High brass is OK but low brass is better for both hunting and target loads.At least that's what I read in one of my manuals.They said high brass was just for looks.

Interesting read,

I also load for my 12s, 20s, and now my 28. I realy like the Fiocchi hulls I bought from BPI and they sure take a beating.

JW

I can sure relate to that.....even steel isn't worth the time as one has a lot invested in components and most of us only shoot a couple boxes a year.....Winchester Expert steel is a great shell and about the same as I can load in cost.

It's still a good pasttime and to a degree therapeutic but economical isn't what it once was.

My cost to reload steel compared to factory:

2-3/4 1 oz loads $6.49 Factory 1-1/16 $10
3" 1-1/8 oz loads $9.71 Factory 1-1/4 $12
3.5" 1-3/8 oz loads $12.70 Factory 1-3/8 $16

In most cases I can't duplicate factory performance.

Possibly you have a way to save hulls.....I'm always buying new hulls from BPI.....and I roll crimp them and they don't want to be reused after roll crimping.....I also don't like picking them out of the muck where I hunt ducks.....I do but not to reload....to clean the environment as the plastic will be there for years.

BTW....Check prices on Win X-pert 3" steel.....about $10/box here and it's good stuff.

I ordered some shotgun slug reloading componants from BPI. Gonna try the 12ga x 50cal sabots with 350gr & 500gr Hornady bullets.

I mostly pass shoot,so I'm not in the muck very much. My problem instead is finding them in the tall grass. I fold crimp.

When I buy hulls I buy once fired, and mostly Federal gold medals. I don't think I've bought any since Ebay went communist.

What really amazes me about shotshell loadin is the vast differences in data for various hulls/wads. And I feel kinda powerless. I just have to trust the load data provided.

But another hobby.

When reloading trap/skeet/quail/dove loads I allow myself some latitude in substitution. I fill a hull with water and pour it into a different hull and if it appears to have the same internal volume I will substitute it.....but we're talking 8500 PSI loads here.

Also some primers can be substituted....(sorry but I don't have the list right now but at least one Federal and one Fiocci primer is extremely hot and not to be substituted) but one needs to know this.

When I load serious hunting loads it's religiously to the recipe. Frankly it's nonsense to me but I trust it and so far it has worked quite well. IMO rifle reloading is a lot more understandable and I'm far more comfortable doing it.

For loading lead shot for pheasants I use just about anyone's data....Hodgdon's primarily but also Alliant as longshot and blue dot are my "go to" powders for hunting loads. However when it comes to steel, buckshot, slugs, and the unusual stuff it's BPI all the way....they have done the testing and have the good data and products. I never use data from internet posters as the chance of typo errors just is too great.

Fully agree.....shotshell loading is totally a different field.....

Now if I can muster the ambition to understand black powder....

I agree. I don't hotrod these loads at all and substitutions are made very carefully, and very rarely.