Hello
Well, I’m considering getting an SA-20 Mossberg Tactical shotgun for the family to shoot and have around the house. I had a chance to fire one and was fairly impressed.

The question I have is about reloading the 20ga Remington Gun Club hulls… What is the cost of components vs. cost of buying more of these relatively cheap shells given one can reload these hulls 8-10 times. It looks like the Rem hulls are reloadable, whereas the Win variety doesn’t look like they are..

Back in the late 60’s and 70’s I was a shotshell loading fool.. I was on after work trap leagues, and made my own hunting shells and had a lot of fun doing it. Kinda lost interest when steel shot became mandatory to hunting ducks and geese.. I still have some MEC 12ga tools, but I would probably look for a used MEC 600jr in 20ga if I were to engage in this.

I haven’t loading a shotshell in quite some time, so I a little out of school about what is available now and what the general consensus is about this sort of thing.
When I shot this SA-20 I was camping with some folks and a lot of shotshell hulls were picked up and discarded.. From an old handloader's point of view, that seems like a real shame..

The second question would be, what is a good factory duplication load to duplicate the Gun Club loads so the SA-20 wouldn’t know the difference?

Thank you for your input..

I have use red dot in my 20 ga hulls for years. A freind gave me several housand of thhe reming gun club hulls. They work well.

I would get a new lyman shot shell book and go from there you know how todo the rest.

When loading for lower pressure target loads, I will substitute some components and will fill a case with water and pour it into another case to see it the internal capacity of the two cases (hulls) is the same....if it is then I am willing to substitute the case.....

I say this as I went to Hodgdon's website and didn't see the Remington gun club hull listed and it seems you have a lot of them.

When it comes to 11,000 PSI hunting loads I won't substitute anything.....I load to the recipe and nothing else.....load em exactly as the recipe states!

Personally I'd toss the gun club hulls and get Federal plastic target hulls.....and use them for hunting loads and target loads.

Right now I'm using Unique and IMR-800 X for my 20 gauge loads....but would suggest green dot as the better target load powder.

Hey thanks for the replies..

I have the Lyman 4th Edition manual and found a page listing the Rem RTL Premier cases with 7/8oz shot..
16.5gr PB
CCI 209
RXP20 wad
1200 fps at 9600 LUP
I’ll look at a new edition and see what it says. Looks like they are on the 5th Edition now.
Remington says their load produces 1200 fps. I haven't chronographed these to see if this is true.
I used to use a lot of Red Dot in 12ga loads.. 20ga seems to want to use powders a bit slower. What is your Red Dot load for 20ga? And what velocity are you getting?

I have to examine the Gun Club cases more closely.. Not sure how they compare to the above case..
Remington, back in the day, would use cases with a fiber base in a lot of their loads. Doesn't look like they do that much anymore..

I did some quick math and determined that unless one buys components in huge quantities there is no savings in reloading these particular rounds over buying them on sale.. and even then, the savings are minimal.
So I guess I'll be doing this only because it's fun and I don't want to waste the cases..

RDub you do not say how many shells you plan to shoot. These days the 12 and 20 ga promo shells from Wally World are priced nearly the same as the cost of reloads. To really find any savings components need to be purchased in bulk; 5K on wads, 5K on primers and powder in 8# jugs. Shot is the biggest cost and finding a local source at a good price can be difficult. If your goal is to add a new hobby, then go for it, as it is quite rewarding in itself but if you’re looking to save a couple of bucks it may not be there in small quantity reloading.

Since it’s been a while since you have been reloading I suggest you pick up a copy of Lyman’s 5th Edition Shotgun Shell Reloading Manual and brush up in the “How To” section. It also contains a very useful hull cross section chapter that is valuable for I.D. of hulls, numerous tables and a good selection of reloading data.

The Rem Gun Club hull is a good choice for reloading. Its’ one piece all plastic construction is preferred by many and gives very good reloading life (about 8X). The Gun Club Hull uses the same data as the Rem STS; as does the Shure Shot, Game Load and Sport Load. Your choice of a MEC 600 is a good one also look at the MEC Sizemaster, with its collet resizer and auto primer feed IMO it is a better value. Also pick up a good scale to check your shot and powder drops. MEC bushings seldom drop as noted and one needs to verify per the recipe.

Giving you a 20 ga recipe though helpful may not be the best approach. Pick up a Lyman’s, review the data for Rem hulls and ⅞ oz. loads then go out to source components. I could recommend a load but if you cannot find “Whiz Bang” powder or “Super Smasher” wads in your area it will not help much. Do not use Red Dot powder in ⅞ oz. 20 ga loads as it has not been recommended for many years due to high pressure. Good common powders to look for; Unique, 20/28, Universal Clays, Herco – others per the data.

Feel free to ask questions as there is a lot of combined knowledge here.

Thanks Scout Master..
Yes, you are correct about the cost of cheap shells, so cost vs. reward is something I'll have to weigh out.

I'll pick up a 5th Edition, if nothing else just to catch up..

RDub, Check with NW shot at 541- 535 3404. He is in driving distance of you (just south of Medford) and has the best prices on shot.

The light promotional Winchester shells with the spot weld in the center of the crimp are pure crap. The shot is soft, there is only a shot wrapper (no one piece wad). They pattern poorly and do not do well on skeet targets. If they do not break skeet targets well, about all they are good for are snakes and squirrels. The hulls are also no good for reloading.

The light Remingtons work pretty well in 20 ga for most of the same things you would use a 20 ga skeet load. The hulls are also good to reload.

Red Dot is too fast for 20 gauge loads. They will develop too much pressure. The standard Hercules powder was Green Dot but it never stacked to the right height for me. It was a little too fluffy. I wound up using a slightly heavier load of Unique but it stacked up to give perfect crimps with most of the hulls and wads that I used.