Shotshell reloading question

[Solus]

What load data can I use for Universal shells? I dont know who makes them so Im afraid to load them.

[Cheep]

If it's Winchester, the Lyman book shows same as AA. Read in the manual and don't deviate.

[Bill Steele]

Winchester makes a line called Universal. This is total hearsay but I recall reading one of the old hands on the shotgun world forums commen they didn't reload well.

You might go over there and bang around a little, lots of shot shell reloaders there.

Good luck, have fun.

[JagerDog]

Those are about the worst for loading. They weren't made with the intent of reloading and I've seen documentation from Winchester saying so. Data is same as AAHS though. You CAN reload just about anything for one-and-done, but..........

[Revoman]

As stated, just about anything can be reloaded.

I believe that these have a steel base and unless you are shooting them from the same gun that you initially used to fire from factory, I would be very wary that they might need resizing. Not all barrels are the same and you may have problems inserting them into the chamber and extracting due to the difference in your chamber vs the one that they were shot in before.

This is especially true if you are shooting them from a pump or semi.

They may be okay, I'm just warning you about a possible issue.

Steel tends to stretch and not spring back, or shrink once fired. Brass is a little forgiving, all bases should be sized back to SAAMI specs regardless, but you can get away without that sometimes if they are always shot in the same firearm.

[rsrocket1]

If your loader has a resizer, the steel based hulls load just fine. I load Remington Gun Club hulls at least a half dozen times and they shoot just as well as the first time.

The Universals do load with the same data as Winchester AA's but the plastic is very thin and they have a tough time holding a good crimp. Make sure your stack height is not too tall, otherwise the crimp will open up and spill the shot out in short order.

In fact yesterday, I just cut open a box of Universals that I reloaded last year to reclaim the powder, primer and shot. A few shells started leaking shot so I decided to just replace the components into Remington hulls.

[Bill Steele]

This post is just in case.

I realized I had posted that veteran shotgunworld loaders had said they "did" reload well, I meant to say they "didn't" reload well, damn autocorrect iPad. I went back and fixed it, but, just in case, felt I better post again.

As rsrocket1 posted, I too have reloaded tons of steel Rem GC's, they are actually some of my favorite hulls. I have read so many bad things about the Universals, I probably wouldn't even pick them up.

[S&S]

I agree with most of the replies, I have reloaded them and they are not worth reloading. They don't hold the crimp right because of how thin the hull is. Just look around the range often, you will most likely find some good AA, STS, Nitros laying around.

[Solus]

Ive reloaded tons of gun club shells with no problem and resized them too. I was just trying to see if I can reload these. If I try to resize and cant then I will just toss them. Someone on another forum told me that they reload these just fine and prefer them over the AA well I will see and post up. It never hurts to ask right and btw they are winchester hulls

[sargenv]

There is a reason these things are cheap.. they are made to be shot once.. if you want to reload your factory ammo, spend the extra $20-$30/case and get the Remington Target loads.. the STS hulls are every bit as good as the classic old style Winchester AA's (Not the HS). They will easily reload 10-15 times or more with target loads or 5-7 times for the higher payload hunting loads.

You wil have fewer headaches since the Remington STS hulls were made with the reloader in mind. They crimp nice and are slick to load. It is true you can reload any hull and I've reloaded my share of all kinds of hulls, but by far the easiest hulls to reload are those hulls manufactured with reloadability in mind.

[NoNOS67]

The Universals are garbage. Gun Clubs if you must, but the STS is probably the best hull out there for reloading right now. I used AA hulls exclusively for a number of years, but the new HS (high strength) hulls are a PITA!