given load.
The propellant choice is a European rifle number, which is a double-based ball type, with smooth highly progressive burning rates and the ability to produce excellent, dense, well distributed patterns with top end loadings such as this (Hodgdon H-110 can also be used with this load). Case life is good without the mouth erosion so often seen in some European heavy .410 shells.
This is usually due to raised pressure levels and the wrong wad choice for the job at hand. High frictional forces of the shot onto the case walls can and do render the case mouths utterly inadequate, with sizable chunks being ripped away upon firing in some cases. Short wads with little or no shot cup are a particular problem here. Case mouth integrity is clearly important if the fired shells are to be reloaded, with the lubrication of the shot being a very good idea when loading with fibre and the reversible types of wad, with various products available.

16mm capped cork wad	H-21 reversible wad	H-27 reversible wad

For maximum case life full-length cup container wads are to be recommended, however the shorter cup wads like the H-27 NANA (not to be confused with the H-27 reversible wad) are a very good choice for skeet and sporting clay loads in the 2½ inch plastic parallel tubed cases.
They combine a good central core density together with a better peripheral spread in the outer pattern zones. Choke choices are very much the key issue here to achieve the desired patterning effects. (See the .410 annual: ‘Because Its there’ ‘Climbing the North face of the .410’).

With the 870 pump my choice for Skeet and medium sporting clay targets was to get as much spread as was feasible with the improved modified choke (UK ¾). Using fairly soft shot at 2% antimony content and the capped fibre and the two reversible wads shown above satisfactory 1/2oz skeet loads were possible using Hodgdon Lil’Gun, HS7, H-4227, H-110, Alliant Blue Dot, 2400, ‘.410’ and Nobel Sport Vectan SP3 powders.

The major down side was the inevitable resultant barrel leading, but the cork wad did a fairly good job of keeping the levels down to a tolerable level. The lower flame temperatures developed with H-4227 (being a single based powder) were also helpful in this regard, reducing the degree of residual leading.

The best spreading load from this point of view was the 16mm cork wad, 1/2oz of 2% antimony (chilled shot in the US) #9 shot preferably with some sort of lube, Fiocchi or Cheddite plastic 73mm case with Cheddite 209 primer (known as the Cheddite CX2000 in the UK), 17-18grains of H-4227and finished with a star crimp for 1185-1225fps @ 3feet.* See Warning.

The only real problem with using H-4227 is its relative bulk compared with other powders, but being of a single based composition (containing no proportion of nitro glycerine in its make up) this is hard to avoid.