I've been picking up some 12 ga. hulls at the range for a couple of months now. Got to thinking now might be a good time to try some loads for my model 12 Win. After first getting over what shot costs these days, I found my bag filled with my hulls and noticed I must have picked up everything that did'nt blow away. Any way it looks like I keep only plastic hulls with no paper in the base. I guess thats the only way of telling the good ones from the bad?
Other than checking the inside base for paper, are there other things ya'll look for in a good hull? Any personnel preferences, comments, etc ?

Thanks guys...

GT


ps...speaking of lead shot, where might the best place be for mail order. Boy, I bet UPS wil tear you up on shipping this stuff! Gander Mountain is getting 50 bucks a bag for their stuff.

You'll get max. life from WW/AA Rem/STS. Some hulls are straight hulls some are tapered each requires differant load data.

ANY remington target hull (i.e. STS, Nitro, Gun Club, Game load). Cut one open to verify it's a one piece hull, as opposed to the straight walled RTL hull.

Federal Gold Metal: straight walled hull, excellent for heavy hunting loads (lots of capacity).

Winchester AA, red or gray. Two piece hull, tapered, but reloads pretty well. Be careful; there were lots of reports on the early batches and basewads coming loose.

Fiocchi purple: straightwalled hull, good for a load or two. Be careful about the basewad, it WILL move forward if fired in a semi auto.

Junk: Winchester universal, any number of the cheap imports. Ironically, I kind of like loading the Federal/Estate "wound paper basewad" hulls -- once only, but I pick them up by the bushel basket.

Buy the Lyman #5 if you get into reloading. HTH, Dutch.

Yes get the Lyman shotshell loading book.
And get a supersizer as that makes cases
better than new in seconds. we use it for
sizing cases for our slug loads, it will take
magnum loaded cases which expand more than
milder loade dskeet and target loads, and get
them to factory size easy, where doing it
with dies is apain.Ed

What Dutch said.....

There is no beating the one piece Remington hull in any of its forms; STS, Nitro 27, Gun Club, Sport Loads, Sure Shot etc. You can easily get 10 or more quality reloads out of them. The AAHS in 12 ga. is a reasonable second, but some care in machine set up is needed as it is easy to put a wrinkle in the hull right where the inner base wad tapers out at the hull body.

Any of the Euro Trash hulls (mostly Chedite) can be reloaded about 3 times or so but will require a wad for the straight hull design like the Federal 12S0 or clones, DR XXL Orange, CB 3118AR or other. With so many good Remington Promo hulls on the ground I do not bother any more unless I am feeding my auto loader. Then it's load it once and let them fly.

The paper base wad Federals are good for about 3 - 4 reloads and again you will need a wad designed for the straight hull design. Do watch the quality of the paper base wad Federals, you do not want to get hulls that have become wet from being on the ground. Several on other boards have reported base wad issues. I have had none but can see where hulls that have been stepped on, wet or damaged could lead to issues.

One hull to stay away from is the Win Universals. The only good use is in the camp fire. The plastic is so thin many split upon the initial firing and crimps are poor at best. Not worth the time IMO.

Scout Master 54

I have the 600 jr. Does this press not size the case or does it not do a good job at sizing? I can buy a supersizer if needed.

Thanks

GT

Yes, the MEC 600 Jr does have a sizer, it's of the friction ring type on the first station. Many prefer the collet type sizer as found on the Size Master and the 9000 GN but it performs perfectly well.

Scout Master 54

My advice is to stick to name brand hulls.

I still have shotshells I was loading in the mid-80's,
not because they are especially durable, but because I have
so many of them...

I used four different types of hulls, mostly to identify what they were loaded for, though most were taret loads...

I have an entire 20gallon civil defense water can filled with
Federal gold Medal hulls, all loaded with 1-1/8oz of #7-1/2's
over 18.5grs of RedDot using a windjammer wad.

I have an identical can filled with Peters "Blue Magic" hulls
loaded with RXP wads and 1-1/8oz of #8's

Then there are the "heavy loads" with Activ hulls
(when I use up my supply of wads I suppose I'll have to discard them)
And other loads in Winchester AA hulls
And several cases of Federal paper target hulls
(with federal wads and 1oz of shot)

I recommend settling on as few loads as possible to do whatever you need to do, but to avoid loading shells for
use on game.

Unless you are talking about dove shooting which uses the same loadings as most target work....

I discard (actually I BURN) other shotgun shells that are not of "monolithic" (one piece plastic) construction

Except for some Old "RXP" hulls that I have around only to use up my last brick of 57* primers which are a physically different size than the 209 primers used today...

AD

quote:

Originally posted by Allan DeGroot:

Then there are the "heavy loads" with Activ hulls
(when I use up my supply of wads I suppose I'll have to discard them)
AD

Nah, Federal wads work just fine for the Activ hulls. I still have some 3" laying around, and some T-42 wads. Makes for a GREAT varmint load with about 1 5/8 oz of BB's...... Dutch.

I don't know for sure, but I think the only way you are going to save any money on shot these days would be to get a bunch of guys together and buy a pickup load or two of it.

quote:

Originally posted by Dutch:

quote:

Originally posted by Allan DeGroot:

Then there are the "heavy loads" with Activ hulls
(when I use up my supply of wads I suppose I'll have to discard them)
AD

Nah, Federal wads work just fine for the Activ hulls. I still have some 3" laying around, and some T-42 wads. Makes for a GREAT varmint load with about 1 5/8 oz of BB's...... Dutch.

I wouldn't be terribly suprised to discover that there is a load that'd work with the windjammer wad and 18-19grains of RedDot.

Then again, with 1-1/8oz of shot I can't believe that any wad/hull combination
is actually dangerous with <20grains of Reddot....

AD

Better watch it! The Reloading Police is going to be here any minute...... Displaying common sense in reloading shotguns is strictly VERBOTEN, don't ya know

If you haven't already, check out Downrange and their Federal replacement wads. I've been shooting their Orange XXL wad with 7/8th's of an ounce, and they patter exceedingly tight (21 grains of American Select in a Federal hull). That recipe doesn't exist, either, but it still shoots..... Dutch.

Rem RXP hulls did not use the 57* primer they take the std 209's. Remington's number back in those days was 97*. Only their old Express / Field hulls with the compressed saw dust base wads used the 57* primer. I stll have my stash of them.

Ditto on the DR XXL Orange & Pink wad - it's a fine product.

Scout Master 54

Ok, then I wander which shells I have that I still have most of a brick of 57* primers for....

Ooooo! I remember, you are right the RXP's did take 97* primers, I still have some of those too...

I'll need to dig out my older lyman books to see what it was...

All I know is that when those 57* primers are gone the shells they fit are going into the coal stove (May as well heat my house with them)

I do remember it is a green remington hull and I have a couple of grocery bags full of them...
You are probably right about them too, it's been more then a decade since I actually dug around back where that stuff is stored.

I loaded EVERYTHING as far as I could load before I moved from NJ to PA and I still haven't made a serious dent on the shotshell supply I created before that move...

I do know I exhausted the retail supply of Red Dot at three different gunshops during that reloading binge...


AD





AD

Worth saving? Hmmmm..

Here's 5000 once fired old style extruded .12 AAs. I probably have that many Fed GM and about 20 maybe 30 thousand twice fired of the same make.

I think the collet sizer of the Sizemaster was recommended because many\most newer shotshells have a brass plated steel head versus the brass head of yesteryear. The collet resizer will do a better job of sizing all the way down to the lip. Which may not matter if you shoot a double barrel. Semi-auto's and pumps can be finicky, however.

Damn, and I thought I was bad moving them around in 20gallon barrels...

And I only have about one barrel of each make
(Except Fed GM's where I have two)

AD