20 ga shotshells are splitting!

[tightgroup tiger]

Ok, so I got bored yesterday and started rearranging my shelves in the reloading room to make more room and found these.

Anyone know why they would be splitting like this. They are older 20ga rounds that I'm sure I used for hunting at some point.
I've never seen this before.
I wanted to cut one open to see if the powder is expanding or some silly thing like that, but I have one hand in a cast so I can't do that.

Is the plastic breaking down on them?
TT

 

[Armored farmer]

I had the exact same happen to some old federal 20ga ammo.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Really! That's a hell of a note!
I was surprised to see these split open like this. I had several boxes that were half full so I dumped them out and started re-filling full boxes. That's when I found them.

I have un-opened boxes of this stuff too. I guess I need to do a full inspection of my Federal shot shell inventory to see if there are any more.

 

[Bill M.]

Bad plastic.

Did not like federal shells back in the early 70's when I was hunting with a 20 gauge 1100. Other shells just seemed to give less trouble.

 

[.45Coltguy]

Yikes! I'll be checking my 20ga shells soon!

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Bad plastic.

Did not like federal shells back in the early 70's when I was hunting with a 20 gauge 1100. Other shells just seemed to give less trouble.

These may be from the 1970s. I thought they were early 80's Must be bad plastic.

 

[N555]

I've fired splitting shells. Sometimes my reloads split. Firing them just makes the split bigger.

 

[Armored farmer]

Yes.
No harm in firing them....if hou can get them in the chamber. Some of those look pretty bad though.

 

[luv2safari]

Federal hulls are the worst and have been for many years. We had customers bring in their newly purchased autoloader shotguns in the late 70's and through the 90's and complain they wouldn't feed. 90% of the time they were shooting Federals. They tried Win and Rem, and the problems went away.

I still buy anything but Federal when possible. On a side note some of my older Rem hulls are splitting now. They are 25-50 years old now.

 

[Armored farmer]

My 20ga is a sxs, so I could usually get them chambered.
If you have an automatic or pump. ....maybe chamber a split then two good ones in the magazine.

 

[Jack Ryan]

They are old or worn out or old and wore out or just old.

Shoot'em while you can and throw the hulls away.

 

[tmd16556]

I get those with reloading old hulls like that. The crimp cracks on some. Those 1970s to 90s Federal hulls are a lot of trouble. I’ve only had problems in 20 gauge though. 12 gauge hulls dont seem to do the same thing (although I use Federals less in 12 gauge). It’s just brittle plastic and I’ve had a lot of them lose chunks of the crimp as well. I always assumed it was my old hulls had been stored in a hot attic for 20 years, but it’s somewhat reassuring to see it’s just bad plastic.

 

[WestKentucky]

It almost looks like somebody trying to do cut shells but didn’t know what they were doing.

My guess is that the oil content in the yellow plastic was higher when the shells were made. That makes them softer when new but more prone to drying out and cracking over time. I’m not sure what oils were being used back then, but a lot of what’s used now is vegetable or peanut oil derived which is why they degrade better but it’s also why rodents eat it.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

Thanks for the replies, I'd never heard of the problem before with older Federal shells. I'll keep an eye one the rest of them, and make sure they get shot first next time I shoot trap. I was afraid that maybe something was swelling up inside them and making them burst open or something, when I get my right hand healed up and working again, I'll cut these apart and keep the shot and pitch the rest, or maybe I'll shoot them in my old Winchester Red Label 37 single shot. That would work to.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Thanks for the replies, I'd never heard of the problem before with older Federal shells. I'll keep an eye one the rest of them, and make sure they get shot first next time I shoot trap. I was afraid that maybe something was swelling up inside them and making them burst open or something, when I get my right hand healed up and working again, I'll cut these apart and keep the shot and pitch the rest, or maybe I'll shoot them in my old Winchester Red Label 37 single shot. That would work to.

That Red Label is the perfect thing to use them in.

Just be careful putting them in there if any of the shot can spill out. I've had a bit of shot get in the action of a few shotguns, including break actions and then it can be just a PITA. It doesn't break or ruin anything, it can just be a hassel sometimes.

I'd NEVER throw away a shell I can get in to shotgun, even if I have to shoot it at an empty pop can. I probably have some shells older than some posters here and I'm sure not taking them apart or throwing anything away.

 

[tmd16556]

I keep a box of misfits (Federals are also bad about dropping primers as reloads too) that I drop into the chamber directly dove hunting. They’ll mess your day up in the tube magazine but you can play with working them in when nothing is happening.

 

[GooseGestapo]

Storage in a hot garage causes deterioration of the plastic (powder too!) causing the stress contained in crimp splitting the weakened brittle plastic.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

These have always been in the air conditioning in the house I was living in at the time. I keep everything in a controlled area. I, too, have shot shells that are older than I am and they are still in great shape. They are paper hulls though.
I guess the first plastic shells came out in the 1960 by Winchester.

"Originally the innovation of Winchester CEO John Olin as the perfect shotshell for his Model 21 double barrel, the Super X Mark 5 became the first 'modern' plastic shotshell in the early 60s."

 

[slinkster111]

Did they split after reloading them or are they factory shells?

 

[nettlle]

Winchester AA hulls are the best.

 

[Jim Watson]

Be careful of cramming in a split shell.
I have heard of them leaking shot that the main load runs over and dimples the barrel.

 

[dla]

View attachment 1253216

Ok, so I got bored yesterday and started rearranging my shelves in the reloading room to make more room and found these.

Anyone know why they would be splitting like this. They are older 20ga rounds that I'm sure I used for hunting at some point.
I've never seen this before.
I wanted to cut one open to see if the powder is expanding or some silly thing like that, but I have one hand in a cast so I can't do that.

Is the plastic breaking down on them?
TT

Pretty old for #6 lead shot labeled for Duck.

 

[Bill460]

For the life of me I don't understand why Federal insists on using that damn ribbed plastic. All it seems to accomplish is give a split a chance to start. I have never had ANY Winchester AA's, (either compression formed or HS), or Remington Nitro 27 or STS ever split like that.

After many reloads I've had small splits form at the crimp folds, but that's to be expected. But NEVER from the factory. In fact, I have a couple of boxes of factory Winchester AA's I purchased way back in 1972, (53 years ago), when I bought my very first shotgun out of high school.

A Remington 1100 Trap. And I never fired those 2 boxes. I just checked, and they look like the latest AA's I just bought from Walmart. Only the brass heels are slightly tarnished. Federal needs to get a handle on this. That is inexcusable coming from one of the biggest ammunition manufacturers in the world. Come on Federal!

 

[Jim Watson]

I shot AAs but late in my Trap phase, I was shifting to STS.
But every once in a while I would set up and load some once fired PAPER Federals. They just smelled right.
And they didn't rust the chambers of my Broadway like AAs did.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Be careful of cramming in a split shell.
I have heard of them leaking shot that the main load runs over and dimples the barrel.

Really, where did you ever hear that?

I've reloaded everything from sand and gravel to pistol balls in a 20 gauge, with and with out wads and with wads cut in half to fit more in there. NONE of it ever left a scratch in the barrel.