16 ga short shell advice

[WestKentucky]

I’m about to embark on loading 16ga shells. I have loaded 20 ga just a bit on a ponsness warren press but this is going to be a whole new animal. I need to start from scratch.

From what I know about my gun and my experience with handgun and rifle I am thinking that I may be better off starting with the brass hulls from Magtech. My reasoning for this is that I know I am going to be shooting low pressure shells that are 2-9/16” measured from he breachface to the forcing cone. The forcing cone is short and steep so it is certainly an old school barrel. Rumor is that these old barrels don’t perform well with modern shot wads and such, but that is fine because I would rather shoot with overshot cards and a traditional type shotshell construction. I’m thinking that a cork or card on top of the stack would likely be easiest to crimp in place with a light roll crimp just to hold the card. I could then seal with a quick dip in parafin wax.

My other option is cheddite hulls and a more modern shell construction. To do this I would be shooting a much shorter shell which may eliminate a need to use filler material, but would require me to buy hulls, cut them to length, and buy a roll crimping tool because I can’t find a tool to fold crimp a shell that short.

So, as a low volume (100 shells a year) reloader, which direction would you go? I’m leaning heavily towards brass hulls as I can make the crimping tool myself and at the expense of a couple of the brass hulls I could make card cutters to get my overshot cards and cardboard or cork wads for underneath.

I will likely load with pyrodex or triple 7 as black powder substitutes seem appropriate for my gun. I like the idea of trailboss but have not heard good things about using it in shotshell loading.

Buying factory short shells isn’t an option for me. Not because they aren’t available, that’s just too easy. I like challenges and this gives me an excuse to build a reloading setup from scratch.

 

[entropy]

Can't speak for the P-W, but on a MEC you can put spacers above the dies to shorten them as needed. The Magtech 2 3/4" brass hulls you could buzz down to the appropriate length and make your wad/card cutters all at the same time. I haven't done this yet either, but will attempt it if I get a 16x16/9.2x72R drilling. (on my bucket list.)

 

[rfwobbly]

Several thoughts...
• The PW tooling for 16ga is going to run you about $150, unless you can find it used.
• Then you got the cost of 16ga wads and hulls.
• At the start of dove season all the major hunting outlets will be selling flats (250 rounds) of 16ga gauge shells for ~$70.

So for the price of the tooling alone, you can buy 500 rounds of 16ga shotshells. That's enough for 5 years of shooting and you won't need to do anything but stack it in a cool, dark place. And you won't have to worry about picking up every shell or somebody stepping on a hull.

In terms of work, investment costs, and time you'd be nuts to load 16ga for 100 rounds per year.

 

[Rudolph31]

The easiest way to load 2 9/16” shells is to use a 2 3/4” recipe with a cut down hull, add an overshot card and crimp normally. A fold crimp will hold the card as securely as a roll crimp without all the trouble.

 

[WestKentucky]

The easiest way to load 2 9/16” shells is to use a 2 3/4” recipe with a cut down hull, add an overshot card and crimp normally. A fold crimp will hold the card as securely as a roll crimp without all the trouble.

View attachment 844890

That’s a dandy idea. I hadn’t thought of doing that. Kind of the best of both worlds situation. So now I start looking for a press, or crimp tooling for a press... or maybe just go back to the idea of the roll crimper but still just use the 2-3/4 recipe with a card. Tooling that way is cheap so I’m liking that idea.