Grab your shells 5 at a time and look inside every hull to be sure it is empty.
Do not rely on shaking them, some are actually sabotaged w/foreign objects let alone gravel from being raked up.
I have found chewing gum, gum wrappers, and even a dime in empties.
After inspecting the hulls, I go one step further w/Federal Top Guns, Estates and all shells w/ paper base wads, I put them on a cookie sheet and put them in an oven approx 170-200 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, leave them in the oven on the sheet until they cool down for easy handling before reloading them.
Serves 2 purposes, dries them out, no bloopers from moisture, less smoke.
I would bet that some gun blowups are caused by debris in empty hulls, in early years I had stumbled on this, a stone wedged in the powder drop tube and held back powder drop, then dislodged and dropped a large volume of powder, at the time I was loading Wnnchester Super Lite and a double charge could easily been done as the bushing was a #19 Super Lite Is a heavy Dense Ball Powder and would easily take a double charge.
Just think what chewing gum would do?
Gary Bryant
Dr.longshot
Do not rely on shaking them, some are actually sabotaged w/foreign objects let alone gravel from being raked up.
I have found chewing gum, gum wrappers, and even a dime in empties.
After inspecting the hulls, I go one step further w/Federal Top Guns, Estates and all shells w/ paper base wads, I put them on a cookie sheet and put them in an oven approx 170-200 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, leave them in the oven on the sheet until they cool down for easy handling before reloading them.
Serves 2 purposes, dries them out, no bloopers from moisture, less smoke.
I would bet that some gun blowups are caused by debris in empty hulls, in early years I had stumbled on this, a stone wedged in the powder drop tube and held back powder drop, then dislodged and dropped a large volume of powder, at the time I was loading Wnnchester Super Lite and a double charge could easily been done as the bushing was a #19 Super Lite Is a heavy Dense Ball Powder and would easily take a double charge.
Just think what chewing gum would do?
Gary Bryant
Dr.longshot