MagTech brass shotshells

Seems to me that anyone that does keep their recipies pretty hush hush. I've reloaded with BP last year, hope to try them this year. If I can get my hand on some shotgun smokeless powder i'm certianly going to give it a try and see what i can come up with.
 
I am using an AA load, 18 grs. Of clays with 1 1/8 oz. 7 1/2 shot. I put about 1/16-1/8" wax on top of the shot card. Winchester primers seemed to work best, but my old coach gun was getting light strikes. I tried Federal, but was getting about a 1 second delay and poor powder burn, so I am just switching to magnum primers. It had no problem knocking down the plates. Zero pressure signs, and the casings just drop out of the gun. You could probably cut back a bit on the powder but I find that then it was just barely enough to knock down the plates.
 
Last edited:
I am starting to load 410 with IMR 4227 , Rem LP primer and about 250 grns. # 7 1/2 shot. I was told not to use wax over the shot card but to use wood glue. Looking for more data. I am waiting for DP Thug slugs.
pounder
 
pounder said:
I am starting to load 410 with IMR 4227 , Rem LP primer and about 250 grns. # 7 1/2 shot. I was told not to use wax over the shot card but to use wood glue. Looking for more data. I am waiting for DP Thug slugs.
pounder
Click to expand...

Pounder, seems we are working in parallel. Thanks for your recommendation on where to find brass as mine arrived last night. I'm looking at whatever load data seems to consistently have low peak pressure and have settled on Alliant 300 MP - a pistol powder. 1/2 oz loads that can list as low as 6000 psi - just loaded 25:
http://www.alliantpowder.com/reload...weightdis=1/2&shellid=519&gtypeid=3&gauge=410

I really don't think there is published load data for .410 brass using large pistol primers, smokeless powder, and fibre wads, glued shotcards. Anyone have a feeling as to whether would be lower/higher pressures in that situation than with 209 primers, Plastic crimped hulls, and listed wads?
 
I was talking to Will Bilozir (where I got my wads,nitro cards and over shot cards ) he told me not to use wax but to glue the over shot card in. He also said that because brass hulls have a large inside diameter you need a 430 nitro card over the powder then a wad then a 450 overshot card. And to use Elmores white glue to seal it. And to use LP primers. Great guy very helpful. Thug slugs are from Ballistic Products through Bilozir also.
pounder
 
1st time out today with my new Magtech .410 loads. Used CCI large pistol primers. Pfft from 1st barrel, Pfft goes second barrel. Fibre wads and nitro cards are halfway down the pipes along with unburnt powder. Looks like I need to try magnum primers.
 
LS did you compress the powder? That happened to me the first time I tried it.I then compressed the powder under the nitro card and it works fine. I too am going to try mag. primers.
pounder
 
Not only that, I found i need to seal the end with a thin layer of wax (some use carpenters glue, but you never get it out of the shell), but magnum primers are a must with the 12 gauge. Mine work great and drop the steel for cowboy, no problem
 
I have done some research on the Magtech brass hulls, but have not loaded any yet. I have 16 ga hulls on hand. It seems that getting enough ignition pressure to burn smokeless powder is a problem. The inside of the hull is very slick and the primer has a tendency to push the contents down the barrel before the powder builds enough pressure to ignite properly. Card type over powder wads also allow some blow-by. Black powder is far easier to ingnite, and always works. I'd predict success with fast burning smokeless flake powder like red dot, a modern plastic over powder gas seal, magnum LP primer and well sealed case mouth. BUT shotshell loading is notorious for pressure spikes from seemingly small changes in components, so I haven't tested my theory. An observation when I was looking into this problem is that the over powder cup on 12 ga. Winchester wads made for target loads is a perfect fit in the 16 ga brass shells. The shot cup will not fit and would need to be cut off. But who knows what a plastic over powder cup, fibre wad, smokeless powder, and glued in o/s card will do for pressure and ignition! I think I'll stick to black powder and fiber wads when I load mine.
 
I use clays in my 12g. I also use 11g fibre wads, the internal size of the shell is larger than a plastic shell because the brass shell has considerably thinner walls. I seat the wads with a 3/4 wooden dowel that fits perfect. I use as much pressure as I can by hand to seat the over powder card, followed by a single wad, then 1 1/8 oz. 7.5 shot, with a thin over shot card topped by about a 1/16 layer of paraffin wax. Never had pressure problems, and the shell drop out cleanly from my double and don't usually even need to be resized. When I used standard primers (federal) I was getting hangfires on every other round. You could hear the sizzle, count to 3 and the gun would go off. Never had any problems at all using Winchester primers, and am just getting ready to try Federal magnum primers since my one coach won't consistently crack the Winchesters. They're fun, but labour intensive to reload if you're doing a lot. They do not recommend using plastic cups, they say that is when you start getting consistency problems, same thing with using 2 fibre wads to try and increase pressure.
 
I looked up the proper flash hole size (I think 0.083"?) then reamed my 50 cartridges in a lathe with that size bit this past weekend as the holes all seemed a little tight. Will try loading two with magnum primers and two with standard and see how it goes. Yes, had compressed my original loads with quite a bit of pressure on the nitro card using a dowel then topped that with fibre wad.
 
Update after drilling flash holes - this was after no success with standard large pistol primers - the two I loaded with magnum primers today went BOOM and BOOM. The two with standard? Pfftt and pfftt.
 
I've got some once fired 303 British brass that I'm thinking of fire forming to .410 brass cases. I've only gone the first step and filed down the case rims so that the cases will chamber in my 410 shotgun at this point. Has anyone done this and what are your experiences?
 
Falconflyer said:
I've got some once fired 303 British brass that I'm thinking of fire forming to .410 brass cases. I've only gone the first step and filed down the case rims so that the cases will chamber in my 410 shotgun at this point. Has anyone done this and what are your experiences?
Click to expand...

I have done this, a lot of work and a lot of fun. Allways anneal, lots on utube on this
 
Longwalker said:
I have done some research on the Magtech brass hulls, but have not loaded any yet. I have 16 ga hulls on hand. It seems that getting enough ignition pressure to burn smokeless powder is a problem. The inside of the hull is very slick and the primer has a tendency to push the contents down the barrel before the powder builds enough pressure to ignite properly. Card type over powder wads also allow some blow-by. Black powder is far easier to ingnite, and always works. I'd predict success with fast burning smokeless flake powder like red dot, a modern plastic over powder gas seal, magnum LP primer and well sealed case mouth. BUT shotshell loading is notorious for pressure spikes from seemingly small changes in components, so I haven't tested my theory. An observation when I was looking into this problem is that the over powder cup on 12 ga. Winchester wads made for target loads is a perfect fit in the 16 ga brass shells. The shot cup will not fit and would need to be cut off. But who knows what a plastic over powder cup, fibre wad, smokeless powder, and glued in o/s card will do for pressure and ignition! I think I'll stick to black powder and fiber wads when I load mine.
Click to expand...
I have loaded Mag Tech cases in all gauges available for 30 years and they are all I use in my vintage 16's
I only burn black powder in my 16 gauges , 14 gauge card and fibre wads and seal the overshot wad with silicone .
I clean the cases with soap and water and dyer the first firing they are fine as far as inside finish goes.
I have shot many hundreds of rounds with CCI pistol primers with no hang fires or misfires .
As far as velocity goes, never chronographed them, just keep breaking skeet birds and pheasants and partridge with them with no issues!:cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom