Twice I found foreign Debris in hulls that I picked up. One jammed the Powder Drop and allowed a trickle then a large volume of powder dropped, It could have been catastratrophic if gone un-noticed. I have found rocks, chalky material and a Dime in a hull. All of this happened today during re-loading. I should have been paying closer attention. These were all Rio once fired hulls. I weighed every loaded hull to make sure there was no double charges or light charges, I opened every suspicious weight charged hull on my Digital Scale. Yours in Sport Gary Bryant.............................Dr.longshot
I have seen guys spit in hulls just before dropping them on the ground. Guess they didn't want them reloaded and they were too lazy to put them in the trash can. Big ole luggie with some tabaccie juice might not dry out quickly and gum up your primer knock out pin. Yuk!
Found a new issue yesterday, I am using my 9000H to load 400 shells for an 11 year old trapshooter, he shoots well and loves the game. His Dad provides the primers and the wads, I provide the shot and the powder. The boy collects his own hulls and inspects each and every one . Most stuff dumps out, its visible and not hard to eliminate. Yesterday I started running his prize hulls through the machine and ended up with a mess and a new experience. Gum!!! Could not see it, sticky so it stayed in the hull, finally after it was spread from deprime through prime and powder and shot stages I noticed things going to hell. Did not know one piece of old gum could cover so much area......... LOLOLOL . Finally got things cleaned up and Lane will have his ammo for next weeks registered birds........ Life is good............ Larry
On reloading shotgun shells that I pick off the ground, I De-prime thru my old Mec jr for that reason. I had a rock in one, one time in AA hull that kinda mess up my P/W loader. Also make sure you pick up dry hulls not after a rain storm like a friend of mine did one time. Loaded shells most did not fire.
I collect all my hulls from a couple of loacl clay grounds, take them home, de-prime them with my MEC De-prime/Re-size machine, put them into an old pillowcase, wait until my wife is out, then put them on a warm (NOT hot) cycle in the washing machine, with a very small amount of soap .....when they have finished, I transfer them to the dryer, again warm, NOT hot. 20 minutes later I have clean, dry hulls, and I never have a problem with dirt etc. I have been doing this for 40 years, never had a problem.
How many new washing machine have you had to buy. Or how many times have your washing machine repaired.
As a fully addicted hull gatherer I have noticed that for the last several months that 99% of the hulls in the receptacles are the straight wall offerings of Winchester and other various manufacturers. The straight wall design is not a problem and Gold Medal and the Estate/Cheddite are beautiful to load and perform well. These new offerings though are way cheapened. Bases are uncoated steel, many of the basewads are paper, plastic in the body is thin and brittle and often a 6 crimp... The high school team I help coach has to use new ammo, donation of a pallet of these was great for them as far as cost to shoot but numerous of the bases pull off upon extraction and we have noted numerous "off sounding" reports when fired, and the powder residue cakes up and really effects the operation of the semi-auto's. I loaded a few and if there was ever a "once and done" these offerings really fill that title. Larry
Was loading on my pw looked down right before I resized and saw a stink bug crawling out of the hull,Iwonder how many got by me and me
New to reloading and still building my stash of good shells. So I not picky about picking up brand name shells from the ground. Had a couple of close calls. Since then I quickly wash them in the sink with a small bottle brush. After they’ve dried I wear an “idiot light”, the kind strapped to you head and look in each one before I size it in my Supersizer.
Always a good idea to inspect hulls before stuffing with powder and primer's. I eventually settled on two hulls for reloading. Federal Gold Medal and Remington STS/Nitro27 with their one piece construction and brass base/rim. My press (MEC 9000H) is set so that I can load either without any adjustments other than the "pre-crimp" setting. A short while ago I purchased a depriming/hull conditioning die from Creative Loading Solutions. It tightens the primer pocket a bit, scrapes carbon from the crimp fold area and bells the hull mouth a bit. Certainly eased the loading process for me. I began gathering Top Gun hulls and finally figured out I needed the correct wad for the straight wall design and found I had to be cautious of moisture due to the paper base wad... I eventually switched to either the Gold Medal and Remington as they are one piece construction and base wad is integral. I have a good supply of them now, all sorted and inspected, I now discard them when the pleats begin cracking. We had a large (for us) shoot a week ago. We threw 20+ cases of birds so there was a lot of shooting.... An inspection of the hulls we gathered after the shoot produced only a small handful of "quality" hulls. The remainder were all shooting the economy line of shells offered by Winchester or Federal. All were of the straight wall design and would require the larger diameter wads and would, I am sure, load fine a time or two but the plastic is cheap and thin and the base/rim is steel or copper washed steel rather than brass. I always remember care is justified when putting together an explosive device that is going to go off a few inches from your face......... Larry
