Shotgun shell reloading newbie question

[jojo200517]

Looking at primed hulls to purchase and I noticed there are skived and unskived ones. Simple question, whats the difference? I googled the words and found a lot of stuff about metal working but nothing really pertaining to shotgun shells.

 

[243winxb]

New to me too, and i have been loading shotgun for over 30 years. Look here > http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=37799

 

[ripdog]

skieving is a process that thins the plastic in the case mouth to aid starting the crimp for the first time on new cases. Balistic products and others sell tools that do this.

 

[jojo200517]

Wow thanks for the info guys, I forgot I posted this question. I went and read the other board in the link too. Balistic products is actually the website I ran across this term on.

Sounds like it might be a pain to deal with, i'll just go for the skived ones when I order and be done with it.

 

[TonyT]

Why not use once fired cases? One can usually purchase then for a lot less than primed brass?

 

[snuffy]

As said, skiving thins the end of a shotshell case. Un-skived cases are better for roll crimping, it makes the roll crimp tougher. That gives the shell more time to start burning the powder before the crimp gives way.

You want skived hulls for star crimped shells. It makes the center of the crimp thinner, so the folds look better. And as said, it's easier to form new crimps with a crimp starter.

Why not use once fired cases? One can usually purchase them for a lot less than primed brass?

Because you can seldom be SURE they are "once fired". Once fired shells are hard to find. You can also be able to identify your ammo just by the color of the plastic hull. And be able to know the history of the shell.

 

[jojo200517]

My reason for primed cases was because there is no hazmat fee for the primers shipping.

I stopped trying to wrap my brain around their logic behind when and when not to charge hazmat fees, it hurt too much.

Thanks for the extra info of when i'd want unskived snuffy.