Thread: New to shotshell reloading and I know enough to know I don't know enough

Thanks all for the input so far.
@Skeetshooter, to answer your question, there is no real reason for me not to use plastic cases. I will be shooting a fair few winchester 3" factory shells over the next while, so there will be no shortage of plastic shells to reload in the immediate.
The driving factors for using brass is that I have already bought some and that it will last longer.
@Micky Duck, I don't have any blackpowder in the cupboard. In some of the links there is some mention of not using smokeless powder in these brass shells. Is it best if I use black powder? Pyrodex/FFFG or FFG an option?. Granted I will look into it further before dropping powder into a shell, but I just want to know if I am looking in the right place?. Also at the risk of nailing colours to the pole, what does black powder actually shoot like in a .410 compared to smokeless, all other things being equal?



Questions I still have?

Something I should have mentioned at the start, this .410 that I am using is a baikal break barrel with a suppressed ported barrel (suppressor and porting starts from just in front of the forend), is this a consideration on what sort of wads to use? i.e. could some of a shot column catch on the edges of the port holes if not supported within a cup wad?

Does a fibre wad vs plastic wad affect pressure to any degree that could cause problems.

Does the length of a fibre wad need to be limited by any factor other than shot column height and powder charge volume? for example can it be long enough to cause too much bearing resistance against the barrel and then cause a spike in pressure? Can it be too short and tumble in the barrel, or would that be prevented by it being forced agains't the rear of the shot column?