A friend of mine recently purchased a RIA 12 gauge semi-auto shotgun (yeah yeah, I know RIA is cheap, but it was the best he could get his hands on). The manufacturer stated that you need to run “2-3/4”, 1250fps, #7.5 1-1/8oz” rounds for a break-in period. Makes sense. Where we are confused is their definition of “light load” vs “heavy load”. The shotgun comes with interchangeable pistons, one for light load and one for heavy load. My friend emailed the manufacturer, who said that the light load configuration was for 2-3/4” rounds and heavy load configuration was for 3” rounds (and yes, the shotgun can handle both sizes). That didn’t make sense to us. The reading I had done said you can have both light and heavy loads for both size rounds, that the load size is determined by shot size.
Can anyone provide some clarification? My friend and I are new to shotguns, apologies for the ignorance.
The difference is the powder charge in the shells.
I have a RIA, and as far as I can tell, the “heavy” and “light” is rather subjective.
Here’s a link from a shotgun forum
If you’re running light (7-9) birdshot, “low recoil”, or shorties switch out—it will either cycle or not. I run heavy loads for defense, so I haven’t used the light piston. I’ve run few hundred through my RIA, and I’ve never had a round not cycle. I do plan on trying some birdshot, since ammo is so crazy expensive right now.
So, shell size (2-3/4” vs 3”) doesn’t determine what is a light or heavy load.
I do not want to get into this so early in the morning but watch this for a few minutes. I am a D12 kind of guy and the damn things are expensive. But look at the table. I hope this helps but you can usually contact a gun dealer in your area who can assist you. Never shoot a weapon you do not fully understand. Yeah, it is youtube I know. Sue me. Bout 5 minutes in may help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bOVOqccmw0
Also, ammo boxes May used terms like “Target Load” to denote a lower power loading of powder.
Also look up “low brass” and “high Brass”
Gonna take a good amount of proving at the range.
this might help. https://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=146936
Dunno anything about RIA but yes, shotgun pellets are rated at different sizes. The sizes are determined by numbers, higher numbers = smaller pellets. Bird shot ranges in size from a 9 to a 1, depending on the game you are going after. The next bracket is then Buck where it starts at 9 down to a 1, where 1 is the largest buckshot pellet size.
Edit: Buck is a special case because the pellet size gets even larger after 1 with 00 and 000 shot. https://www.wideners.com/blog/shotgun-load-types/
Not a gun science major but have shot enough rounds of ammo to have permanent brain damage from the recoil. High brass is usually hotter than low brass. Really though just firing the gun a hundred or so times is all you need to do, you may need to cycle the weapon manually a few of those times at the start but once the springs are broken in it should be fine.
A lot of the semi auto shotguns will need a bit of tinkering with to get functionality at 100% taking down the gun, completely cleaning it and lube it appropriately will help out a lot. They tend to send out guns soaked in oil which tends to capture debris and carbon and really gunks up the works.