Estate shotshell hulls

[Mr. 16 gauge]

My friend and I went shooting this past weekend, and he brought some Estate shotshells. We collected all the empties (I reload, he doesn't) and I am wondering if anyone has any data for reloading these hulls? I am looking for basically 1 oz target loads for these hulls, nothing more.
Thanks in advance..............

[dovehunter]

If it were me, and in the case of really light target loads, I probably would just experiment using different plastic wad columns and appropriate powder charges that, when coupled with the shot charge, would permit a good crimp. I know this is not "strictly by the book" but I have done it before - but only with really light loads - and have never had a problem. Normally though I only buy factory shells for which I have published loading data. If you're worried about it though, I'd just toss the empties.

[strut64]

Personally, I avoid estate or any federal hull. The reason being they have paper base wads and tend to split at the crimp. I have seen brand new never fired hulls with splits on the crimp. The paper base wads can get wet if left in the weather and there have been reports of coming loose and lodging in the barrel after firing. I prefer to buy( if I buy anything) and use Remington hulls since they are compression formed and though they may cost a bit more are much better to reload.

[Duffy]

Originally Posted by strut64

Personally, I avoid estate or any federal hull. The reason being they have paper base wads and tend to split at the crimp. I have seen brand new never fired hulls with splits on the crimp. The paper base wads can get wet if left in the weather and there have been reports of coming loose and lodging in the barrel after firing.

That is the case with Federal Top Guns, as they have a fiber base wad. Federal Gold Medals are one-piece and they reload well.

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Gee....I guess that I am the only one who actually likes Federal hulls for reloading?

I have used Federal hulls (the hi-powers, with the rolled paper base wad) for 35+ years, without any incident. I have found that with the proper combination of wad, powder, and shot, you can load just about anything from a 1 oz target load to a 1 1/2 oz turkey load with little difficulty. Can't say that about anything else out there....Winchester & Remington combined. The only thing that actually came close was the old Activ hull. I've used the paper basewad hulls for both steel shot, bismuth and hevishot reloads as well. I use the Gold medal hulls for certain applications as well.

Personally, I avoid estate or any federal hull. The reason being they have paper base wads and tend to split at the crimp.

I've seen just about every manufacturer have splits at the crimps, and the worst (for me, anyway) have been Winchester AAs, both old and new style.....they split when being crimped, let alone fired!

The paper base wads can get wet if left in the weather and there have been reports of coming loose and lodging in the barrel after firing.

Well, I don't leave my hulls out in the weather....I keep mine in a box in the basement. I'd like to see some of those reports of bases coming loose. I had a brand new Winchester shell leave the whole &$#^#! case (plastic tube and base wad) in the chamber once.....the only thing that came out was the metal head, which slipped off nicely, leaving me with a jammed shotgun on a duck hunt!

THanks for the info..........................

[Duffy]

Originally Posted by Mr. 16 gauge

Gee....I guess that I am the only one who actually likes Federal hulls for reloading?

I didn't say I didn't like them. In fact, I'll reload Top Guns once and discard, and I'll be going to the Gold Medals for multiple reloads. Again, I understand that they reload well. I've read of isolated incidents of hull separation, etc., but you could get that with anything, such as you've said.