Shotgun reloading. Considerations.

James, get yourself a copy of a late edition Lyman shotshell manual, it would take writing a short book to properly answer some of your questions, so just buy one that is already written. It even has pictures...
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If I decide to start reloading, I'll naturally invest in a decent manual. Until then, I have other things that money could go on. I'm just trying to get a feel for it. It all seems a very different animal from brass reloading.

Any info members choose to share need not be a lengthy descent into minutiae of the science, just a sentence or two about the way they might burn in relation to rifle or pistol powders. Nothing outrageous needed.

Same for the service life of casings. A number, thereabouts, will suffice.

Looking on a local gun-shop's website, I see shotgun powders have a lot of cross-over with others: I see HS-6, Lil-gun, Titewad, International and Universal clays and Longshot. A number of those also serve in pistols I believe...
 
I looked into it, the good people on here talked me out of it.

I shoot clays at a local clays/trap/skeet range where national events are held. You can even ride a golf cart on the 100 round clays course, its very nice!

I don't compete and don't plan on it. I shoot for fun and I guess I use 300-400 rounds of 20g 7.5 a year up there. I just buy the walmart Federal/Winchester/Remington 100 round cases when they sell them for around $20 on sale.

So that's less than $100 a year on ammo, I can live with that! I don't think I can reload that cheap.
 
I’d say get the shot shell reloading manual anyway. Even if you never reload shot shells it’s more information about guns and ammo and this hobby we all enjoy.

http://www.amazon.com/Lyman-Shotshe...yman+shotshell+reloading+handbook+5th+edition

My Dad shot a fair bit of trap and when I was living at home my Dad let me have however much powder I wanted for my handguns-Red Dot and 700x. I think he probably spilled more powder reloading shot shells than I used for my handguns. In return I ran his Mec 650 a few times a month and turned out a few cases of trap loads for him. Win-win, but I think I made out better on the deal because I kind of enjoyed running the Mec 650.

If you decide to take up shot shell reloading I’d suggest going with a progressive shot shell reloading press right from the start. A progressive press doesn’t cost that much more than a single stage and I think shot shell reloading lends itself to mass production more so than rifle or pistol reloading. Also if you decide to get out of reloading a progressive press will be easier to resell.

https://www.mecshootingsports.com/p-384-650n.aspx

As others have said one of the key points of shot shell reloading is that you have to buy wads that are compatible with your cases. That is, you sort your cases and if you have *lots* of different brand cases you’ll have to buy *lots* of different wads which is just a pain. My Dad simplified his life by only dealing with Winchester AA cases. Lots of shot shell reloaders do this.

Good luck.
 
I'll certainly think on it.

Meanwhile, any indication how many times a shot-case can be reused?

Plastic is pretty tough, but then getting fired is pretty harsh...
 
I answered your questions above.

It depends on the hull but between one and six times is usually how many times you can reload a hull
 
Meanwhile, any indication how many times a shot-case can be reused?

Until it splits or can no longer be crimped . They (halls) are all a little different . Over the years Win AA have been good to just OK Remington is good and so is Federal . I am not talking about all the cheaper shells like Wal-Mart Federals or Rem Gun Clubs . They also can be reloaded but may not last as long . Most of the cheaper shells have steel bases not that good to shoot a lot of .
 
I use AA hulls only. After 3-5 loadings they develop splits at the crimp folds, if they are small splits I might load them one more time.
 
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