Wonderful New-Years day shotshell reloading festiv.... Oh, crap.

[morcey2]

So. I picked up a Lee Load-All 2 at my LGS a couple of weeks ago. I'm not saying that it's old, but it had a layer of dust on the box that completely obscured the printing and the free load manual that came in it was from 1995. Oh, and the first time I saw it on the shelf there was over 10 years ago and it was covered with dust even then. I offered them $20 to clear some shelf space and they took me up on it.

Enough back-story. After much research and pondering, I picked up everything I needed to load up some 7/8 and 1 oz loads. I have several buckets of remington gun-club, STS, and Win AA hulls. I found a 1 oz load that would work well in any of them, Win 209 primer + 18 grains of Red Dot + WAA12SL wad. I started with the gun club/sport load shells and loaded a box of them. After forgetting shot in one, crushing another in the pre-crimper because it caught the edge, and having one crimp look just nasty, I had a nice purty-lookin' box o' shells. Crimps look great, no crushed or buckled hulls. Move on the the STS and there were no casualties. Another even purtier box, because these were gold-colored shells.

Then comes the AA. I've got a couple boxes worth of various AA HS hulls, because I like the remington better. First hull buckles in the pre crimp. Unload the shot and set it aside. Second hull does the same thing. I start looking over things and come to a sad realization. I was using the wrong wad. I was using WAA12L (gray) instead of WAA12SL (pink) for the 1 oz loads. :banghead:

I've found a couple of sources online that list a WAA12L w/ a 1 oz load and 18 grains of red dot, so I think I'll be OK. The actual shot weight is actually .955 oz and the actual charge weight is just under 18 grains.

It's only about 50 shells and I can pull and reuse the shot and count the hulls as a loss, unless someone can point me to a good way to pull them down without damaging the hulls.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[oneounceload]

AA hulls are notorious in 12 and 20 for being a variety of lengths, especially when you also include the older (and best) CF hulls. Sort them by length, and load using the ones that match the Remington hulls. This is one of the reasons most folks stay away from the LLA II as you cannot adjust your precrimp or final crimp for hulls of differing lengths - you'll just have to go by "feel" to crimp so you do not buckle.
To save money, use 7/8oz of shot - the clays won't know thew difference and you'll get two more boxes of reloads per bag of shot

 

[rsrocket1]

The WAA12L loads are going to be OK in the Rem Hulls. Winchester Hulls definitely have less volume in them than the Remington hulls. The WAA12SL's may coincidentally fit with the same load you are using in the Winchester hulls. When going from one hull to the other, you usually need to play around with the components to ensure a good stack height. Typically Federal hulls (including Estate) have the most volume and do best with straight hull wads. Remington (all types) have less volume and use tapered hull wads. Winchester AA (and Universal/Super-X, but I don't recommend these) have the least volume and also use taper hull wads.

I would shoot those Remington loads. With the exception of the Win209 instead of the Rem209, it is a published recipe on the Alliant site. The Win209 is a little hotter than the Rem209, but you are at 9600 psi which near the low end of the "good, complete burn" pressures in shotguns.

If you ever need to disassemble a shotshell, the best way is to take a lamp and see where the wad legs are. Use a box cutting razor to slice in that region all the way around the hull. Salvage the shot, powder, wad and primer and toss the hull. I've tried picking out the hull fingers and pulling the wad out and more often than not, destroyed the wad. Hulls tend to be abundant where I shoot and the green Remington "Gun Club" hulls are as good as the STS and Nitro Hulls and take the exact same load.

Happy new year and have fun loading.

 

[BigJimP]

The WAA12L and WAA12SL are similar enough ....that I wouldn't worry about it, and shoot the shells you have loaded.

http://www.claybusterwads.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7&Itemid=6

Like others I prefer the Rem STS hulls ( either green or gold, they're the same ) over the Rem gun club hulls. The Rem STS hulls have a little thicker plastic ...and its not as brittle as the Gun Club hulls. I get a much longer life out of an STS hull than a gun club hull ....but my typical load for a 12ga is 1 oz at 1225 fps...

I would just throw out all of those Win hulls...and not fuss with them at all.

I do prefer the SL wad / or actually I use a Duster wad.....equivalent....the Green Duster on all of my 1 oz loads.

 

[morcey2]

So, after emptying out the shot side of the hopper (which is a pain on this press, but I already knew that), I swapped the bushing to the 7/8 bushing and loaded up another box of remington gun clubs. They still looked purty.

I've only got about 50 AA hulls and some of those look stepped on, so I'll probably just toss the ones I haven't loaded. I talked to a guy at one of the local gun clubs and he said that almost everyone there tosses their empties and most of them are remington gun club or game load style hulls, which works for me. I'm going up there tomorrow and join. It's a budget-busting $20 per year. I've been going to sign up, but keep procrastinating. That'll give me a good excuse.

As for the already-loaded remingtons, I'll just shoot them.

Thanks,

Matt