Expansion.

 

It has to to do with elasticity of the metal.

Brass is used for rifle shells most commonly for a reason. As the controlled burn of the powder contained within the shell creates a cloud of expanding gas it causes a substantial rise in pressure within the cartridge. There is clearance between the outside wall of the shell and the inner wall of the chamber. As this gas expansion continues the brass is forced outward against the chamber wall. Once the projectile has exited the barrel and pressure drops the brass contracts to near it's original dimension.

The same is true of the metal base of a shotgun shell.

Steel does not have the same amount of elasticity as does brass so while it still expands to the limits of the inner chamber wall it does not contract as fully as a brass hull will.

Chambers of guns, while meant to fall within a defined dimensional specification are not 100% uniform - from gun to gun and from manufacturer to manufacturer there will be variations in the size of the chamber. (Certain makes/models tend to be worse for this than others)

Depending on your unique firearm's dimensions shells will easily or not so easily contract - this may make them difficult to extract.

 

It has to to do with elasticity of the metal.

Brass is used for rifle shells most commonly for a reason. As the controlled burn of the powder contained within the shell creates a cloud of expanding gas it causes a substantial rise in pressure within the cartridge. There is clearance between the outside wall of the shell and the inner wall of the chamber. As this gas expansion continues the brass is forced outward against the chamber wall. Once the projectile has exited the barrel and pressure drops the brass contracts to near it's original dimension.

The same is true of the metal base of a shotgun shell.

Steel does not have the same amount of elasticity as does brass so while it still expands to the limits of the inner chamber wall it does not contract as fully as a brass hull will.

Chambers of guns, while meant to fall within a defined dimensional specification are not 100% uniform - from gun to gun and from manufacturer to manufacturer there will be variations in the size of the chamber. (Certain makes/models tend to be worse for this tan others)

Depending on your unique firearm's dimensions shells will easily or not so easily contract - this may make them difficult to extract.

HSLDS you nailed it. Thanks for the explanation

 

This issue can also pertain to reloading the shotshell hulls with those type materials with reloaders that use resizing and/or full length resizing dies. The steel ones don't always want to come out of the tooling on the eject station as easily as brass. Got tired of watching every reload come out with steel heads and now only use empties with brass.

 

With Remington having made a test run of STS hulls with steel case heads, steel based hulls are here to stay.

Tight or undersized chambers, weak or obsolete extractor/ejector systems, and poorly polished chambers can be several causes of difficult extraction of these hulls. With this said, old styles of guns were not made for them, they did not exist at the time.

I have had great results by polishing chambers with a barrel hone if not chrome lined. Older sub gauge tubes gave issues with these hulls. Newer tubes simply have slightly larger, better polished chambers.

I use MEC presses with the collet resizer. Simply running the collet down a little more than I would a brass based hull has worked very well for me.

Last year I shot around 30K 410's at Sporting. The vast majority were Eurotrash hulls, which were all steel based. In 2 different Briley tubed guns, and one old European single shot, I had exactly ZERO issues.

At my club, these can literally be raked up after big shoots. I make sure I am there with a rake. :3a:

Free 410 hulls are a wonderful thing, and I can save my STS and AAHS hulls for tournaments and leagues.

 

HSLDS, I pretty much agree, just feel kind of queasy about enlarging my chamber, but I just bought 2 flats of Estates for 50 apiece at Cabela's. Maybe I'll try a polish with fine emery cloth. I know a brake cylinder hone will fit but I lost mine.

My Beretta has no problem with these hulls.

HM

 

halfmile,

I wouldn't want to enlarge the chamber either.

You might want to check it carefully for burrs or machining marks that could be polished out without altering the actual dimensions of the chamber.

Food for thought.

 

Simple answer is steel expands and takes a set, brass expands and contracts somewhat. Your Beretta has chrome lined barrels and your 90T doesn't making a difference how a gun digests shells. I shot a ton of Wally World shells and Gun Clubs through my 90T with no issues.

As a point of interest Winchester made steel head shells during WWII and after for the retail market as a promotional line.


Surfer

 

I usually use Walmart's Federal or Winchester 4 packs for practice shooting. Before I shoot them I place each individual shell in a go no go gauge for factory shells. On an average, 3 or 4 shells will not fit in my gun straight out of the box. I have spoke to other shooters about this and one guy said some of these shells for some reason are leaving the factory not sized correctly? He said using steel should have no bearing if shot right out of the box the first time if they are sized correctly at the factory. These shells are not supposed to be reloaded he told me?
Steve Balistreri
Wauwatosa Wisconsin

 

HSLDS is correct. I have yet to see a 90-T that did not have problems with these shells. The economy WW are the worst.

The problem also happens not only because of HSLDS's explanation, but also the indented rings that are developed in the chamber area from the edge of the metal bases being compressed against the wall of the chamber. That gives that expanded base more to grab when it does not flex back.

 

I've done a lot of polishing to my Ljutic 73's chamber and that has helped a lot to stop the sticking.

 

Same problem with my 90T, 8 out of 10 will stick, simple answer I don't use them.

 

No problems with GC's in my Caesar Guerini but I have noticed my PW 800+ working harder to reload those hulls.

 

HM: I have the same problem w/my 90T but only with RIO'S no problem with gun clubs or Estate just RIO'S and you really have yo give them a serious poke to dislodge them.

 

I had that problem with the Winchester Universal shells in my 870. I polished the chamber and it reduced the problem 95%. Never had the problem with the cheap Federal shells or Gun Clubs. Haven't had an issue with any shell in my SV10.

 

I load lots of steel base gun clubs and federal, the reloader does work a little harder however we have no issues with sticking in my K80 and my grandsons TM1. I do use a micrometer to set up my reloaders.

 

Barrel hones are not made to enlarge the chamber, but are designed to reduce tool marks. Testing a chamber hone to destruction enlarged the test chamber less than .002".

If SAAMI ammo will not chamber in your gun, it is the gun. If it were not the ammo, it would not chamber in different guns, not just one model, brand or type.

When I was in the gun fixin' business, small gun makers would buy used reamers from major gun makers. They started out small, and got worse. They were cheap.

 

My 90T will not spit out the Winchester universal shells .

 

In the old days when a lot model 12s were used, fired hulls from those guns wouldn't come close to fitting any Remington chamber without being resized!
The 90-T is a Remington gun and built with tight chambers! Ljutic is another gun with tight chambers. Polishing chambers to remove tool marks usually cures the stickie steel hull problem. Even so, I don't care much for steel based hulls!!

HAP

 

You can also try promo loads from Fiocchi that are brass plated steel based. They are still steel but has a thin layer of brass plated over them, supposed to aid extraction.

My wife and I both use Benelli semi-autos for trap shooting, and steel based shells are all we use. Never had any problems and I buy whatever that is cheapest out there.

 

My wife won a Remington 870 express shotgun at our local rod and gun club annual membership banquet. The chamber on this shotgun was not the smoothest and would exhibit the same problems as others have described. I got my Brownell's flex hone out and did a quick polish job on the chamber. Now the chamber is super smooth and the previous problems have been eliminated.

 

After polishing the chamber, a little wax on the metal part of the hull
that contacts the chamber will act as a release agent. This should end
the problem of a sticking hull. HMB

 

Don't enlarge the chamber. It allows even more expansion.

 

I polished the chamber of a 90-T that had this problem, and it made no real difference. Sure less of them stuck in the chamber, but you still had to use a wooden dowel to extract the ones that remained. So, even though before you had to punch out 15 of the 25, now you were punching out 10 of the 25.

I will reload the brass based hulls for this reason alone, no matter the cost. The damage, and wear to your gun that those cheap shells cause are not worth the savings, IMO.

 

The reasons listed above. One thing I noticed. Some of the steel headed hulls are not as "sized " straight out of he box as they are after I run them through my Size Master. A couple of new ones I found wouldn't clear my go/no go gauge. One thing for sure ,shell headed hulls and "tight" chambers don't mix well!

 

HSLDS explained it perfectly.

A brass based hull costs around 5 cents as a once-fired. You can easily load these enough times to reduce the cost to less than a penny per shot. If you invest 20 cents or so a box all these problems will go away.

An old gunsmith rule is to work on the minor (cheaper part) as it costs less to screw up. The empty hulls are by far the cheapest component we have. If all Remington's are going to steel bases in the future (STS & Nitro's) I can live without Remington in my life.

 

I've run more different shells, then I can remember, and reloaded them as well, and have
never had one stick in my Kolar, or Caesar Guerini.