Anybody cut shotgun shells?

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I tried it a couple times after I saw it on some forum.
Basically, up close it works great, but at about 30 yeard, I got huger keyholes in the paper.
 
Cut shells are illegal to possess while hunting in Michigan.

Beyond that, I wonder what happens to the pressure when you swage the front half of a shell through the forcing cone.

I did have a newer Winchester 12ga AA two-piece (extruded hull) separate and and act as a cut shell, but that was a hull that I reloaded too many times and had developed a crease right at the front of the plastic base wad. I was shooting skeet at the time and I have no idea where it ended up. My gun seemed fine, but I wasn't happy about it and now I pitch AA hulls when they develop that crease.
 
Not something I'd do on purpose!
Reloaders worry about changing component brands from shotshell manual printed recipes and raising pressures too high.
Here you have the entire front half of the (12ga)
hull being squeezed down from .800" to .729" through the forcing cone as SWChad points out.

That .800" dia bundle of hull, wad and shot is sized right about 1/2 way between a 10ga and an 8ga bore diameter.
Most all over the counter ammo is loaded at or near SAAMI limits (to make sure they operate in all firearms), spiking the pressure more isn't something I'd be looking for.
Now there's probably somebody around that has 'proof' that it doesn't,,but I'll stick with the regular loads, thanks.

410 shotshells are noted to do this (separate) when loaded way too many times,,which tends to happen with the expensive little things.
 
I remember people doing this many years ago with paper hulls. The
purpose was to use a standard shell for deer hunting, a poor man's
deer slug.
 
I find that it works well out of a cylinder bore with rifle sights. For me it works out to about 40 yards, which is as well as my own cast slugs will shoot. Don't expect them to feed from the tube of a repeater. I also find that the cut down hull is too short to eject clear of the action of my 870.

Dave Sinko
 
We use to cut the paper hulls fairly often. They are devastating to anything they hit. I know you can hit a quill pig in a tree with #2 shot (regular, uncut hulls) several times at close range and still not kill it but one shot with a cut hull will put it down in a hurry. Using birdshot shells, there is enough movement within the shot to allow for the swaging to occur without too much issue.
 
I learn something every day I have never heard of this before. sounds interesting but I think I will leave it alone and just shoot what the factory and the books tell me is safe. I value all of my body parts even though they are geeting older now days.
 
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