Rio & Challenger hulls - Any good?

[ninepointer]

Anybody have experience reloading 12 ga. Rio hulls or Challenger hulls?

I've read that they are like Cheddite hulls, so to use that data. But I cut some hulls in half with a hacksaw and I see that the Rios & Challengers have different plastic basewads and different internal dimensions.

My other question is; since both these shells are a 6-fold crimp, will they take an 8-fold?

 

[Longwalker]

I was told by an employee of the Challenger factory that the hulls they use are made by Cheddite, and that is confirmed by my measurements and observations. I'm not sure why you have observed something different with yours, perhaps normal variation in Cheddite's hull model or production runs? I don't have any experience with Rio. I have not had success trying to convert shells from 6 pt to 8 pt crimp, once crimped I always stay with that version.

 

[ninepointer]

I was told by an employee of the Challenger factory that the hulls they use are made by Cheddite, and that is confirmed by my measurements and observations. I'm not sure why you have observed something different with yours, perhaps normal variation in Cheddite's hull model or production runs? I don't have any experience with Rio. I have not had success trying to convert shells from 6 pt to 8 pt crimp, once crimped I always stay with that version.

Thanks. What I meant was that the Rios were different from Challengers inside.

 

[ben hunchak]

Your crimp will always be ugly if you switch from 6 to 8 segment or the other way...because I use a roll crimp alot, I bought a "spin DR". You put it in your drill or better still, your drill press and run it into the case mouths, it heats the plastic up enough that it removes the existing folds. I don't know if it would work on 6 vs 8 seg. but it does work well to allow a neat roll crimp on those segment crimp shells.

 

[ninepointer]

Never mind; found a 6-fold crimp starter among the odds & ends that came with my loader