[Pull & Mark]

The fact remains that steel base hulls do not contract the same as brass hulls, after the shell is fired. So your empty tin based metal hulls will retain a larger size when your firearm goes to extract the hull from your chamber. If your empty hulls stick somewhat? This will cause extra wear and tear on your shotguns ejectors. You would never even know how often this happens? This Causes your ejectors to break at a much faster rate. The same can be said when it comes to loading these hulls. You have to set your collet resizer even tighter than brass. This causes more more wear and tear on your resizer. So you have to replace it more often. Steel can also cause your breechface to wear at a faster rate as well. So Brass is just less of a problem overall in general.
I have issues trying to get the damn GC hulls into my resizer at times. The hull is expansed beyond the 6 shell U-shaped turret collar. So, I have to wiggle the hulls to get them in, then they do not drop into the resizer very well. Once the shell is resized, I have no issue removing and replacing the same hulls. Its just a kind of annoying quirk. To each their own!!! I say life is too short to reload trash hulls!!!
Which is not to say, I might reload some GC hulls to shoot at at a NSCA event with my 391!!! I mean why kick out good brass hulls on the ground. Since it is not allowed to pick up your empty hulls while others are waiting to shoot!!! break em all jeff

 

[allen.williams396]

Hello,
Testing the waters as they say. Is there a market for one shot Gun Club hulls in the reloading world?
Just curious.
Thanks

Just look through the trash cans at the club where you shoot. You'll find all you want for free.

 

[DooFighter]

The fact remains that steel base hulls do not contract the same as brass hulls, after the shell is fired. So your empty tin based metal hulls will retain a larger size when your firearm goes to extract the hull from your chamber. If your empty hulls stick somewhat? This will cause extra wear and tear on your shotguns ejectors. You would never even know how often this happens? This Causes your ejectors to break at a much faster rate. The same can be said when it comes to loading these hulls. You have to set your collet resizer even tighter than brass. This causes more more wear and tear on your resizer. So you have to replace it more often. Steel can also cause your breechface to wear at a faster rate as well. So Brass is just less of a problem overall in general.
I have issues trying to get the damn GC hulls into my resizer at times. The hull is expansed beyond the 6 shell U-shaped turret collar. So, I have to wiggle the hulls to get them in, then they do not drop into the resizer very well. Once the shell is resized, I have no issue removing and replacing the same hulls. Its just a kind of annoying quirk. To each their own!!! I say life is too short to reload trash hulls!!!
Which is not to say, I might reload some GC hulls to shoot at at a NSCA event with my 391!!! I mean why kick out good brass hulls on the ground. Since it is not allowed to pick up your empty hulls while others are waiting to shoot!!! break em all jeff

By your reasoning, shooting brand new shells with steel bases should cause these problems as well with ejectors and breech face wear? I'm not buying it.

I've not had any of the sticking, etc. to make me thing steel based hulls are inferior. Is it possible your gun chambers are a teensy bit larger than standard, possibly causing this problem for you and maybe some others? But not necessarily wide spread? Just wondering

 

[Pull & Mark]

I've not had any of the sticking, etc. to make me thing steel based hulls are inferior.

Your hulls don't have to totally stick. All they have to do is become twice as hard to remove. This puts twice the stress on your ejectors. This is the main reason tin based hulls have never been used over the last 80+ years. I don't think that breechface wear is much of a issue today. Since most shotguns today have caseharded breechfaces. Soft breechfaces also cause out of round firing pins holes. A known problem with the old Rem. 3200 and some Perazzi's. But you will still bend ejectors. Have you ever been on the line when someone next to you had the ejector go under the rim of a shell??? This is caused by shells sticking in your chamber. A shooter will not know how often this happens. How many hundreds of shells were stuck to some degree before his ejector went under that shell??? Unless their is a large delay between the time you open the action and the hull ejects, its hard to tell if your hull is sticking.
If you don't reload? Then you don't have to worry about extra wear on your collet resizer. Many Hi-End shotguns don't like to eject tin steel based hulls. Some are still in production today. But, most shotguns made today will handle all tin based ammo. Some of your older Pumps and Auto's made in the 60's and 70's do not like tin based ammo. Some Auto's today do not like certain brands of tin based shells. But will function fine with brass based shells. While this is not a big problem, its worth mentioning. If I am going to spend hours behind a reloader. Reloading the very best shells I can, Why would I want to load tin based shells!!! Now, I can understand some shooters not being able to find good brass to start loading right now, with the shell shortage!!! But it would be worth their while to do so when they can. Just my 2 cents worth. break em all jeff

 

[machine121]

“to reload trash hulls!!!”

I would hardly call Gun Clubs trash hulls. I have a couple thousand in rotation that I have loaded 8-10 times, and am just now tossing the ones that are getting crispy. I have about 5,000 once fired in reserves.
Full disclosure: I do size them on a MEC Super Sizer first. That extra step is not necessary with my Spolar, but I do it anyway.

I shoot a Beretta DT10, and my brother-in-law shoots a Beretta 682. Never had a problem with ejection.

If anyone wants to give away any Gun Clubs, I’ll take them all.

 

[sandcountyalmanac]

They're very reloadable, and as previously mentioned, last quite a while with multiple reloading possible. Their only shortcoming is their variability in length, but that can be easily compensated for.

 

[Maplewood]

Nothing wrong with them, but you may need to adjust your resizing. The "spring back" after resizing is not the same as brass, but once adjusted, works for both. In my 9000H machine I can hardly feel the extra effort to resize steel. I have noticed more Rio, Fiocchi, Challenger hulls around the club and fewer Gun Club since Gun Club were a little harder to find this past year.

Absolutely right. Load forever, generally on the ground for picking. Tough on a Ponsness Warren with the steel base but re-sizing first takes care of it. Love the shell.

 

[perazzidave]

Erevyone is entitled to their opinion. For me I believe they are hard on the collet of my Mec 9000. I have sent my barrel to Phillips Gunsmithing and he repaired the chamber for me. I bought a used Undersingle Stan Baker barrel for my Perazzi MX8 and the chamber ended up swedged out larger forward of the block/face of the receiver after lots of targets shot. When I put my finger in the chamber I could feel the taper was larger where the brass or steel bases expanded up forward and sweged the chamber wider.
When I fired the steel base shell in my chamber they expanded to the top of the brass/steel forward and stuck in the barrel. I had a piece of 1/2" copper tubing full of lead for a knocker and had to use it on every steel base Rio I shot. The flip side is I could shoot STS brass based and they all ejected but didn't have any with me. Oh and I hadn't shot rio's for a long time and was unaware of the problem.
Now you want to have some fun at a registered shoot use 1 oz of Rios and knock every hull out with a knocker and get the next one in to shoot and have to do this every time you want to fire. I was worn out by the time I finished my first 100 at Vancouver Gun Club Canadian Provincial shoot years ago and broke a 97. I went over and borrowed 5 boxes of STS 1 1/8 lite 8's from a friend and on the second 1/2 same day I smoked 100 straight and finished High A class Out of Province and was having fun and not worn out with a 197.
You're all entitled to your opioions but this is my results with Steel base hulls in my gun. Since I have had my chamber fixed I have not had a hull stick shooting brass bases. I shot a small Canadian club and shot in a drawn from the hat Buddy Shoot and they supplied steel base shells and every one of them stuck in my chamber. When it was my turn a friend of mine walked up with me and after shooting he handed me his knock out toolProof in the Pudding as they say
and that's good enough for me.
PDave

 

[Gussers]

Curiosity drives me to ask - what is wrong with steel based hulls like Gun Clubs ? Granted brass based hulls like Winchester AA or Remington STS are more desirable - but why. I have heard more than once not to shoot steel based hulls in my Krieghoff. But not sure I can remember the specific reasoning behind the statement.

Brass will resize easier may be one reason. And Gun Club plastic may not be comparable to an STS hull; but, I have loaded a number of Gun Club hulls of late and find they make a good shell with several different powders. I.E. Red Dot, 700X, Promo (basically Red Dot I’m told), and others. Others have suggested steel based hulls are hard on firing pins. That doesn’t compute since the firing pin is only contacting the primer.

So, why are Gun Clubs (or other steel based hulls) given a bad name ?

A lot of guns can't shoot steel based shells. I can't in my Ljutic and I know most if not all Seitz won't take them either. They stick in the chamber. Yes I mean new as well. I don't shoot steel in my Ljutic. Last time I was hard up for ammo and that is all I had. 6 out of 50 stuck. Never again.

 

[Gil]

Hello,
Testing the waters as they say. Is there a market for one shot Gun Club hulls in the reloading world?
Just curious.
Thanks

I shoot a Ljutic X and a DT11. I can shoot new gun club shells in either gun. The Ljutic will not take GC shell after the first firing. I have a Lachmiller resizer that is built like a tank. If a GC goes through the Lachmiller I can shoot it in my Ljutic. About 10% of once fired GCs won't go through the Lachmiller. So far, nothing gets stuck in my DT. It takes everything resized or not.

 

[tomk2]

I can feel more resistance on my MEC 9000gn with gun clubs, but that’s it. I save em whenever I shoot somewhere I am required to pick up my own hulls, leave them when I am not. Since I have enough hulls to last my lifetime just reloading them all once or twice, the gun clubs are in the reload once list.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tony4338]

I load with a MEC650, and resize all of my empties with my hand resizer, even though they are shot out of my gun a BT99, even the empties that I load for my grandson and son-in-law. Never have a problem. Only problem now is finding reloading components.

 

[John Henry]

I just got an email today from Ballistic Products, they are offering once-fired Red White and Blue Federal Top Guns for 10 cents a piece. ($9.79 per 100)

My barn is a gold mine right now with STS and AA hulls!!

 

[sdroosterman]

One thing I can say about gun clubs- which is pretty much all I have reloaded for years- is that I have never had a case head separation while shooting them. I've had that happen with federals more than once.