Black Powder Shotshell advice needed.

The Hackmaster

The Hackmaster

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Hey All,

I've been reloading black powder cartridges for a while now and I was looking at starting to do shot shells as well. As with everything else on gods green earth, google has all the info on the how, but not the where in regards to getting the supplies in Canada. This is stuff like the 1/4" to 1/2" veggie fiber wad, the over powder and over shot cards and even the roll crimp tools. I'm gonna start with plastic hulls just for economy of production for now, so I'm not worried about full brass hulls. I can find all this from U.S. suppliers, but shipping is an arm and a leg and if I could find punches and the proper materials I could make my own. I can't even track those down. Any help would be awesome!
 
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Best of luck
i load mag tech brass shells for the cool factor.
you can get all your supplies from track of the wolf. They have the best shipping rates.
for brass remember to go one size bigger. 12 gauge needs 11 gauge wads and cards
 
Got most of my wads from Track too.

Another way to go is a cheap 3/4" punch from Princess Auto or where ever. Best if you can get one that will go in a drill press. Then use felt, ceiling tiles or ten-test for the fibre wads, matte board for over powder and cereal boxes for over shot or whatever you can find that looks good.

Consider the brass shells. They aren't much more than $1 each. Plastic ones can be a bit of a pain to get the load column right for crimping and often will have holes burnt through just about the brass after firing. I see you are in Alberta so get ahold of Bilozir at a gun show (http://www.calgarygunshow.com/shows.html) or through his web site (ht tp://www.ballisticproducts.com/MagTech-Brass-Shotshells/products/202/) . You can reload them with hand tools and don't need dies as long as you always use them in the same gun.

I also find that its much easier to clean up if you lube your wads.
 
I use the prelubed muzzle loading cushion wads when i load shotgun shells. Depriming, priming and crimping I do with a conventional press. I use ordinary plastic shells and when I am lucky, I am able to pick up brass coloured plastic Win AA shells at the range. I also have brass shells which I glue a top card wad in over the shot and don't crimp the shells for longer life

cheers mooncoon
 
I use a punch to cut wads from old felt boot liners and use the same punch for cutting overshot cards from cereal boxes or any other stiff cardboard I can find around the house. Seems to work fine.
 
As said before Track of the wolf is a great source for all of your wads and cards but their supply of brass shot shells is hit or miss.Buffalo arms usually keeps these in stock and as a added bonus they also stock CH4D shot shell shell holders.I had a couple of aluminum rams made with 7/8x14 threads to replace the die in my single stage press.I had these machined to just fit into the hull,also I had the end drilled out for a depriming pin held in place with a set screw.With a shell holder and one of these homemade rams you can deprime,prime, compress wads all on a press.If you want to roll crimp your best source for all the tools is E-bay or gun shows.I pieced together my first roll crimp set this way.Later I was lucky to find a complete set at a gun auction that looked like it had never been used for a fraction of the price that I paid for the bits and pieces.Don't be afraid of sourcing supplies out of the States,all the companies that I have dealt with have been very reasonable with shipping charges.Good luck on your quest and enjoy and be safe.
 
Good luck finding that stuff retail in Canada - maybe try Hilltop Musket Supply in Sask. I watch at gun shows for card, fiber and felt wads from folks who ware dumping old reloading supplies. Plastic hulls load fine and if you have any friends who shoot trap seriously you may be able to scrounge 12 ga. paper Federals from them. You can get about 2 loads from a paper hull and a few more for plastic. If loading plastic, try to obtain Federal or other brands of hulls that don't have tapered case walls (Win AA and Rem RXP, etc have tapered walls) - they have less case capacity and don't work particularly well with non-plastic wads. I investigated buying 10 ga brass and they were $8 each! Track of the Wolf is the best source I know of for all that stuff.
 
Bilozir.net is a good source for this stuff, basically anything in the ballistics products catalog he has or can get, bonus is he is in Alberta as well!!
 
Will Bilozir is in Dewinton, BTW, and has all the stuff you need, including Mag Tec brass cases and proper sized wads for them.
The mag Tecs take a larger wad than a standard plastic case because of their thinner walls, and they also use large pistol primers.
I hunt with my cartridge black powder guns for upland as well as waterfowl, I use Bismuth or Nice Shot when shooting ducks and geese .
You can load those brass cases with a few simple hand tools.
I glue my over shot wads in with silicone when I am hunting.
Cat
 
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