How to tell if a fired 12 gauge is good to reload

quinnjoblow

quinnjoblow

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I just sort of got into reloading shotgun shells. I have been reloading pistol and rifles for years.
I always thought most average shotgun hulls could be reloaded. I'm getting the impression that only a few choice brands can be reloaded. The two types Winchester XX and Remington. What gives? Are there other brands that can be reloaded at least a couple of times? What should I look for?
Is it the equivalent to buying Russian or Chinese surplus steel cased ammo? Confused...
 
The key difference in shotshell reloading is that the components must be used exactly as listed in the recipe or pressures could get out of control. As a rule more common hulls have more data listed for them such as Winchester AA ,Remington STS or Federal gold medal. There are other factors such as paper base wads shooting loose so most people use the single piece hulls.
 
The best hulls for loading are the one piece plastic - meaning no paper base inside the hull. I believe the theory was that the paper bases could potentially dislodge and stay in the barrel, however i do think its a negligible worry if you only load them a few times each.
The one piece (and i am dating myself - Win AA, Rem RXP, and Peters Blue Magic) were the the better hulls to reload for longetivity, and we stayed away from (pick brand) anything with a paper base. If memory serves me correct, they also last longer with not too drastic of a crimp.
 
If is a plastic hull and after was fired the mouth is not bent backwards any hull can be reloaded. You won't reload it more than once or twice but if the hull was for free who cares.
I followed the advice of more experimented shooters when I first started reloading shotshells and I started with AA Win. Later I tried the "junk" hulls and they reload well, once or twice.
Even with "once fired AA" you should inspect every hull before reloading. If you reload for the first time stick with the data manual and follow everything literally.
 
The AA , Gold Medal and STS hulls can usually be loaded several times with good results. The cheaper hulls can usually be loaded a couple of times or more with no issues. I have accumulated about 5000 28 gauge Fiocchi hulls, so even if I only get two or three loadings out of them, it will have been worthwhile at the price that 28gauge shotshells sell for.
 
My advice would be to pick a hull you can get a lot of and stick to it. Once you have your press set for a given hull and recipe you won't want to change things. Personally I chuck a hull once it starts getting splits in the crimp area as I find they won't keep crimped properly. The loads change based on the hull, primer, wad and of course shot charge. Please do not substitute anything as a dangerous load is quite easy to create with shotshells as there are more things interacting.

I think there are 3 hulls you should consider reloading based on what you can get: The Remington family (gun clubs, STS, Nitros), the Winchester AA ones (the promo/whitebox hulls can be reloaded but I find it challenging to load them properly) or the Cheddite hulls (straight wall). Personally I go for the AA hulls as there are a lot at my club. I've loaded the remington hulls and they work pretty good too but aren't as popular where I am so go with the flow. Get the proper wad for the hull you are using- taper hull or straight wall.

I like my crimps to be like factory and I was never able to get the whitebox winchester hulls to crimp nicely. They would load and go bang but the crimps would be ugly IMHO so I stopped trying and stick to the AA's. I like loading as it allows me to make loads that you can't get in factory- like 3/4 loads for skeet.
 
The reason most don't use paper base wad hulls is because they could be wet and moldy. Then you don't get a bang. I've reloaded most old 12 gauge hulls. Some only once. What can I say, I was a new shooter on a tight budget. Reclaimed shot from a range in Victoria, powder from the states back in the day. All put together on a Lee Load Master. I would sit at the trap range and sift through garbage bags of hulls to get a couple of hundred the same. Work up a load with those hulls and shoot them all off the next sunday. Repeat.
 
HI Rob
I reload 410's, 20's and 12"
I use the Mec Junior.
I have reloaded many shells with no problems,
Win AA's, All Remingtons and Federals.
Lead is very expensive.
 
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I use all my spent 3 1/2" Black Cloud shells to load 2 1/2" cartridges... it provides me tons of cheap hulls and they last for several relaod at those low pressures.
 
Seems to be a lot of same thinking in this thread. I also prefer Win AA in 12 and 410 but also use Rem for 12 when available. I also tried reloading Challenger hulls (The are Cheditte, Challenger will confirm this) I was shocked how well they loaded in 12 gauge and they are free everywhere. I have only reloaded them twice and then tossed them but they work great as well.
Good luck and have fun.
 
One of the problems with the cheap hulls is that sometimes they use funky wads that don't match up to recommended load recipes. Several years ago I had accumulated a crap load of Challenger hulls but no matter what I did or what wads I used I always ended up with depressed crimps. Finally I bought a box of Challengers & cut a shell apart. It used a wad I had never seen before. After a lot of time online I finally tracked some of the wads down (luckily they were cheap) and they gave perfect crimps. The hulls were only good for 2-3 reloadings but they were free so I was ahead of the game. YMMV.
 
I load for 12,16 ,29 and 410 on Mec or Lee loadall. The hulls I use are Win AA ,Rem STS Fed goldmetal with Fed hunting bulls in my 16 ga I load various shot weights and slug loads. Better hulls last longer. People just keep giving them to me. I still have a good supply of Remington unibody and Peters blue magic. Always loved the Winchester AA but the Federal Gold medal has become a favourite due to an excellent slug load with this hull. Get ahold of the Lyman shotshell manual #5 has all the information you will need, how to and load information.
 
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