Best 28 gauge hull for reloading

[thegunnut]

After watching Claybuster demonstrate his unique "shell shortening" technique on reloaded Federal hulls, and having endured the great rectal inconvenience of the new WWHS with the new WW wads, I am wondering what hull everyone else out there is using for 28 ga.
Only way I can get the WWHS to work is with Federal wads.
Remington sts only likes Remington wads.
Best for ease of loading for me has been Challengers with Fed. Wads and Cheddite primers.
Which is the best 28 ga hull for reloading (in your opinion) and why???

Comments and experiences / suggestions certainly welcome.
Thegunnut

 

[Claybuster]

After watching Claybuster demonstrate his unique "shell shortening" technique on reloaded Federal hulls,

What thegunut is referring to is my experience with Federal Gold Medal hulls and their propensity to come apart. He was shooting with me Wednesday and I had several hulls come apart in the middle with hull, shot and wad going off into the distance. I've heard of others having similar problems.

The other problem I've had with these POS Federal Gold Medal hulls is primers backing out in my autoloader and jamming the action. These loads are all Federal components, Unique powder with a charge below book recommendations. I was still getting separations even on hulls that had only been reloaded once. (Note to thegunnut, I shot my last two boxes of these Federal reloads at sporting this afternoon and had 4 come apart. )

I'm transitioning to Winchester AAHS 28 gauge but in the process have discovered some length variations in the hulls. Older AAHS hulls are a couple thou shorter than newer production. The new production hulls are loading nicely with Win. 209 primers, Claybuster replacement wads (not the HS wads) and Unique. The older ones however don't crimp as well and require a loader adjustment.

 

[thegunnut]

Claybuster.... The new AAHS range between 2 and 10/1000 shorter than the old AA.
I use A PW800B loader, so this kind of variance on hull length will make you nuts.
I used WW wads which seem to be much higher durometer than the Federal wads, and as such do not compress or seal very well (my hypothesis), as well as being a pain in the ass to load.
I have experienced lots of "squibs" where the unburned powder was visible in the barrel. A sure sign of low wad pressure. Unfortunately, I have 2 plastic pails (5 gal) loaded like this. before I switched to Fed wads.
P*sses me off.... although I did break a low #1 today with just the wad on a squib. Very neet.
Surely there must be a better way..... hence this thread.
Are you sure that the "cheapie" Perazzi you are shooting didn't ruin those high quality Federal hulls I gave you????
Thegunnut

 

[Claybuster]

Are you sure that the "cheapie" Perazzi you are shooting didn't ruin those high quality Federal hulls I gave you????

Are you sure your "cheapier" loader isn't ruining those nice AAHS that I gave you?

Winchester has apparently lengthened the new AAHS recently to bring it more in line with the old AA. I bought two flats of AAHS recently and the average fired length was 2.67". These loaded up nicely with Unique and older style AA replacement wads. I haven't shot many of these as I'm still going through the factory loads but the ones that I have fired worked fine.

Meanwhile the older AAHS averaged 2.62" which meant they did not crimp well with the same settings on my MEC 600Jr. I found this out the hard way when I had a mixed lot of hulls.