[hunter44]

I have shooting friends who reload a hull a couple of times & chuck it. They claim that the crimp is weakened by reloading & affects velocity & patterns.

Other shooters will reload a hull until the crimp pedals will barely hold shot in the wad.

My question is: Has anyone ever checked velocity & patterned a hull after each load to verify that performance is or is not lost with each successive reload?

I would love to see a graph showing the speed & pattern efficiency of reload 1 through 10 or 12 using the same hull..........I had planned to do it some day but have not up to now so I thought I would check with the experts.

 

[Neil Winston]

I can dig up some data regarding speed and pressure if that interests you. Here's the short version: Quit at six or so and you've no worries. Patterning is way too much work and expense when you can just be double-dog sure by throwing the hull a reload or two early.

Neil

 

[hunter44]

Thanks Neil, I usually throw them at about 5 reloads but was just curious about what a 10 or 12 time loaded hull would lose in velocity.

 

[FLIP]

I seem to remember Shotgun Sports did this a few years back,Think it was a STS reloaded 30 times, thought it did not change that much in velocity,

 

[OldGoat]

After 5 reloadings you have about amortized a 4 or 5 cent hull to 1 cent or less....you aren't saving much, and you are - as Neil notes - sacrificing shell performance to some unknown extent. Consider loading them 5 times, but after the 5th (maybe 6th time) they go in the "practice" batch and then in the trash. Best Regards, Ed

 

[Neil Winston]

This isn't the one I was looking for, but it covers most of the ground

The long thin bars are the range, extreme spread. The fatter "boxes" enclose 50% of the readings. The red horizontal line is the mean, or average.

Note 1. Many have read that a reload "Loses nn feet per second" with each use. This does not happen or, perhaps, only happens in shotgun magazines.

Note 2. The most deviant shells, which began to show up at about reload 7, were not the worst looking. They all looked pretty bad, but you couldn't tell by looking which were going to shoot OK, which weren't.

Note 3. I ran this out with Blue Magics and Gold Medals to 8 reloads and nothing ever changed with either of them. Both looked like they would go on forever.

Neil

 

[Trap4]

30 times to reload a hull NO way.
Trap-4

 

[shot410ga]

I reload AA's and STS's until I find a pinhole or split in the petals, and/or body. Then toss them in a can until I get a few hundred, reload them once more, shoot them at practice and toss. I never could keep track nor do I care how many times a hull is reloaded, as long as it passes my inspection. I have been surprised at how well even the old junkers I'm trashing, break targets. I don't think there is much of a conection in how many times a hull is loaded, and in how well it breaks a target.

 

[skeet100]

I shoot till I get holes or petals fall off.

Any test would have to be done using exact weighted charges. I know my Mec, that I am 100% happy with it, can vary a little in it's drops, which can result in slight differences of FPS and could be wrongly read as hull crimp issues. I have also shot a few over a chronograph and it will tell the tell on things you "thought" were ok.

 

[Neil Winston]

skeet 100, my tests in the graphic above were done with exact ( 1/10 grain) weighed charges for the reasons you cite.

Neil

 

[phirel]

Did anyone notice that the first reloads had less variance than the factory shells?

My shells get 4-5 reloads.

Pat Ireland

 

[lytnin1]

Neil. cannot open link to your test results, can you email me link please.
REgards Charlie