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AA hulls with B&P z2 24mm wads 12ga

2K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  sporter62 
#1 ·
hi all, i am new to reloading and this forum.

asking for some feedback please. does anyone have experiences loading #2 shot steel with AA hulls and the B&P z2 24mm hulls. i only ask as i am getting 2,500 hulls and 10,000 wads soon for a good price.

thanks
Ralph downunder
 
#2 · (Edited)
Welcome to TS.com.

No experience reloading that BP wad in AA Hulls. I will point out a couple of things.

First, the AA hull is a tapered-wall hull and the BP was is designed for use in straight walled hulls. The use of wads designed for use in straight-walled hulls in tapered walled hulls is contraindicated because the wads have power cups with a larger diameter than wads designed for tapered walled hulls. They don't fit well because the base of the wad is too big around for the the AA hull.

Next, there are two types of AA hull, the old style AACF and the new style AAHS. While the loading data says the 2 types of hulls are interchangeable, they are not, the AAHS his configured differential internally and many loads give "stack height" issue. The stack height of the load listed in the data is too tall with resulting crimp problems and sometime hull buckling or crushing. Do you know which type hull are will be getting. Or, are the AA hulls they sell down under different than the ones we have in the US?

Next, steel shot reloading is a niche reloading specialty and typically requires special steel shot wads (I note B & P has a separate line of wads made for loading steel shot). There is separate data for loading steel, you can't use data for loading lead shot and simply substitute steel, the volume of the shot charge is different (much larger) and it takes significantly more steel shot pellets to make a given weight. What type powder do you intend to use? There are only a handful of powders suitable for loading steel shot.

Thus, those wads just seem wrong to me on a couple of levels.

Last, I have to ask what you intend to use the loads for. Steel shot, especially #2, typically is used for waterfowl hunting (at least in the US where it is required). I don't know what the requirements are down under. But 10,000 #2 steel reloads sounds like a lot. Just asking. You say you are new to the hobby so I thought I'd ask.
 
#3 ·
Hi there Nebs, thank you so much for your reply.
The hulls i will be getting are the classic AA CF hulls and as far as i have figured it out, they are tapered hulls.?
I went to the range yesterday after shooting completed for the day and was able to retrieve lots of once fired hulls left there. looks like most of them are Federal Top Gun red and similar amounts of Eley Olympic blues as well as the cheapest Diana reds. They all seem to be two piece with straight walls, but with a tapered white disk at the bottom, apart from the Federal, which seems to made out of cork ( reloading problem?)
in the mean time i have also received 500 mystery hulls which i cant place. even after looking on the web from different manufacturers, it still eludes me.( see photo).
This seems to be a very complicated process of finding the right combinations, hull, wads, powder, primers and shot
here in Australia where duck hunting is allowed, less and less states are now, it is law to use steel shot. I have noticed that there is a special powder to use for steel too.
i wont be needing to make that many steel shots, maybe enough to get me by for this coming season and next years season, for a start. the rest will be made in lead for rabitt and fox shooting, #2 or #4 and then the various ones i will be taking to the range for skeet/trap practice to keep my skills up to speed.
i have also noticed that there are many variations in height of the wad, cup volume etc. Where do i start???? so confusing. It seems that the powder also influences the volume that is taken up in the hull and this will influence the wad that is to be used and its overall length.
i havent decided which relaoding book to get, as most of them are designed for the States and what is available there, which btw is heaven for variety and pricing.
if you have a recommendation for a good powder and a good reference book for load data, much appreciated.
in the mean time, its back to having 20 browser tabs open, trying to find a good source of knowledge. ( hoping to find the Dummy guide 101 to reloading).

cheers again for your help

Ralph Cylinder
 
#4 ·
It sounds like you need to read up on the some of the basics. In the US, the advice is 2-fold. First, obtain a copy of Lyman's Reloading Manual, 5th edition, it will guide you through all the ins and outs. It is the equivalent to a "Reloading for Dummies."

Second, for data, in the US, our 2 major powder vendors, Hodgdon and Alliant, have online reloading data guides that include steel shot. I suggest you browse them to get a handle on what works with what. I don't know who the powder vendors are down under but I suspect they too have online reloading data guides. I think you have Winchester powders available down there and if so, the Hodgdon guide I referred to has data for that brand of powder.

And those straight walled hulls you picked up at the range will work well with those B&P wads you have coming. The only tapered walled hulls are the Winchester AAs and the Remingtons (all varieties). But once again, those B & P wads probably are not suitable for loading steel shot. The plastic in the what cup is too thin and will allow the steel shot to scratch the barrel of your shotgun. Steel shot wads generally are made of thicker plastic.
 
#5 ·
ordering the Lyman's as we speak., thanks for the tip.
looks like my photo of the mystery wad didnt post, will try again now.
the most common powders we have here are alliant and ADI, so will need to see whether blue green or red dot work and compare them with the as30n ap50n and as70n.

thanks again Nebs Aqua Turquoise Green Glass Product


here the mystery wad, seems a bit loose in the straight shell, so thinking it might be for a tapered shell.

cheers mate
 
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