12 guage hulls for reloading

[BruceRDucer]

Should all 12 guage hulls for reloading, be separated according to their manufacture and brand?

I've lots of 2 3/4" from about 5 different brands. I want to reload them with #6 shot for hunting. Does it really matter what brands I use?

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Also, when I first bought my reloading supplies, I got a Hodgson clay target powder. Now I want a powder for hunting, and in fact, plan to do most of my future reloading for hunting loads.

Between trying to read pages upon pages of charts in the books and figure all this out, I'm fairly well mixed up.

What do you guys do? What powder do you recommend?

All these shells will be 12 guage, 2 3/4" size 6 shot or heavier.

 

[ReloaderFred]

You'll have to sort them by brand, and in some cases, by which case they are. Some hulls are compression formed and some have the base wad inserted separately. They also crimp differently.

You need to get the Lyman Shotshell Reloading Manual and pair up your hulls with the load you want to shoot. That will tell you which wad, primer, powder and shot load to use for each hull.

Loading shotshells is different than loading metallic cartridges. The pressures are different and you pretty much have to follow the recipe for each load. There are whole books written on the subject.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[rcmodel]

Hodgdon has very good & complete shotshell info on it's website.

They list loads for about 100+ different kinds of cases.

http://data.hodgdon.com/shotshell_load.asp

And as Reloaderfred said, every one uses different combinations of wad size, powder charge, etc.

You have to sort them & load them by type & in most cases, by brand.

rcmodel

 

[BruceRDucer]

Thanks ReloaderFred & RCModel

I guess it could be better to just buy the bags of hulls from the store, because they are brand consistent.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[rcmodel]

Well, it depends.
*On what you are hunting?
*On what gun you hunt with?
*On how much "a bunch" is that you have already?

Wads come in bags of 250, so if you have 100 empties of one make & model, you can easily justify buying the size wads they need, and use them up before you lose all the cases in the weeds.

Especially if you shoot an O/U or S/S shotgun, or are careful with a pump.
Auto-loaders tend to lose a lot of empties when hunting.

And I come home with a lot more empties dove or pheasent hunting, then duck hunting out of a boat or marsh blind.

I'd say if you have less then three or four boxes of one type case, it probably isn't worth buying special wads for them.

But they very well may use the same wads as something else you have.

You just need to study it out on the Hodgdon site or Lyman manual and figure out what cases you have, and what wads you need to use them.

Powder, shot, and primers are pretty much going to be the same for them all.
Just more or less of it.

rcmodel

 

[BruceRDucer]

RCModel:

Thanks. This is for shooting doves, pheasants, rabbits...all small game stuff, though I do have the duck stamp, I'm not sure if I will do that.

I doubt if I have 250 hulls altogether, and its spread over 4 or 5 brands, and I'm getting the idea that you cannot just treat all hulls as though they were generic.

I want to get a higher quality hull also.

The gun is a Mossberg 500 Pump.

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The guy at the store last year, gave me CLAYBUSTERS WWA12 replacement wads, 500 ea the model #CB 1118-12 Standard

But when I loaded them in the Lee reloader, the crimp would not go down. I started trimming the bottom 1/8" off the wads. They shot okay with light loads for clays, but I know now I am not supposed to do that. I'll probably have to buy other wads maybe?

So, I'm using the Lyman reloading chart website you recommended to figure what I really need. I need to make GAME loads rather than TARGET loads.

/

 

[rcmodel]

I'll probably have to buy other wads maybe?

Not maybe!
Safe shotshell pressure is very dependent on using the exact wad called for. There is no fudge-factor.

I need to make GAME loads rather than TARGET loads.

Don't confuse the two.
There are no better upland game loads then 1 oz, or 1 1/8 oz Trap or Skeet loads.

Game loads to me mean heavier #4, 5, or 6 shot, and more of it. (Used for bigger upland game like pheasants.)

Not necessarily better, or even as good as trap loads, when it comes to consistence and good patterns.

rcmodel

 

[fecmech]

The wads you have will load 1 1/8 ounce of shot in Win AA cases, Rem STS,Gun Club and Game Load compression formed cases. Also will work in Federal straight wall cases with 1 1/8oz. There is load data out there for that wad and those cases. The standard 1 1/8 oz. load at 1200 fps will kill cleanly any game bird that flys or any rabbit that runs if you place the pattern on them.