This reminds me, there was a fella at the shoot I attended Saturday who had an old paper hull heater for sale. When it dawned on me what it was, I couldn't find the guy again.

MountainSteve:

I reloaded Federal Papers for over 25 years before switching to the Federal Gold Medal ribbed plastic hull. The Federal Paper hull of the 1970's and 80's was superior IMO to the current Federal Paper hull. The older hulls had thicker paper and thicker brass heads than today's hull.

That said, the current Federal Paper hull is still a very good hull to reload. You just need to take more time to check the hulls for pinholes around the base and blown away portions of the crimp.

As to wads, the old Federal 12C1 two piece wad is no longer made. However, the Claybuster red 12C1 clone is a good replacement.

The Federal Paper hull is straight walled and IMO has slightly less capacity than the Federal Plastic hull. Selecting a dense powder or shooting 1 oz. loads gave me better crimps.

I used to put a strip of masking tape around my 6 point crimping die and mark a pencil line along one of the points of the crimping die. I would then align a crease in the paper hull with the pencil line to get a factory like crimp. MEC now makes a smooth crimping die for the Federal Paper that eliminates this step.

I used to put my Federal Paper empties in an open target box in the top of my garage. The heat got them nice and dry and probably remelted the wax to make the hulls a little stronger.

All in all, I switched to the Federal Plastic Gold Medal hull (smooth and then ribbed) to save time.

Nothing beats the smell of a Federal Paper hull shot with Red Dot powder.

There is a lot of reloading data for the paper hull. "Games" shooters still concoct some awesome loads using the old WW red wad, Blue Dot powder, and a double hand full of large shot.

A good idea is to buy new Federal Papers, claim the Federal rebate and sell the empties.

Ed Ward

There you have it..Well Said..school_teacher has it Right. Shoot well..Shoot Often,with Good Friends, Bart

Try loading the hulls without the crimping die installed on a mec press. It was suggested to me to try it that way and I have been doing it like that ever since. I get perfect crimps. John..............

Do you mean the crimp starter?

Ajax

Ponsness-Warren (and maybe others) make a cone type crimp starter station specifically to load the paper hulls. It nicely forms the crimp into where the folds were originally. ....Rick

Yes, I meant the crimp starter. My mistake. John............