Tips on loading shotgun shells

tabby · 11-14-2003, 09:48 PM

My room mate wants to load up some winchester high brass. Neither of us have done this before. I reload rifle, so will probably be able to figure it out. Do you guys/gals have any tips for us? About how many rounds can we load with 25lbs of shot? Thanks.

halcon · 11-14-2003, 10:28 PM

You need to get a loading manual for shotshells and follow the recipes to the letter . It will give you the correct components to use with Winchester high brass or any other brass you care to use . Just make sure you are loading for the right brass as they are all different unlike rifle brass . Using the wrong components can be dangerous.

tabby · 11-14-2003, 10:38 PM

Ok thanks. We will be going to wallmart, I think they have a guide. I didn' t know that the shells were that different, thanks again. We got depriming and priming down. Know how to crimp, i think. putting shot in ok. Just for practice, we haven' t loaded any yet. I am guessing the loading book will tell us everything we need to know about the process. We don' t have the instructions that came with the loader. It is an older one, early 90' s.

Note to self. Don' t let room mate spill shot all over floor again.

NE Hunter · 11-15-2003, 07:27 AM

As far as I know it doesn' t matter if the shells are high or low brass, but it does matter as to type and manufacturer. The load data will be different for Federal and Winchester AA. There is a section in the manual that has detailed descriptions of the cases as well as who made them. ( Revelation was made by Federal for instance) If you don' t have a press look at MEC. the MEC 650 is progressive and not too expensive.

NE Hunter · 11-15-2003, 07:31 AM

Second part of the question is how mnay rounds out of 25 lbs of shot. Depends o your load but to keep it simple 16 oz = 1 lb that would yield 16 1oz loads/lb or 400/25lbs of shot with out spillage

wobschall · 11-19-2003, 08:36 AM

I' ve been reloading shotgun shells for quit a while, and I' d like to offer one suggestion. If you are loading 2 3/4 shells, go with a Winchester AA hull, no matter what you' re loading for. I' ve found that the hi-brass shells make almost no difference and the AA' s are a much better hull to reload. A lot of the hunting hulls are a cheaper hull with pieces (like the base-wad) that will fall apart, even after being shot once. Like others have said, make sure you use loading info for the specific hull you reload as factors such as plastic vs. paper base wads will make a big difference in capacities and pressures.
Best of luck!