Hand loading TSS
- Thread starter Stingray
- Start date
FARMTOFIELD
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2011
- Messages
- 5,021
Yep
spoon
Well-Known Member
Yes
TiminTN
Well-Known Member
Guilty
Yep, been doing it since 2018, but many have been doing it longer than that.
Yes
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
Starting to get into it now.
Just very appreciative that I have good friends on here that look out for me..........
At first it'll be more expensive BUT now that almost every thing is readily available it'll be a little cheaper. But with loading TSS for turkeys it's not about the cost it's more about being part of the process and knowing that you got that bird with your own load with all the work that goes into being successful
Only issue at the moment is fining hulls for what you need. Thankfully I have a ton of them from years ago I got
megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Depends on how much you are paying for shells.
Figure around $4 per 1 5/8 oz payload.for shot, and another $0.75 for all the other components (hull, wad, primer, powder, overshot card, buffer, etc.). Now you can really save some serious $$$ if you get a group up to buy 22 kilos of shot directly from China.
Personally, I don't ever spend more than $7 to $9 per shell from manufacturers, so there isn't much of a cost savings for me to handload. If I were paying $12 to $13 for shell, I could justify cost of equipment.
Last edited:
OP - how many TSS shells do you think you will shoot at turkeys over next 5 years? 10 years? If the answer is 3-4 a year, like a lot of hunters, just buy your TSS shells, unless you are really into reloading and want another part time hobby. As mentioned, some components are scarce at the moment, thus why I suggest compiling components year or so out before you plan to load your first round. Good luck.
Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
How's this as apex loads now for 20 ga are 15$ a shot with shipping and taxes for the one box.
Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
I just started. Thanks to some help by friends back in bama and a guy I met from old gobbler in Louisiana. I killed 6 birds and wounded another between bama, Florida and Tenn last year so for me it's worth it. I calculated a box of apex loads now after taxes is around 15$ a shell. For my first 50 loads, I'm paying 14.5$ a shell as I didn't have anything to get into it and that's factoring in 500 components and a cheap drill press from harbor freight and all the other things needed. After the first 50, it will cost me 4.6$ a shell for the next 450. Plus it's awesome doing it. Fun customizing your shells and playing with the patterns etc. it's addicting.
I also just built a shot trap with all free materials. Got the wood from some amigos building a house and the steel from buddies as well as some blankets from a uh hospital
it worked pretty good…will tweak to improve it. Recovered 3.5 shells out of the 6 we shot today. I def flung a good many in the grass as I was hitting the blankets
I also just built a shot trap with all free materials. Got the wood from some amigos building a house and the steel from buddies as well as some blankets from a uh hospital
it worked pretty good…will tweak to improve it. Recovered 3.5 shells out of the 6 we shot today. I def flung a good many in the grass as I was hitting the blankets
Works great..I just started. Thanks to some help by friends back in bama and a guy I met from old gobbler in Louisiana. I killed 6 birds and wounded another between bama, Florida and Tenn last year so for me it's worth it. I calculated a box of apex loads now after taxes is around 15$ a shell. For my first 50 loads, I'm paying 14.5$ a shell as I didn't have anything to get into it and that's factoring in 500 components and a cheap drill press from harbor freight and all the other things needed. After the first 50, it will cost me 4.6$ a shell for the next 450. Plus it's awesome doing it. Fun customizing your shells and playing with the patterns etc. it's addicting.
I also just built a shot trap with all free materials. Got the wood from some amigos building a house and the steel from buddies as well as some blankets from a uh hospital
Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
FARMTOFIELD
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2011
- Messages
- 5,021
I started probably around 15 years ago, before most knew what it was. Loaded it in a 10 gauge 
now I load 12 and 20.
now I load 12 and 20.megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
I don't pay $15 pet shell dunno why anyone would spend that. I posted a few weeks ago when powder valley put custom shells on sale for $36 per box of 5.
I still have a box or two of federals I paid $25 for.
Prob won't ever see this again, but I bought 15 boxes of Federals from basspro 5y or 6y ago for $13 per box.
I just don't feel the argument that rolling your own saves money if you are savvy shopping. Sure, I get the argument that rolling your own and killing a bird with them is satisfying. I used to be like that with centerfire cartridges... but I got over that feeling after a couple decades. I still haven't bought a single factory round for bottleneck cartridges in 30 years, but it's not because of saving money or enjoyment of killing deer with my handloads... its because I can get demonstrably improved performance (smaller groups) from my handloads over factory offerings. If I felt the factory TSS loads I buy were lacking in the performance dept, I would def handload. But they aren't. With all the factory varieties I've tried. If you put the red dot on his head 40y and in, he's dead... 100% of the time. No questions asked, just automatic.
As has been stated on here numerous times, the cost of shells for turkey hunting is a drop in the bucket in the big picture, all things considered. Roll your own as a hobby, but don't think you are saving enough money to make a difference.
I've got some 10G and 12G components that I need to "unload" and move down the road. I doubt I will ever load another 12G TSS shell, much less a 10G. For turkey hunting, TSS was made for sub-gauges.I started probably around 15 years ago, before most knew what it was. Loaded it in a 10 gauge
Tbh I started YEARS ago not so much for the price cut but it was when federal was changing wads and stuff year to year so they always shot different depending on which box you got
This way I know the load is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago when I started. Yeah they price is cheaper if you split it with a buddy or 2 but honestly the consistency is why I originally started
Where do u get data and what's the lightest 12 ga load listed?
Southern Sportsman
Well-Known Member
As others have explained, you won't save much money. Some, in the long run, but not enough to justify the time and effort, from a purely monetary standpoint. However, I highly recomend it. I started hand loading in 2013 when TSS was not commercially available. I don't know if I would have done so if loads were available like they are now, but I'm really glad I got into it. It's a great side-hobby, you can try different loads and load variations to get exactly what your gun likes; it gives you something fun and turkey-hunting-related to do in Feb and early March; and if you stock up on components, you'll never worry about load availability, ammo shortages, manufacturers changing components (which can impact performance), etc. I should never need to buy another turkey shell for 20 ga, .410, or 12 ga (although I don't expect to shoot any more with a 12 gauge). And I know exactly what's in each load and how it will perform, every time. I'll roll my own until I'm too old to do it. Then I'll make my son load them for me.
Another point is the majority of us got started loading TSS prior to it being commercially available. I agree that if you can find it on sale, it "can" be best to buy factory shells. However, there is no guarantee those shells will pattern acceptably out of your gun/choke setup. As for me, I know that my shells/gun/choke will produce predictable patterns from now on being I have a lifetime supply components for said loads.
Last edited:
Concur, and the main driver that catapulted me into rolling my own back then. The stark irony for me is I mainly hunt/kill turkeys in TN hardwoods where TSS is not really needed (20-30 yards). With that said, I do enjoy toting my light, nimble, compact, reliable and effective 20G.
Gobble4me757
Well-Known Member
Even in hardwoods, I blasted through a sapling with longbeard 5s on some public land in bama at 20 yards and joker flew off. That's when I made the switch years ago. It's number of pellets with the sub gauges that did it for me. IMO there's absolutely no reason to use a 12ga tss
