Hi All, I've been reloading for a couple of years now and I'm very hooked. 9mm to .223 to 50 BMG all lotsa fun and no KB's yet. But I've been shooting a lot of trap recently and picked up a MEC 9000.
Question 1: I have a bunch of RIO hulls (they break clay just fine) What are the "Properties" of a reloadable hull? The headstamp on these are "12 * 12 * 12 * 12 *" where * is a star. I cannot find ANY info on starline hulls but that's my first guess.
Question 2: the primer is quite loose in several of these (even factory fired) did I do something wrong are 209 primers different sizes? what's the "Deal?"
Question 3: I'm using Unique powder and it's filthy. Unburnt powder everywhere. ???

Well guys that's about it for now. If there's a good book on this let me know I'm willing to spend some reading time to keep all that shot off the basement floor.

Many thanks in advance
Collins

The RIO cases are thought by many to be marginally reloadable as they don't last long, or at least not as long as Remingtons, Winchesters, and others. The mouths split. If I remember correctly they have a separate basewad, there is also worry that the basewads come loose.

Regarding primer looseness, which 209 primer are you using? There are differences in size between the various 209 primers. More importantly, there are differences is power between the various 209 primers. I've never seen loose primers after an initial firing on factory shotshells, but if I saw it I would stop using that brand of case, even if they were free range pick ups.

Unique is one of the Alliant powders, and they are substantially cleaner than they were years ago. If you have a lot of dirty fired cases, my gut feeling is that your pressures are low or you are shooting old Unique. Neither matter to me when shooing an over-under, which I usually am any more.

CDD

CDD is correct Rio hulls are marginal for reloading, you'll get about 3 reloads at best from them. They are manufactures off shore by Chedite. A large number of the Euro hulls use them, the 12 * 12 *... designation identifies them. They are of what we call straight wall design and require a diffrent wad with a larger base to work best (Fed 12S0, CB 3118AR, DR XXL Orange etc). Fiocchi data works well with this type of hull. I generaly don't bother with the Euro trash hulls, Winchester Universals, Wolf etc as there are better hulls to "dumpster dive" for. Any Remington one piece hull is easily good for 10 reloads and all load with the same data: STS, Nitro 27, Gun Club, Sport Load, Sure Shot etc.

The reason the priner is loose is that the European primers; Chedite, Fiocchi, Noble Sport and Wolf tend to be just a bit larger than the American 209 (.243"). It's of no issue to me as the price of Federal, Win, Rem & CCI primers have all gotten outrageous at near $150/5K. The euro primers can often be had at $100/5K or a bit less and work as well. I have switched to Fiocchi and have never looked back.

If you have not, pick up a Lyman's 5th Edition Shotshell book and give it a good read, it contains all you need to know and a huge amount of loading data as well.

Unique is a good powder for some loads not so in others. What kind of load are you trying to duplicate? Knowing that you can choose a powder that is best for that application.

Scout Master 54

That's why I like this site... as soon as I clean up all the shot on the floor, I'll RTFM (read the manual) and go from there. Shame about these hulls tho' as I have a couple milk crates full.

My ears are open. Thanks again

quote:

Originally posted by Collins:

Shame about these hulls tho' as I have a couple milk crates full.

I second the comments about the hole size in European hulls being larger than the primer hole in American hulls -- I've had the same problem. If you can get European primers, that should solve your problem on that score.

If you have all those hulls and don't have access to Remington or Winchester ones, you can reload those for at least two reloadings before you discard them.

The cleanest burning powders I know are those in the Hodgdon Clays series. Hodgdon's loading book also lists the largest number of combinations of hull/wad/primer/shot charge/ powder charge that I've seen -- but only for Hodgdon powders.

If you are loading light target loads in 12 gauge, one of the faster burning powders such as Red Dot, 700X, Hodgdon Titewad, Hodgdon Clays, Winchester Super Target, or some others will give you better results than Unique.

Have a look on the MidwayUSA website, for this type of case with separate base wad & straight case sides you need the gualandi type wads. It may be that the dirty powder burning is being caused by the charge getting past the wad on ignition if you're using a Winchester WAA12 type wad. The Hodgdon clays powders are Autralian ADI powders rebranded like a lot of their rifle powders & are mainly what we get in NZ, they have a good reputation as clean burning powders.
Steve

Actually, you can use Federal or either the Claybuster or Downrange clones for the Rio hulls. Of course, the treatment costs for ulcers will be far higher than any savings from using the Rio hulls....

Unique is not a suitable 12 gauge target powder. If you are into economics, try either Promo (which is the same as Red Dot by WEIGHT -- measure your drops!), or Tightwad. I like Tightwad a lot for light loads.

Save yourself some headaches, and just start with Remington cases (either the STS/Nitro OR the Gun Club/Sport load/Shurshot hulls) and standard components.

Right after you read Lyman's 5th...... LOL! Dutch.