OK, I have seen various opinions on Cheddite/Estate/Rio/Kemen and other 2 piece hulls. I am considering picking up a Mec Automate rig for the sole purpose of reloading these readily available hulls and letting them fly after 1 reload. My understanding is Mec would be the best loader due to the primer seat station pushing a possible base wad back down? Wish gun clubs were flying at my club, but it is mostly the Cheddite and Estate with a few others thrown in.
Is anyone else reloading these "disposable" hulls, and if so, how is it working for you? On the various powder sites, I see both straight and tapered wads with reloading data?
Any input is greatly appreciated before I head off down a dead end road. If you prefer, take it off line with PM or my email is above with the obvious adjustment needed.
One of my shooting buddies either picks up all the cheap federal hulls or most of the guys shooting O/U's save them for him. He loads them once, especially for trap. He shoots very well with them too. He's 78 years young and averages 96 with a 20ga shooting skeet and averages 17 shooting scrap. Jackie B.
Misc. Eurotrash hulls are the best-kept secret in all of reloading.
Every loader has quirks and ... features, and all of them will work well, however sometimes the PW and H366 have occasional priming issues.
The biggest issue with reloading Eurotrash is re-sizing the steel head. Wad separation is not really an issue - regardless of the scare-stories you hear. A penlight is your friend when you pick up any grounded hulls.
Your two next best friends (regardless of your loader) are clones of the Federal 12S0 & S3 wads. DR XXL-Orange wad is special for 7/8 or 15/16oz loads, too, and there is not one thing wrong with CB 6100 & 6118, neither.
The very most valuable & easiest thing you can do for yourself is to get a smooth cone crimp-starter ... that way you can load 6- and 8-pt crimps interchangeably and shoot rainbow bullets.
The two hulls I'm not a real fan of reloading are the Winchester universal and the B&P 'Gordon System' with the collapsed balloon in the head.
And ... once you get a 'One Ounce' load you're happy with (and '1-1/8') lock it in and load the identical load in everything, regardless of the color of the hull, or type of basewad.
Sounds like Bob above is dialed right in there. The Claybuster CB-6l00 is a one oz. wad and the CB-6ll8 is the l l/8 th oz wad. These wads will work with Fed. hulls and the Cheddites as well. The Rio's and Kemans are Cheddite hulls by the way!!! I use Claybusters all the time and do not get the fouling I hear about. I do clean my barrels after every day of shooting. Sounds like he's got around the different 6-8 point crimps as well. Good Luck bending over picking up all those hulls. Better you than me!!! LOL. Break-em all. Jeff
Jeff, the HULL is the least important component in reloading - it's ONLY job is to hold the goodies without spilling.
My 'bidness' bullets for duck & geese are paper federals and 12C1 wads ... but that is just because of the psychic coin they return to me: before during and after the hunt.
Else, I purely loathe reloading so I make it as painless & fast as possible, but me and my grand'dau shoot my rainbows for everything from 5/8oz or ¾oz for trap & skeet, to 7/8 & 1oz for dove, quail, mocking birds, cormorant, dragonflies, hummingbirds, frogs, toads, ... whatever needs killing.
Currently she favors the pretty lavendar ones, but last year she liked red, white and blue ones. Wimmin ...
Bob, while what you say its true to a point. I purely loathe bending down and picking up that many hulls around all the shooters at my club. Then to many are stepped on and bla bla bla. Its much easier on me to pay the piper if need be, and pay the 4 cents apiece and reload 8 times. Thats 1/2 of a cent per load or 12 and half cents a box, Or 50 cents a hundred. For 50 cents I don't want to go around and pick up 100 empty hulls or more every time I go to the range. It is nice thoght when a shooter will keep them for you and put them in your bag at the end of a round. LOL. Break-em all. Jeff
I reload the federal and estate loads with fed primer, 17.5 gr promo 1oz shot and green duster wads. they work very well dispite tapered wad in straight hull. (got my 1st 100 straight using them this year!) I reload once and let them go. May try kemens since club switched to them now. anybody reload them? I have tried winchester univesals and have had bad luck either cant get crimp to stay shut or buckle the hull.
I dont know how much you are shooting per week but in my case, I shoot a 100 rounds per week. I used to run around gathering hulls until I realized that if I bought a flat of premium shells and shot them off, saved them and reload the same 100 every week, they last a long time. If you take the cost of the hulls out of the cost of the shells, it is not that much more than your reloads (of course its more but not that much)it saves you from trying to find hulls, saves you space,you shoot the same hulls all the time and I find that the hulls seem to last longer or at least get more reloads out of each hull as you are not letting them sit there drying up.
I agree with "Pull & Mark" I load cheep Federals with 1oz. 8's, 18.8 grs. promo, CB 6100, and Fiocchi 616 (209) primers for 16yd.Trap. Works fine for me. With the many, many empties available for the taking, load once and throw them away...
I may no longer reload Rem Gun Clubs because of the bases I`ve found coming off the new once fired shells plus the steel bases are harder on my reloader to resize so I will stick with STS green and gold . I have tubs of them .
Goatskin's comment about the hull being the "Least" important component is flawed. The hull also helps contain the "Firing" event and is just as important as having a solid chamber to fire it in. Most hull failures are not catastrophic, but it is possible to have enough leakage of hot gasses to ruin your day.
Didreckson
Why do you continually post about this? Your previous threads asked for advice. You are now going to do what I consider to be a very foolish practice. Just be aware that once a base wad has moved, the hulls integrity is questionable. Simply pushing the base wad back down still does not fix the reason it moved in the first place. The Hull is DEFECTIVE! I've made my opinion about the Eurotrash hulls known. The Federals might be a better choice, provided you make sure they never got wet. Do as you please, but don't complain here if you have trouble. I'd strongly recommend using a hull that has proven to be a solid performer, even IF you have to pay for them. If you hate to see all of those Eurotrash hulls go to waste, make a deal with a local recycling company. I see no reason to waste time and good components on a garbage hull.
I have inquired probably 3 times on this subject. Not looking for a moving average, but received many positive comments back, and you believe it is a terrible practice. Perhaps your comments have me concerned so much that the dozens of positive ones are negated? Kind of like one Aw S??? wipes out a hundred atta boys?
There is no doubt merit on both sides. I believe if done with careful inspection, the euro trash shells will load 1 time and fly just fine. Like anything else, if done carelessly, big trouble. I am not trying to sign up for trouble, just looking to use wasted resources. I just spoke with Kevin at DownRange on wad recommendation, and he was not the least bit concerned.
By the way, I load STS/Nitro hulls on Spolar 2225 and hydraulics currently. Just wanted to use the millions of hulls laying around being thrown away, Mec seems to be the preferred unit due to sizing of steel and primer seating. Buying a new Automate won't break the shooting budget.
Sorry to have brought it up again. Won't make that mistake in the future.
Darrell, Quack & I agree to disagree abt some things, but I'll stay with my comments.
I load them pretty-much mine-run (on an old Pacific) without thought and (speaking of current production), I can't remember a loose primer or loose basewad.
Unless you just want to invest in a MEC + automate, use your Spolar. That carbide re-sizing ring handles steel head hulls just fine, but you'll have to do some crimp adjusting, I'd wager.
Or, get an old MEC or Lachmiller decapper/resizer and batch size your empties first.
Just reloaded my first estates using greendot,18.2 gr,cheddite primer,green duster wad,,had to readjust crimper though from the setting I had for gunclubs.It would dish(cave -in) on the estates. As above threw a federal in there and it crimped well also.Don't plan on using to many of them.Leaning towards better remingtons in the future.Got a box of Nitro's to try out and use them for reloads.Also sent a message to Alliant because estate shells are not listed in their loads.I always send them info wheather it's a powder charge issue,primer issue or in this case a shell issue.I'd rather be over cautious and get a reply than cause a problem on the trap line.
Thanks goatskin...I was considering this move partially due to hull availability, and with a new Mec automate I could reload at another home I have. Leave the Spolar setup for the STS/Nitro, which I have 6-7 thousand hulls anyway.
I ordered cheddite primers and Clay Dot powder to give it a whirl. Bunch of guys at the club go in together and get a small truck load at one time of components. Load the euro trash to quote Quack on the Mec with the resizing collet and primer station that would work better on the junk, and the good stuff on the Spolar.
dhip, you won't be disappointed in the STS/Nitro hulls. They are fabulous, load great. I only use Winchester 209 primers with those on the Spolar, work slick as can be. Figured on the load once and fly, cheddites should be fine, and some mighty good shooters at my club swear they are great.
Steel bases loaded with steel collar/bezel primers tend to wear your receiver. Even if they are as flush as you can get them. I see that result all the time. the brass bases have a bit of give and it is easier to get the primer all the way into the brass base.
If you are going to load euro-trash hulls use euro-primers.
[Nobel,Rio,Fiocchi,etc...] The larger primers fit the hull better.
While I am not a fan of euro-trash hulls I have had very good luck loading Nobel cases with Fiocchi primers. Nobel plastic cases are 8 point crimp and load great.
But I have LOTS of Rem. gun clubs to load and leave the euro-trash in the trash.
In three threads and much comment about the subject, you seem to have already opened the door for an issue. Most of the Cheddite primers currently sold in the USA (MX-2000 if memory serves me) would be a loose fit in the Eurotrash hulls. Rio and Nobel Sport primers would be a better fit. Fiocchi 615 primers would work also if you can find any, but the 616's are smaller. Can't comment on the 617's, since I have not had the opportunity to inspect them.
dhip
Your load sounds fine. Usually, you might have to adjust your press for the Estate/Federal hulls. Using a wad that was designed for the hull could improve the crimps as well. I use the Federal 12S0 wads for 1oz and the 12S3 for 1 1/8. I have one press that has been set up for these hulls and have had good results with them. That press will also load Remingtons with no adjustments. Alliant used to list data for the "2 3/4in Federal Hulls with Paper Base Wads". That data is fine for the Top Guns, Federal, and Estate hulls with the paper base wads. You could also use data listed for the Federal Gold Medal Hulls, provided you stay away from the higher pressure loads as a precaution. Contacting Alliant might give you some additional data and advice, as well as confirm the data you already have.
Just a reminder, Noblesport hulls have base wads, I would never use them in any auto-loader,especially if I was using an auto-loader for doubles.
Phil Berkowitz
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