Reloading Winchester hulls

yp194

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I want to start reloading shotgun shells. Saving some money would be nice, but it also strike me as an interesting hobby.

I've been picking up hulls at the range, and I have a mix of brands. The most common is Winchester: red ribbed hull, low brass and plastic 'liner'at the base (I cut one in half to see what it was made of). Can I reload these? I'm hoping to be able to get a couple of reloads out of these and I'm planning on loading light loads in 7 1/2 or 8.

Any advise would be appreciated.
 
Thinking about shot shells, are the plasic wads that are used now, harm full to the enviroment. Haven't reloaded for shotgun for years but we used cardboard and felt wads.
Do you think that ducks etc. get lead poison from led shot or was it from our 70 or 80 years of using leaded gas. Only read 2 reports on lead lead shot one was called "the Bellrose report" It used a lot of words like "might happen", "could happen". but didn't say for sure. and the other one was from a Ken long... something and he stated the he even found lead shot in the gizzards of eagles, what is believable except for the fact that eagles being raptor don't have gizzards.
I did read one report a few years ago the the earth worms along a California hight had enough lead in they system to do a duck major harm.
 
I want to start reloading shotgun shells. Saving some money would be nice, but it also strike me as an interesting hobby.

I've been picking up hulls at the range, and I have a mix of brands. The most common is Winchester: red ribbed hull, low brass and plastic 'liner'at the base (I cut one in half to see what it was made of). Can I reload these? I'm hoping to be able to get a couple of reloads out of these and I'm planning on loading light loads in 7 1/2 or 8.

Any advise would be appreciated.
It depends which Winchester hull you are collecting. If they are the red or gray AA hull then they are very good to reload. The cheaper Winchester Super Target hulls however are not as good.

If you are serious about starting to reload shotshells I'd recommend buying the Lyman Shotshell Reloading Handbook 5th Edition. It will tell you almost all you need to know about reloading.

The best beginning load is the MEC 600 Jr. It's what I started with and still use to load subgauge.
 
My 1oz reloads cost me $3.50 a box tax in, so yes you can beat the retail cost of a flat.
 
Just how do you come by your components?

Green Dot powder 8lbs. $117 +t Shot $26 + t for 25lbs, Chedite Primers @ $38.95 a 1000. Shot has gone up to $28.50 a bag. Claybuster Wads @ $9.95 for 500. All purchases made at Hummassons in Ancaster On or Lawrys in Caledonia On. Sorry I miss calculated it is $4.50 a box.
 
Green Dot powder 8lbs. $117 +t Shot $26 + t for 25lbs, Chedite Primers @ $38.95 a 1000. Shot has gone up to $28.50 a bag. Claybuster Wads @ $9.95 for 500. All purchases made at Hummassons in Ancaster On or Lawrys in Caledonia On. Sorry I miss calculated it is $4.50 a box.
That recipe and hundreds just like it produce a much better shotgun shell than the crap Federal or Winchester promo loads sold at Wallyworld or Canadian Tire.
 
It depends which Winchester hull you are collecting. If they are the red or gray AA hull then they are very good to reload. The cheaper Winchester Super Target hulls however are not as good.

If you are serious about starting to reload shotshells I'd recommend buying the Lyman Shotshell Reloading Handbook 5th Edition. It will tell you almost all you need to know about reloading.

The best beginning load is the MEC 600 Jr. It's what I started with and still use to load subgauge.

I have to disagree with you on the new WW hulls CB. For one thing they are a 2 piece hull. And when I can finally get one to look decent out of my Mec Grabber. They tend to split on the second to third reload. I like the Rem. hulls sts nitros and gun clubs. They are a lot less finicky than the new style ww.
 
I have to disagree with you on the new WW hulls CB. For one thing they are a 2 piece hull. And when I can finally get one to look decent out of my Mec Grabber. They tend to split on the second to third reload. I like the Rem. hulls sts nitros and gun clubs. They are a lot less finicky than the new style ww.
I don't disagree but compared to the Super Target the AA is a better hull. I've also loaded some of the new-style AA and they don't last as long as either the one-piece AA or the the Remington STS.

As I still have a good supply of the old one-piece AA I'll load those until they are gone. When that happens I intend to switch to Federal Gold Medal 12 gauge hulls. I've been very impressed with them.
 
I agree, for reloading, AAs or Rem. STS, or Fed. GM, with the right components an individual should be able to reload better shells then topguns or other low end target shells, and save money. I do believe however that one cannot reload shotshells to match the top end factory loads such as STS, AA, GM, factory loads, I think that the factories use of never fired, virgin, plastic hulls, improves the consistancy of crimps, wad pressure, and tension, again, I am talking prem. factory loads, of course they cost over $9/box now.
 
I load Remington Gun Clubs. Same data as the STS stuff. Plenty of GC's laying around or filling trash barrels at trap ranges. 7/8th or 1oz. loads of 8 shot for trap. Way cheaper than promo target loads that are pushing 80 bucks a flat around here. Who needs 1 1/8 oz. loads to break clays anyway?
 
Agree with most things being said here, but one thing that has occurred to me is that how well a hull reloads probably depends to some extent on the press one uses. My PW 375 crimps very well and I haven't had much trouble getting a decent crimp with most of the cheapies (Wally world Universal hulls are an exception here, and the occasional one swells at the end a bit or the petals screw up.). On the other hand, cheapies aren't really designed for reloading (Cheapie Remingtons are an exception and reload very well in my experience.) It's probably better not to use cheapies more than 2 or 3 times. I don't find it easy to beat cheapie factory loads by reloading, even using premium shot. At least not according to my patterning board I don't. For some reason Winchester super target seems to work well for me. Can't explain it but I have real faith in them when I use them...encroaching senility?;)
 
Agreed, I reloaded some Win Universal hulls (from the CT 100 pack) with 1oz slugs Saturday. Loaded 20 and went to the range to test. Worked great!

When I got home I upped the powder a little and went to reload the above hulls a second time (still 5 grains below the Lee recipe). I had to be very careful with my crimps in the Lee load all first stage. If I put too much pressure on them, the crimps were carp and a couple started to split on top.

IMO the winchester cheep hulls are good for two reloads max. Still pretty good to get 3 shots out of these party pack hulls.

I am going to get some AA hulls from the gunshop and see if they can take more reloads.

Cactus
 
The AA's worked but I found it to be a bit easier loading slugs and 00 buck using straight walled cases, e.g. Federal, rather than tapered ones like the AA's, especially when loading 00.
 
Right now, the Remington STS hull is probably No. 1 for reloadability, with Federal GM's and (new-style) WinAA's next. No prblem loading any of them in my PW950 Elite - although each take minor adjustments to develop a proper crimp depth, closure and and taper. Using the appropriate style-wad to each respective case makes life much easier too.

I still prefer the old-style AA's ... and have ( in 12 ga.) about 20k once-fired's on hand. When I run out, there's another 10K once-fired Federal GM's on hand. Still have about 7500 old-style AA-20's and lesser amounts of 28 & 410. And no, none for sale, ever !
No regrets either supplying some of my shooting buds who didn't reload, 10 gallon pails to dump their once-fired AA's in. Paid off over time in spades !!!

Just not at all inspired to use or load any of the steel-based cheapies ... or even the better quality Cheddite (Kent) hulls for that matter. As a somewhat retired "hull-whore", it still hurts to see them laying about and filling the trash barrels though !

To achieve any sort of reloading economy, it's best to buy primers by the sleeve (5000) wads by the case (5000) and powder and shot by whatever break you can get. A 4-pack case of 8-lb powder containers is often a little cheaper than buying it 8 lbs at a time ( enough for about 12,440 reloads) , and as often as not, a 1000 lbs. of shot ( 1/2 ton - about 16,000 - 1 oz. loads ) can come cheaper than by the 25 lb. bag. Yes, a big outlay, but so is a season's worth of new factory flats.

In the long run you wont save all that much per box or per flat ( although you'll likely spend a lot less than playing golf ! ) ... but you'll get to shoot a lot more ! :D
 
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