HODGDON “Long Shot” Shotgun Powder
by gunner
As promised, I got the chance to try
a different brand of powder than I normally use. I wrote in an earlier article that I have used the same brand of
powder for years, but that I hoped to be able to try other brands and do a
review on them. Thanks to the good
people at HODGDON, this was made possible. At this time, I would like to thank HODGDON and their
staff for the chance to test their product and put it up for a review.
This will be first in a series of
reviews for HODGDON powders.
There will be reviews on different shotgun powders, their black powder,
and their rifle powders. These will be
posted in different months, as we have other companies products to review
also. Later on, we hope to have more
than one review a month.
The Test:
I loaded 50 Winchester AA shells using
the Hodgdon Long Shot powder. I put
those 50 shells up against 50 new shells, and 50 shells that I had loaded with
the powder I have used in the past. So
that the test would be equal, I match loaded to the specs of the new shells.
I set up “Turkey Shoot” style
targets at 7 yards, 15 yards, 25 yards, and 50 yards. Then at 75 yards I had white painted steel plating. At 7 and 15 yards the results were basically
equal, which was to be expected.
At 25 yards I began to notice a little
difference between the new shells versus the reloads. The reloads seemed to have a little bit tighter patterns
going. However, there still was not
much difference between the two reloads.
At 50 yards the difference was
more noticeable. The HODGDON powder
loads did show a tighter pattern versus the other reloads. Although both shells had holes all over the
papers from corner to corner, the HODGDON shells still had a better
concentration in the middle of the papers.
Then I thought, ok…the BIG test…75
yards… I shot one shell from each at
the 75 yard plates.
The difference between the three
at this point became very noticeable.
All three had hit the plates, the difference being about ⅓ more
from each; meaning that the shell loaded with HODGDON powder had ⅔ more
hits than the new shell and about ⅓ more than my other reload. Now I
know that wind is also something that will affect the final results, so I made
every attempt possible to try to keep each shot from the entire testing as
close as possible to each other, as far as the wind was concerned.
My Opinion:
My final recommendation for the
HODGDON long shot is a full five stars:
* * * * *
The reloads were done on a MEC 600
Jr. The shotgun used for the testing
was a Winchester model 1300, 12 gauge with an ex-full choke and a 28"
barrel. All shots were fired from a
tree-type rest. ALL shells were 7½
shot. Reloads were loaded with HODGDON
long shot and Alliant Powder. Ten shots
were fired at each of the first four targets with each load, with one shot from
each load at the 75 yard target.
I am still a firm believer that
you can get more out of a reload than a new shell. I take my time in reloading and I personally do not care for the
progressive shotshell loaders. I have
tried them in the past, and if all you are concerned about is how many shells
you can load in a set amount of time, then that might be what you want. I prefer the single-stage loading where I
can take my time, make sure each is loaded the same, and make sure nothing is
overlooked. I can not tell you how many
times I have been in a trap shoot where one of the shooters in the competition
loaded his or her own shells on a progressive loader and they had a misfire…the
rules say where we shoot, if the wadding exits the barrel, the shot counts. To lose from a "shot" like
that…well, not something I want to do…
Good day and hope to see you on
the range somewhere…
gunner