Are these a tapered hull?

I wouldn’t reload those. Just wait until you can get some AAs or STS

The difference between those hulls and AA’s is the one pictured have a steel head and AA’s are brass which is easier to resize. These cheaper Winchester hulls with the 8 point crimp will reload just like AA’s.

The shell pictured above is a Reifenhauser 3 piece hull, similar to AA’s, Federal Top Guns and other European shells such as Cheddites, Fiocchi’s and others. These shells having a separate tapered base wad but are considered “straight walled“ hulls.

The 3 piece construction process is shown in this video.

While they technically are straight walled hulls, because of that separate basewad, they load like tapered walled hulls. So, you can use Rem and AA-style wads from CB and DR.

id load those the same as AA HS. Id probably load them once not worry about trying a second load but YMMV. Some of the cheaper hulls get crispy on the folds and crack real easy. With the multitude of Gun Clubs and other shells scattered about you can replace them pretty easily.

I've been loading them just like a AA. I bought several flats of them new. I only load them once though. I use them for doubles mostly, or play shooting when I don't feel like picking up the empties and I always seem to get around 20% or so that crimp really poorly.

OK your replies have convinced me to just toss these and continue loading my AA HS hulls.
Thanks for the discussion.

Not all Winchester hulls are created equal. Stick with the AA’s if you’re reloading Winchesters.

If those are the Super Targets- those are the shells my Ljutic wouldn't extract them when they were new. Although, my Beretta and my BT-99 do. But I tossed them anyway. I see the garbage cans at the club are loaded with them. That's probably why you found them on the ground. But good luck!!

Dscobbie said:

I picked up 26 of these last Sunday at the trap field. As I looked inside they appear to be a tapered base hull. If so I might reload 25 with 1 ounce loads of #8 short and use Titewad powder with the grey Claybuster wads (WAA12L or CB0178-12).

Anybody have opinions? Yeah I know they aren’t the quality of AA hulls but I thought if I can get a couple of reloads out of them before trashing I can make my stash of AA hulls last longer.

thanks for reading View attachment 1882196 View attachment 1882197

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I don't know what everyone is talking about. These particular Super Target hulls reload just fine. I used to shoot these before I got into reloading. I started saving them when I bought a reloader and was waiting to get everything I needed (reloader, powder, primers and AA's hulls).

I've reloaded and shot many of these... at least 6 or 7 times... at least. They hold up great. I used the CB0178-12 and CB1100-12 wads. Again... never a single problem with this hull.

I also reload AA's and STS's.. which are also tapered and use the same recipe and components. So do Gun Clubs.

If you are collecting hulls... AACF, Super Targets, Gun Clubs and STS hulls will all reload with the same recipe, components and machine setup. AACF are the older shells... they are still out there.

For me, the newer AAHS hulls are a little shorter and the crimps will be different than the hulls mentioned above. Be aware of that.

I have loaded bunches of them. I use the CB lightning wad which works well with them. They are my current " one and done" popper load. The only caution I would have is be careful of final crimp pressure to avoid crinkling the hull.

Dscobbie said:

OK your replies have convinced me to just toss these and continue loading my AA HS hulls.
Thanks for the discussion.

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Good decision. I repaired a number of those hulls before I had good supplies of hulls. They reload ok, and shoot ok. They work in a bind.

What I noticed with them is the hull plastic quality is what you would expect form a cheap low cost round.

I found them to last about 2 maybe 3 reloads. Every few shells I would notice the hull walls would tend to fold/collapse when my MEC pre crimp would put a bit of pressure on them.

I don't bother with them anymore. Fed. Top Guns, Winn AA, and Remington gun clubs tend to all reload very well for me with zero issues. Plus I always seem to be able to get plenty of them to reload.