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Brass shotgun shells

2K views 25 replies 10 participants last post by  Kimblelr... 
#1 ·
How do you reload brass shotgun shells?
 
#2 ·
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#3 ·
I've used them in my 16's for about 10 years in a non-nitro proofed drilling and a non-nitro proofed combination gun. If you're using black powder, a "square" load for whichever gauge you're shooting with the traditional wad column should give you at least decent results right out of the gate.

If you're wanting to use smokeless, I am of no help whatsoever.
 
#5 ·
I've still got some of Dad's old red hard plastic Alcan hulls. I've never reloaded them but a wad card is how you finish them up. I used to make shot shells for my M2 carbine for killing rats on guard duty. I'd drop a bit of wax over the lower powder charge and then another wad of wax over the shot charge. I suppose I could have made some hard carboard wads if I'd tried hard enough to come up with something. No manual for that stuff.
 
#11 ·
Evidently I misunderstood the question. Sized, primed, 70 grs. of Schuetzen Ffg, over powder card, fiber wad, 1 oz. of shot, OSC then covered with waterglass. I tried every glue but epoxy and super glue and none would hold up to recoil in drillings or combination guns. Waterglass does and, it also happens to be historically correct.
 
#12 ·
How do you prevent your waterglass from setting up in the jar?

I bought a quart jar at the drugstore. Only size they had. I poured an ounce or so into a Dixie bathroom cup and put the lid back on. I worked out of that Dixie cup until what was in there solidified. Then I threw the cup away and poured another ounce or so out of the jar into a fresh cup.

Third or fourth time I went back to that jar to get a new ounce or so into a cup, the top couple of inches in the jar was solid.
 
#14 ·
I've still got some of Dad's old red hard plastic Alcan hulls. I've never reloaded them but a wad card is how you finish them up. I used to make shot shells for my M2 carbine for killing rats on guard duty. I'd drop a bit of wax over the lower powder charge and then another wad of wax over the shot charge. I suppose I could have made some hard carboard wads if I'd tried hard enough to come up with something. No manual for that stuff.
Lol.. i have a few thousand old Alcan fiber and cork wads and a couple thousand Alcan nitro and overshot cards.
 
#17 ·
Alpo, it solidified that fast? From your post do I understand this happened in....an hour or so?
I don't know why unless it was open or had a loose cap. I can only assume air got to it over a period of time....I guess. The plastic bottle of about 12 ounces, I think, that I bought 3-4 years ago is still liquid. I was told to shake it up every few days because it will separate and solidify. Then invert the container, then next time you shake it, turn it the other way....which I haven't done for a couple weeks so I better go do it. I know it's still liquid because it sets on my loading bench so I don't forget to shake it up and flip the bottle....most of the time.
 
#21 ·
Alpo, it solidified that fast? From your post do I understand this happened in....an hour or so?
No, I'd open the jar and pour a couple ounces in the paper cup then put the lid back on the jar. And over the next day or so I would be able to use what was in the paper cup, until it set up.

So I would stop loading for a while. When I had shot all of them and I needed to load some more, I'd open the jar and pour a couple more ounces into a paper cup, then put the lid back on the jar and work out of the cup for a couple of days, until the stuff in the cup had solidified.

Over a six month or so period I got into the jar maybe four times. And when I went to use it the next time, it was solid.

Nobody ever told me about shaking it up, or turning the jar over. Ah well.
 
#19 ·
Depends on how they were stored. They were slightly wax coated but if left in high-ish heat the wax deteriorated. I have 4 or 5 boxes from my late father-in-law that are approaching 60 years old and they're like new. I have a bit over 1/2 a box of Winchester, 16 bore, 2 1/2 in. paper hulled shells from the 30's and while the box is about gone, the shells are fine. Dad and I sure loaded a lot of them when I was a kid and they always worked fine. They only went out because plastic is....cheap....and paper was cheaper than brass.

Oh, I went downstairs and my waterglass is fine. I shook it up good and turned over the bottle.
 
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#20 ·
Were I was reading about them swelling some and being hard to load or eject was in France during WW1 in the trenches . Field conditions guess is the wording was looking for . I saw some paper cartridges from 1860s that looked like were good enough to go shoot then and there . Not quite the same thing but your right how stuff is stored makes all the difference .
 
#22 ·
I was just fortunate a fellow German Gun Collector's Assn. member told me because I certainly had no idea. Evidently it works as I haven't used any in 2-3 years and mine is still liquid.
 
#23 ·
I haven't ever used waterglass but turning the bottle upside down makes sense to me, it's how I store my bottle of Tru Oil after opening it. Keeping it upside down and shaking it once in a while prevents the top of the oil from getting that dried out "skin".
P.S. carbon dioxide is what makes waterglass harden. Don't blow in the bottle. :)
 
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#24 ·
P.S. carbon dioxide is what makes waterglass harden.

I didn't know that either. I had heard of it and knew it was used for sealing brass OSC's but beyond that, I knew nothing.
 
#25 ·
I haven't used it myself, but it's sometimes mixed with sand and used in metal casting. After ramming the sand you give it a blast with co2 to harden the mold faster than waiting for it to set by itself.
 
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