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Joined: 22 Jul 2016 Posts: 17 Location: ohio

Reading Ohio Wirehair's post post about 7/8 federal loads got me thinking, not a good thing. I've reloaded 12, 16, &20 ga. shells for years, always following published data. But, I've reloaded metallic longer and will stray off the pages a bit looking for pressure signs. My question is what if any pressure signs show in shotshells or do they just fail. Thanks. Bob Lee

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2126 Location: Hudson,Wy

Shotshells operate at vastly lower pressures and the typical excessive pressure signs involved with metallic centerfire rifle cartridges tend to show up at levels several times higher than this range.

Joined: 15 Jun 2010 Posts: 1358 Location: Twin Cities, MN

There are no signs of excess pressure in plastic shotgun hulls. I loaded some "proof" loads for an old SxS someone gave me. At best guess I overloaded these to at least 14,000 psi, if not more. Put them in this old gun which was tied down with bungee cords and pulled the trigger with a string from around the corner. Put 4 rounds through each barrel. The hulls looked completely normal.
The gun appeared fine, but I don't shoot it due to serious mechanical issues not related to my testing.
Jeff

Joined: 26 Apr 2010 Posts: 3177 Location: NCWa

I read that when John Olin was developing the Winchester Model 21 that shells were loaded way over normal limits and fired in various makes of guns until all of the guns except the 21 came apart, however the 21 was still in good shape. I haven't read where anyone has said just what those loads or pressures were that overloaded the guns.

Joined: 10 Jul 2011 Posts: 30 Location: St.Louis, MO

When I was 14 I bought a Lee Loader in 12 ga from a local sporting goods store. There were no instructions inside so the clerk told me to cut open a factory shell and pour the powder into the Lee measure and mark the level so I would know how much powder to use.He sold me a pound of Herco, Alcan air wedge wads, primers and 5 pounds of shot.

I had all different types of fired hulls and loaded hundreds and fired them through a Stevens 311 without any problems, until one day. It was Christmas break so a friend and I went to a local public hunting area and walked around for a few hours only seeing a couple a small deer frozen to death on the ground, it was -14 degrees out. We started back to the car to leave when I decided to fire at a brush pile. I fired the left barrel from the hip and the next thing I felt was a loud explosion and my left wrist went numb which was blessing. I regained some composure and looked at the gun and saw that the metal above the breech was gone where the chamber was located. I threw the gun on the ground and took off my belt to use as a tourniquet because my glove was filling up with blood. A piece of the barrel had traveled through my forearm and exited near my left wrist. My buddy picked up the gun and walked to the car where we were picked up and driven to the gate. An ambulance was called and off we went.

I realize that I was responsible for my injuries but from what I remember there were no fired shells that were ever hard to extract, had pierced primers or any of the other signs I later learned were signs of high pressure in metallic cartridge
reloading. But you have to remember that you can only stress a piece of steel so many times before it breaks or bursts. The barrel was sent to a testing laboratory and the report said that the cause was an overloaded shell.

Years later I bought a Pacific shotshell loader and a Lyman manual which I read before loading any shells. What I was reloading with the Lee was dangerous, mixed hulls, unknown powder charge and wad columns that were homemade.

When the gun exploded it was the first time I had ever fired a shotgun from the hip so I must have a guardian angel watching over me.

I stick to the listed loads in the manuals now with the exception of the loads listed on the Ballistic products website, if they were that good Lyman or the powder manufactures would list them.

Member Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 1338

Joined: 10 Jul 2011 Posts: 30 Location: St.Louis, MO

I have had that happen with 20 & 16 ga Fiocchi hulls that were fired more than once. I used to think you could reload any hull that was made. Remember the shotgun shell boxes that had reloadable hull written on them. The manufactures prided themselves on that but not all hulls are made to be reloaded some are made to be fried once and thrown away like the Fiocchi hulls you have pictured. Once the brass/steel head has expanded away from the base wad most resizers won't size them enough to seal the base wad which allows gas to leak past it and expand the head. I was on the Trapshooters forum and one of the guys talked to the Browning rep at the Grand and asked him about reloading their new hulls. He told him they were not made to be reloaded. They are made by Winchester and a close examination shows they are nothing more than a Universal hull that is black.

From what I've seen, shells that show any real signs of excessive pressure are already way over acceptable average peak pressures. However, loosely seated primers which can back out of the hull base when fired and excessive head space can cause fired primers to appear flattened when the load pressures are perfectly acceptable.

Joined: 10 Jul 2011 Posts: 30 Location: St.Louis, MO

I understand what your saying I have always liked the stuff that was not popular, 25-35, 218 Bee, 32 H&R, 348 WCF, 375 Win and more that don't come to mind right now. I have purchased new Fiocchi 16 & 20 ga hulls before and have only loaded them twice because of my past experiences. Unfortunately is is only going to get worse in regards to 16 ga hulls. The only solution I have come up with is to buy the Herter's shells when they go on sale load them once and pitch them.