Love the Judge! I've shot #6's first and man do they have a big pattern at any range. #4's work a lot better and I've tried the Winchester self defense loads with the 3 discs and buckshot. Those hold a lot better pattern. Wanting to throw some slugs and 45LC thru her to test those. Recoil is about like my .45 and have hit hand thrown clays with the 4's and 6's. It's a hoot.
Now don't want to start nuthin' but some 2 3/4 loads from a pump will set back in your shoulder, but the Brownie so far is very polite on the recoil, with the lil shells and have put some 3.5 thru it as well. Still thinking about getting a Simms pad put on her when I take her in to have the safety switched over to the left handed friendly side. I'm likin' this new Brownie real well, just need to get back into shootin flying targets as Gauge can tell ya! I do like how easy to clean this gun is.
I haven't shot the Win SD loads in my Judge yet. The only thing I can find around here are the Winchester loads, and they work really well too.
The standard .410 loads are wimpy as the powder is designed for shotguns with longer barrels.
I bought some of the Cowboy action loads in .45 colt to sight in, and found the Hornady Levervolution rounds to really run good through the Judge. Bought three boxes of the Hornady off the internet. Kind of expensive, so Today I answered an ad in the local paper for some new .45 colt RCBS dies. Picked them up about an hour ago and to my suprise, they were the carbide dies! For $25 bucks that was a steal.
The guy doesn't have a .45 colt, and bought the wrong dies thinking they were .45acp in Houston. His mistake.
I'll be able to load for the judge now as well as the new S&W 25-5. ;D
I reload 12 ga as well. Some of my 2 3/4 will thump your shoulder like you said. 1475 fps and 1 3/8 oz across my chronograph. I won't shoot them in a semi auto or pump. Shot every turkey load on the market, and these are pretty bad.
