Shotgun Shells - reloadable?

[beetle]

Why not use 1 oz wads if you use 1 oz of shot ?

I'll share what I know about loading steel, wads and Kent Steel w/ degradable wads


Added ...when reloading steel make sure the shot is fully seated in the wad...the shot column should never be higher then the wad is tall

I'll be the first to admit I'm out of my depth here -- don't load steel myself. But as an academic exercise, I was thinking about the situation Thefeeder states. Most of the time when I load lead there is always a little bit that sits above the wad. So I'm thinking you can use a wad designed for more shot 1 1/8oz and use less lead 1oz so that the lead is completely inside of the wad.

I'd be interested in hearing what the OP ends up doing. Who knows how long it will be until we are all forced to load biodegradable and steel shot........

[JagerDog]

I'll be the first to admit I'm out of my depth here -- don't load steel myself. But as an academic exercise, I was thinking about the situation Thefeeder states. Most of the time when I load lead there is always a little bit that sits above the wad. So I'm thinking you can use a wad designed for more shot 1 1/8oz and use less lead 1oz so that the lead is completely inside of the wad.

I'd be interested in hearing what the OP ends up doing. Who knows how long it will be until we are all forced to load biodegradable and steel shot........

Worth noting...that will be somewhere around 3/4 oz of steel shot.

[Thefeeder]

I'll be the first to admit I'm out of my depth here -- don't load steel myself. But as an academic exercise, I was thinking about the situation Thefeeder states. Most of the time when I load lead there is always a little bit that sits above the wad. So I'm thinking you can use a wad designed for more shot 1 1/8oz and use less lead 1oz so that the lead is completely inside of the wad.

I'd be interested in hearing what the OP ends up doing. Who knows how long it will be until we are all forced to load biodegradable and steel shot........

Beetle, you're shorting yourself.... you have a wealth of info and tons of experience with reloading that crosses over to steel.

OP...take Beetle's advise and load published recipes

Find load recopies and stick to them. Ballistic products has "the Status of Steel" reloading manual with all ya need to know about steel reloading and recipes. ......guys on ShotgunWorld forum are a good source for info on Euro
shotgun hulls

[sigguy552]

I'm a very green reloader and have only used other peoples machines(dillon 650). I understand the very basics and don't know **** about shotgun reloader or even have any equipment. I think i'll stick to just buying a few cases of ammo to tide me over for the first half of the year and go from there.

[Thefeeder]

I recently picked up skeet/trap shooting again and shoot primarily at richmond which requires biodegradable wads/steel shot. The biodegradable wad shells they use are kent brand and I was wondering if they can be reloaded?

General question, how can you determine if a shotgun shell can be reloaded?

An easy fix is to shoot at Sunnyvale R & G , Metcalf or Coyote Valley ...all are lead ranges and right there near San Jose

[sigguy552]

I do that as well. I live in SF and it just feels easier driving to Richmond

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[JagerDog]

I'll share what I know about loading steel, wads and Kent Steel w/ degradable wads

All the steel shot wads I have for reloading have slits. All the factory steel shells I have shot, have slits....this is to shed the wad as in lead shells.

There are un-slited wad made, and the ones Bettle mentioned may be one of those....they are made so the reloader can add slits (2-4) to customize a load.

Slits are closed shut when in the shell and open after leaving the barrel.

The bio-wads that are used @ Richmond, IIRC, they sell them there also, can be used safely for steel as Kent is using the same slit, thin wall wads. Open up a Kent w/ bio wad shell and the wad looks like a lead wad would...slit and just as thick

Barrel damage....? small shot and thin wads looks to be fine for Kent. But all the steel wads I have seen and used are very thick.

I say ....reload...it will be the same type of wad Kent is using....but I would caution about using shot larger then what you can buy from Kent using the bio wad #7 may be the safe max.

Added ...when reloading steel make sure the shot is fully seated in the wad...the shot column should never be higher then the wad is tall

I was unaware that these factory shells were using (in effect) the Downrange wad (molded petals with space between petals).

[Thefeeder]

I was unaware that these factory shells were using (in effect) the Downrange wad (molded petals with space between petals).

By the looks, its not anything like a Downrange wad.....Kent uses a "photodegradable" wad

I'll PM you pics of the wad from a dissected shell .... measured .028 thick , win AA measured .035

Scratch the pm pics...photobucket BS. If you would like them, Pm me an email address and I'll sent them

[JagerDog]

PM sent.

Molded petals?

[JagerDog]

Got the pics. I can't really tell if the slits are molded in or slit afterwards. I'm leaning slit afterwards. Looks a lot like the CSD 20g wad Beetle posted. Even the rectangular vents near the base.

[sigguy552]

Got the pics. I can't really tell if the slits are molded in or slit afterwards. I'm leaning slit afterwards. Otherwise, kind of a hybrid between lead and steel. A bit of cushion since these are target payloads, but not the thick, no cushion usually attributed to steel wads.

I'm going to go shoot a few rounds this Sunday and will take detailed photos. I'll pick the brains of the guys in the club house and see what they have to say and report back.

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[JagerDog]

I'm going to go shoot a few rounds this Sunday and will take detailed photos. I'll pick the brains of the guys in the club house and see what they have to say and report back.

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The 12g may be different than the 20g Feeder sent.

Picking brains of folks which have been shooting/reloading steel for targets is a good source of info.

[sargenv]

The Kent ammo that Richmond sells is identical to the Cheddite hulls that you can get at BPI, Precision, or wherever.. They are reloadable to a point but require wads that are meant for straight wall hulls. You really would be better off picking up some sort of internally tapered hull (Rem gun club, STS, Win AA HS, or Win AA Old style) to reload as they are a bit more forgiving..

The key to reloading steel target shells for the most part is to use the same volume of steel for the lead you used to use. Use the same shot/powder bar and basically the same powder charge you would have used for the 1 1/8 oz of lead, it will come out to a bit more than 3/4 oz of steel 7's or 8's. Pressure will be lower and shot velocity will increase. It sounds sacriledge and like bad advice.. but I've loaded 1000's of steel target loads in this manner (as have those who have had to adapt at Richmond over the years) that it's pretty much in general use with no issues. I get about 100 or so feet/sec difference utilizing the lighter (but same volume of pellets) load of steel shot. The extra velocity makes up for the 30% weight reduction of the steel.

There have been gun manufacture reps who try to tell us that it'll ruin their barrels and there is one person at Richmond who has shot over 50,000 of these steel reloads from his personally owned Krieghoff K80 with no ill effects on the barrel. I've put similar fodder down the barrel of a 1970's 870 Wingmaster, a Browning Gold, a Remington Model 48 skeet gun, and various other personally owned guns and not had any issues.

For hunting loads I absolutely use the Gualandi MG42 and some of the CSD series of wads for the larger 4-BBB sized shot at their correspondingly much higher velocity of 1500-1625 fps. Richmond does not allow those wads due to their inability to break down quickly like the Oxo-bio wads do..

Please pick my brain all you like.. I was leery of loading steel with target wads initially, but it has proven to me to be nothing to worry about.

[SandDiegoDuner]

FYI, Cheddite hulls also use a slightly larger diameter primer. You can buy Cheddite 209 primers or a resizing punch to undersize the pocket to hold standard 209 primers if your load calls for something else.

I have around 2000 new Cheddite hulls right now and am working on about 400 fired hulls I have shot 3 times so far. It took quite a bit of fiddling to get decent crimps on the new hulls, once formed they are easy to reload as long as you use the same number of points to the folds. I don't know if perfecta has any steel loads but I can confirm they used Cheddite hulls and will accept the same wads you will use for the Kent hulls.

[sargenv]

True that.. the Cheddite primers are a hair larger.. as are the Fiocchi 209's. The Cheddite/Kent hulls load fine, they just don't last as long as the venerable old style AA's did... The Remington Gun Club/STS are about as good as the old AA's were.. the HS AA's are okay but I prefer the old style AA's (I have a LOT of them I've received over the years from people who got out of loading or from deceased relatives of shooters who do not reload shot shells).

I can usually get about 4-5 reloadings out of the Kent before they start getting too beat up and usually 3-4 when loading them for the heavier payload hunting loads (or I simply lose them).