Shot gun reloading manual

[Mitty38]

Well I had obtained a 20 gauge MEC Loader a while back.
Got it up and running, then a fellow helped me get it adjusted. Then showed me, one load, using what I have on hand.
Now I am wanting to play around with different loads, powders, slugs, shot size ect.
So looking for a good instructional as well as a good Data resource. For all things shot gun.
Should I just buy lyman book? Or are there better sources.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I always suggest the current Lyman. Personally I end up searching out all previous as well cause I need older data for bygone era components.

Ballistic products also has good manuals.

CW

 

[RBHarter]

^^^^^^^yep !!

 

[glassparman]

I have older Lyman books found in used book stores.

 

[Michael]

Can't the Lyman manual.

There are some specialty manuals as I call them them, but for just clay pigeons and casual hunting, go with Lyman.

 

[Mitty38]

I always suggest the current Lyman. Personally I end up searching out all previous as well cause I need older data for bygone era components.

Ballistic products also has good manuals.

CW

^^^^^^^yep !!

I have older Lyman books found in used book stores.

Can't the Lyman manual.

There are some specialty manuals as I call them them, but for just clay pigeons and casual hunting, go with Lyman.

Thanks fellows. Kinda figured Lyman was probably the way to go for most info in one spot.
So I guess I will be ordering a #5 book. Then looking for an older addition to get the older loads, as I have a lot of Red and Green Dot to play with.

 

[Tomme boy]

Ballistic Products has good manuals but they only list Cheddite or straight wall hulls in the data. For someone just starting out they might not be what they need. UNLESS you have a bunch of straight wall hulls.

 

[Mitty38]

I have 2k Cheddites. And 200ish Remington.
So far I think all my hulls are tapered 2 3/4 and 3". Not sure.I may be wrong, I am verry Green at this.

But the need for Data will probably progress.

When I started loading pistol and rifle. The recipe
on the Universal jug was enough.
Then Lee book was enough, Then it was not. Then the Sierra, and the Lee book was enough. Then Western, then Lyman, and so on and so forth till I now have 10 reloading manuals, 3 dedicated to cast.
I imagine shot gun loading is going to go the same way for me.

 

[fiver]

not just number-5 which is woefully outdated for the most part, but Lyman actually put out a shot shell reloading handbook [in between number-4 and No-5] it has a lot of buck shot and slug data.
it also goes over the MEC single stage and progressive loaders pretty well.

if your hulls are winchester C_F [compression formed-- discontinued like 30 years ago] or remington pretty much anything they are tapered.
the newer win hulls are straightwall, but with an insert at the bottom that mostly mimics a tapered hull.
the only other one that was tapered was the Federal champion-II hull, those are pretty rare to find and not worth the trouble.
their new hull [HOA] is just a purple STS [rem.] hull.

for buck shot you'll want to use a reifenheuser- reifenhauser whatever [straightwall] type hull, fed gold medal and retty much everything else on the planet]
either way you'll be looking for wads that don't have an internal rib inside the shot cup for both the slugs and bigger shot.

 

[Tomme boy]

Most all high brass Remington is a straight wall. Federal has about 10 different hulls they have made or had made for them. If you can find some steel shot or Buckshot Federal hulls they have the highest case capacity of all but Activ. They list these as the 0.09" base wad hull. They are decent hulls and last a few loads of really heavy loads.

Some of the Euro hulls have different base wads in them. You have to measure the hull depth. Just be careful of which Euro hulls you try to load. There are some that have a extra high brass case head. Those don't eject well out of a basic 600 Mec. You need a collet sizer to size those. Or a Lee sizer ring and a tight fitting punch to hammer the hull out of the ring.

And also the tapered wads will work but will leak powder in the strait walls. They take a special wad and they still seem to leak powder. I put a piece of news paper under the wad while seating to act as a seal.

 

[fiver]

forgot about the type 5 and type 6 Remingtons.
those are almost dead on for the Fiocchi and Kent steel shot hulls so there is that data out there in number-5.
the new Federal top gun hull is cavernous too, and they had that dead flat bottomed white base hull that was like 1-1/2 times the volume of the tapered hulls.[probably won't find any of those, but the new top guns are everywhere]

 

[Mitty38]

Defiantly have to get out my hulls and compare then to the info given here when I get home. Thanks fellows!

 

[Mitty38]

Was looking at this one at an on line used book store today.
Recognize the Author. Anyone have any input before I press buy.(still getting the Lyman#5)

 

[fiver]

i have the 4th edition of it.
just gotta remember that a lot of the wads and junk in the older manuals may not be available any more. [unless your digging around my basement..LOL]
there are ''substitutions'' of course, but it's a long road to track down what used to be what or what is now close nuff.

 

[Bazoo]

Lyman 5th Edition is pretty good. It has some good pictures of different hulls to help you see the difference. I found that very helpful as someone new to shotshell loading.

 

[Tomme boy]

I have been mainly picking up slug and buckshot hulls that have a roll crimp. They load so much easier not having to worry if the load will fit. But for slug, I am finding that a regular fold crimp is more accurate. Most of my slug load have no data so I am using similar items to load them. With the Russian slugs they is nothing available for load data so you have to find something comparable.

 

[Tomme boy]

The problem with the new lyman manual was as soon as it was available it was out of date. There are so many new hulls available now you just have to guess which they are and use that data. During the bat flu no one could get everything to load shells. So manufacturers were buying stuff from other manufacturers to get by. That was what happened to the Federal Top Gun. They went to a cheddite and got rid of the paper base wad. Best thing they ever did. Now all they use is the top gun cheddite. And they also are having Remington make their Gold Metal Hulls which are the same as Premier, sts hulls. They got rid of the Gold Metals hull

 

[Mitty38]

I think my issue at first, is going to be Identifying vintage wads.

During my gun show, flee market, days. I bought a lot of wads at auction that were thrown in a box of "gun stuff". Never seamed to be able to sell anything 20 gauge or 410. Plus they took up a lot of room, to haul around.
Felt, cardboard, plastic with wings, built in springs, waxed paper? ect. Two lawn and garden,garbage bags full. Still in storage. Probably a 3rd 20 gauge. Plus I think the AA wads, that L Ross sent with the press have been available for a few years.

 

[Tomme boy]

a lot of those old wads might not be any good anymore. The plastic breaks down in them. You will get weird vel swings and the gunshot will sound different when the wad fails. I just ran into this very issue loas the lyman pellet slugs

 

[Mitty38]

a lot of those old wads might not be any good anymore. The plastic breaks down in them. You will get weird vel swings and the gunshot will sound different when the wad fails. I just ran into this very issue loas the lyman pellet slugs

Thanks for that tip. Ye It would probably be a good Idea to sort thru then and check them to see if they went brittle. Maybe a mash test in a vice on a few of each lot?