Brass Shotshells

[HAIKU_RODNEY]

I found brass shotshell hulls made by Rocky Mountain Cartrdge. Apparently, the brass hull will take any of the published loads for smokeless powder for a particular gauge. These hulls use the standard shotshell primer. An overshot card is pushed down on top of the shot to keep everyting in place. Because there is not crimp, the length of the powder, wad and shot is not as critical.

The hulls are a little pricey but I think they will last quite a while.

Anybody have any experience with these hulls?

[Shadowman]

Prior to the use of modern disposible casings these were pretty common and suited a more self-reliant society as they could be easily reloaded. I didn't know they were on the market.

[vanish]

Hello, please go to http://exxxperiment.narod.ru to partisipate in my experiment

[Mark]

Rod,
You are mistaken about column height in a brass shotshell. Because the overshot wad is held in with a crimp of the brass, if it is not backed up correctly with the powder, wad, shot column, the overshot wad will either bulge out or be loose in the shotshell. You can help yourself out a little by sealing the overshot wad with a LITTLE melted paraffin, but it works best if the column is exactly the correct height.

The brass does work harden eventually and will crack or split, so I'm not sure you are going to get the longevity you think you will. Here again, you can help yourself out by annealing the brass to make it last longer.

Brass shotshells were quickly replaced by paper, and not too many people missed them. The few exceptions were waterfowlers, and Chesty Puller of USMC fame. Chesty had trouble with paper shotshells swelling and causing stoppages with buckshot loads while fighting the Japanese in WWII. I remember reading about him requesting all brass buckshot loads, but I'm not sure he was able to get them. You really don't give clear reasons why you want to use these, and you don't need any as far as I'm concerned. If you just want to experiment, I'm sure you will have fun and learn a lot.
Good luck with this.
Mark