Favorite shotgun hulls

[Nevada Ed]

Well, having loaded a few hundred thousand trap loads, I have 2 favorites. Winchester AA and Federal Gold Medal. Both are versatile, but GM's are a bit more versatile and longer lasting IMO. Everything else IMO, you can landfill

In the 60-80's the Red AA Winchester was King of the hill.
It out lasted all hulls in number of times it could be reloaded.

The Paper Gold Medal was the second choice of Top Trap shooters in the ATA games.

Then Winchester came out with the "Gray" hull and Remington with it's
new STS gold and green hulls that were "Uni" hulls, all bets were off
even Remington hulls were now in the mix as well as Estate loads for those that did not reload, for a low cost trap load.

It is still hard to beat a red, gold or purple hull with the right name on it, for reloading.

PS;
If you can pick up Euro or Estate hulls for free...........
They can work for trap or field loads with the right powders
and a 12so wad.
Just know that the Estate hulls have a paper base wad !!

 

[slickracer]

There's Winchester AA's and then there's everything else.

I would disagree since they went to the HS design. Remington STS are superior.

 

[Mike0251]

Interesting timing for this thread! I just pulled my old MEC out of mothballs from 2 decades ago to get back into skeet shooting. Taught both my sons years ago going thru about 10K rounds a year back then.

To the topic at hand, yes AA all the way! I still retained my inventory of hulls from back then as you can see in the pic as well as 150lbs #9, wads, 1000 Win 209 primers, 8 lbs 700x, and 8lbs of green dot.

The powders are new, local gun shop went out of business last year with clearance prices and I jumped the powder. Little did I know I would be getting back into this at that time. (Universe I reckon)

My old shotgun buddy for 40 years is finally free in his life and we are off to the skeet and sporting clays fields once again!

And my 1990's SKB 685 is still with me and ready, also went thru the old 1100 as well. I'm excited. Shells already being loaded.

ps. MEC's online ordering is fantastic. Had some new parts in 2 days.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Ah yes..........

the old, Click, clack sound of the old Mec loader.

I remember it well, all to well, in my younger days
and later when I started loading steel pellets,
when they came on to the playing fields.

Very nice looking O/U, by the way.
Have fun at the trap club.

 

[scooter123]

For 12 and 20 gauge NOTHING LAST LONGER that Remington Gun Clubs. I have 12 gauge hulls that I have been reloading since 2018 and 20 gauges that have been used since early 2019.

For 28 gauge and 410 I started with Winchester AAHS and these were not a good choice. Yeah everyone raves about them and I just don't understand it. Because the 410 hulls tend to split on first firing and the 28 gauge hulls can only be reloaded 4 or 5 times before you have to get out the hot glue gun to hold the crimps together. What I have found to last well for the 28 and 410 are Cheddite hulls. Note, these are built to USA profiles in terms of primer sizes. With the 28 gauge you can get at least 8-12 reload cycles before they start losing crimp folds. With the 410 you can get 8 reload cycles before primer leakage become a problem.

BTW, I shoot 4 gun Skeet and my primary practice caliber is the 410. Less shot and less powder means it's the least expensive to reload and it is a caliber that forces you to become a more precise shooter. I will also note that my 410/28 gauge setup is a 30 inch 2 barrel combo gun set and at 6 1/2 lbs. if's flat out fun to shoot. I'm also getting good enough with the 28 than I am considering using it for the 20 and 12 gauge events.

 

[2152hq]

I like one-piece hulls for my pump guns.
Remingtons are the most common I find around at the club where I shoot. Green, Black, whatever...

I still have compression formed Win AA cases. One piece. I like those. Who doesn't.

The newer AA's (HS) are two piece and I just won't trust them in a repeater.
I do load them and sort them out for use in break action guns both SxS and SBT.
They load nice. Most all the hulls around do.
Even the Fed paper hulls. I use them for BP rounds.
2 or 3 loads is about it for them.

I also will load about any fine looking hulls I find. Most are two piece,,an easy to see feature.
Those again are separated for the SxS and Singles.
I have a well ingrained habit of checking the bore(s) after every shot and before reloading when using a breakopen.
Never caught a stuck base wad, but did find a stuck reloading shot wad. It was stuck in the bbl right inside the muzzle in the choke portion of the bbl.

Hulls,,I'm not fussy. I dump the emptys in an cardboard clay target box on the bench and randomly pull them out to reload them on my MEC 9000.
They all get the same 'load'.
Everything gets an 8 point crimp even though some of the cases may have a factoy 6 point. They crimp nicely anyway. Maybe one here and there will have a petal out of place,,big deal.

When I pull one out it gets a quick look over. If it looks worn out, burned out, cracked, etc,,it gets canned.
That's how the hull life is determined.
I could care less how many actual times it has been reloaded. What does it matter,,it's all done now.
They generally last a long time I figure if I had to give a number.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

AA HS in all gauges for me.

12, 20, 28, & 410 all in AA HS for me! My 410's are wearing out, I only have 1250 (5 flats) in reserve! I hope things get back to "Used to Be" pretty soon!!

Ivan

 

[DWalt]

I don't worry about today'a AA cases as I have at least a bushel of old AA 12s and 20s I will probably never get around to loading.