doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Brass hulls and the double gun

Since 2006 I have loaded my hunting ammo in RMC all brass hulls. I use 209 primers, progressive powders, 1-piece plastic wads or depending on patterns/chronograph readings, card and fiber wads. How many of you load all brass hulls?

I thought that many on this forum would be using brass hulls, but I�m wrong. Please allow me to share with you my shotgun brass hull experiences.
I have been loading and shooting all brass hulls for over 8 years and it has been a very enjoyable process. I do not know why, but brass hulls have given me the best patterning shotgun ammo that I have ever loaded.
I bought my hulls from Rocky Mountain Cartridge when they were in Cody WY. They have since changed owners and are in Worland WY.
RMC brass hulls are turned from bar stock and cost approximately $5 each. According to Dave Casey, the previous owner of RMC, Cowboy Action shooters have reloaded RMC brass hulls over 3,000 times. It should be obvious that pump, lever and semi-auto shotguns are not well suited for brass hull use.
It is important to note that if you shoot a double gun or a gun with multiple barrels, the bores must have identical dimensions or you run the risk of having some or all of your hulls expanding to the largest bore size and thus making them unsuitable for smaller bore size(s). RMC can make a full case resizing tool if your bores are not dimensionally the same.

According to RMC any published gauge appropriate load found in reloading manuals or powder manufactures web sites will work in their brass hulls because they have the �same inside diameter� as plastic hulls. In my search for the perfect load, I have loaded and patterned many published loads using 1-piece wads with success ranging from poor to outstanding. My 16 Ga. and 28 Ga.favorite loads and best patterns use card and fiber wads and 1-piece plastic work very well in 12 and 20 Ga.. When patterning shotgun loads, barrels often have a mind of their own.

Reloading brass hulls takes more time to load than plastic or paper because hand tools are necessary, not a press. I shoot clay targets using plastic and paper loads, but for hunting, its all brass for moi.
I have a wooden box that contains shotgun cleaning supplies, hand loading tools, primers, wads, cards, powder, powder dippers, shot and shot dippers. When I hunt away from home the box goes along and in the evening after shotgun maintenance, I reload the empty hulls from the days hunt using powder and shot dippers for my favorite loads. Each powder dipper has been verified by scale with each new powder purchase.

My initial problems with OS cards dislodging in cold weather has been fixed by using 1 gauge oversized OS cards.

When at home, my loading process may be more than most want to do. I put all of my fired hulls in a tumbler and let them shine up over night. I then de-prime and inspect hulls. I chuck up a bronze brush in my drill press and run the brush in and out a few times. Each hull mouth is then cleaned with carburetor cleaner.
If I choose to reload in the field I use a small piece of #40 sandpaper to rough up the inside of the case mouth and do not clean with carburetor cleaner, I just blow in the case and tap the base to remove any loose particles before reloading. Hulls are then loaded and oversized OSC�s are secured with Sodium Silicate aka Water Glass.
A note on osc fixing glues. I have used a variety of glues and settled on water Glass only because I had to buy a quart of the stuff as it does not come in small quantities. Glue does not appear to be as important as I once thought because the oversized OS cards seem to contain the shot effectively and the glue is just added security. There has not been an OSC failure in a long time.
To identify the different loads, each OSC has penciled data and the primers are color coded. A pencil is used because I have not found an ink that will not run regardless of the glue used.
Brass hulls look good going into or out of a double gun and I hope this inspires you to consider loading brass hulls.

Have never used them in shotguns but have a box of 20 32/40's Dave made for me years ago, thousands of loads and no problems. RMC is very well thought of with the Single Shot rifle shooters, makes it possible to shoot many obsolete calibers. New owners from all I hear are just as good as Dave was.

I ought to order some for my 2 1/2 inch chamber Parker Hammer Gun. You did not mention powder, Black I assume ?

Boats

Last year my hunting buddy bought 10 2 1/2" 16 Ga. hulls from RMC and we loaded up some excellent loads for Huns, mountain grouse, and pheasant, all the loads were low pressure using modern progressive powder and 209 primers. I have never loaded black powder and if I were to, I would use Mag Tech brass hulls. Mag Tech hulls are inexpensive and designed for black powder. Mag Tech brass hulls are and not suitable for modern powders, use large pistol primers and the internal dimensions preclude the use of 1-piece wads.

wyobirds
Sorry it took so long to answer but I was out shooting
rifle, pistols, and shotguns today

I use mostly ALCAN all brass hulls with *57 primers.
These are in 10, 12, 16, and 20 gauge
For 24 and 32 gauge I use Magtech hulls with pistol primers

Mike

p.s. also have lots of Win and Rem (Best) brass 12 gauge hulls.

I use 16ga 2.5 inch RMC brass shells as my preferred hunting hull

I normally load 7/8 for preserve birds and 1oz for quail and prairie chicken, with 1 1/8 barely fitting for pheasant.

I truly love the RMC and now own 80-16 ga shells. The first 30 from casey, the last 50 from the new owners. While differ very slightly, both are great quality and reload identically.. Eventually i will get 15 or so 2 3/4 - 16ga for the occasional heavy hunting load

On sealing i go with water-glass, (sodium silicate), but i have determined log term storage of water-glass seal shells does not work well, after a few months they dry up, and shrink more than i like. Oversizing the overshot card is the best way to go as earlier described by wyobirds.

They are expensive, yes, but of all the reloading toys i have picked they remain my favorite by light years.

I have loaded the RMC with both plastic and cardboard wads and have determined the plastic is good for 7/8,but 1oz and above are easier to fit with traditional cardboard

I tried the Magtech, and they were ok, but RMC shells are a step above

Keep the info coming� when I get a chance I want to try brass hulls.

Do you guys have to resize the RMC hulls? How about the mag tech?

I bought some Mag tech but have yet to reload them.

I appreciate the experience of those who have posted.

Jerry

On the RMC, not if I don't switch guns. I find that on an old German Guild 16ga BLNE the chambers are more narrowly cut than my Belgian SLE. That is also true for my Greener BLE vs the Belgian SLE (the Greener appears to be ever so slightly tapered and the fired shell from my Belgian gun hangs a bit before fully chambering). So when shooting the same shell I had previously fired in the Belgian gun the answer is yes.

For resizing I use an old Thalman press and die. Eventually I will get an RCBS 16 ga die, but have not gotten to it yet. One of the reasons I do not worry it much is first I rarely shoot a 16ga other than the Belgian SLE. Secondly, I have 80 RMC Shells and keep thirty (actually stamped Greener 16) set aside for it only. On the Belgian SLE I do not have to resize the shells between firings as they are basically fireformed to the chamber.

Ordering the shells stamped for the gun makes it easy. (probably over-kill - I do note that the old RMC management did a better job headstamping the shells than the current outfit does, though both are acceptable)

Between firing I prep the RMC cases by puching the spent primer, putting them in a vibrating cleaner with boiling hot cleaning solution, then scrubbing them inside with an old chamber brush, then back into a boiling hot vibrating cleaner with cleaning solution, I rinse them in hot tap water (rinsing is to ensure any cleaning salts from the vibrating cleaner are removed to lower corrosion complication risks), wipe them down and shake any loose moisture, lastly I air dry them overnight before reloading (in a rush you can use a blow dryer). I have brasso shined them a few times but this is uneccessary.

Reloading the dirty shells can be done with minimum fuss without much issue. In South Dakota I have on one occasion skipped all cleaning save scrapping off the residual water-glass at the mouth of the shell and hand loaded from preset powder, wads, and shot set-up in some pharmacy pill bottles (I picked up fifty pill bottles from a friend at walgreen's that were the right size and I keep the wads (overshot card, wad, & overpowder card in zip lock bags precounted out for 25 loads). Reloading the RMC is very easy if you prep all the pieces, have the RMC. reloading Kit, and remember the small bottle of waterglass with an eye-dropper.

Though reloadable dirty, I would not recommend it as it offends my sense of order and I am not sure if the burnt residual in the shell would not affect the next load's performance.

On the MAGTECH, I assume the same story is true, but after using some twice I put the 100 or so I have on the shelf and they have remained there for several years unused. MAGTECHs are ok, but I prefer the RMC.

Jerry assked,"Do you guys have to resize the RMC hulls? How about the mag tech?"
Only if your chambers are different sizes and if that is the case RMC can engrave the shell base with an identifier of your choice. Or, RMC will make you a re-sizer.
I have two 20 Ga. BSS's and their chambers are identical, which allows me to shoot the same brass hulls in both guns
Mag Tech hulls are for Black Powder, use large pistol primers and have over sized internal dimensions necessitating the use of card and fiber wads. Double Hammer, a now defunct company reamed out Mag Tech primer pockets to accept 209 primers and inserted an inner base wad. It has been my experience that the inner base wad fails after very few reloads and either disintegrates or becomes lodged in the barrel.
One of the positive aspects of loading RMC hulls is the consistent patterns they produce. Yes, I know "them's fight'n words, but for what ever reason, the patterns are the best that I have ever experienced. And to compound this ridiculous statement, the best patterns were achieved with card and fiber wads. Dave Casey the original RMC owner told me that the case volume allows for better patterns because volume is not lost due to crimp folds. Others think that the lack of crimp folds does not disturb the shot as it leaves the barrel. To me, that would make shells that have roll crimps pattern better than those that don't. Anyway, I don't know the reason(s) I just see the results. Anyone else experiencing great patterns?

I do NOT need tight patterns, I need WIDE patterns to be able to hit something

But really I normally hunt with cyl, skeet, or IC guns. On some of the double guns it is IC/MOD.

With steel shot IC/MOD seems the norm.

For birds behind dogs open chokes is good

For turkey, I like to get them inside 20 yards, what a thrill.

I sure do wish I were younger, the NID 10 gauge is NOT used for pheasants anymore, my arms stretch down to my feet

Mike

p.s. I do resize my brass hulls with specially made arbor dies. Would hate to get in the field and have
one stick, PLUS I like the KLUNK sound when they chamber.