Stupid steel based shells

[jimbobborg]

Does any company make target, low brass shotgun shells with real brass anymore? Or am I going to have to get some work done on my shotgun to cycle this crap? Thanks.

 

[Augie]

For brass you need to go to Winchester AA or Remington STS or Nitros. Of the cheapie steel shells I have found the Remington gun clubs to stick the least and the Winchesters to be the worst.
What type of gun? In some cases to a real good clean and polish of the chamber can help.

 

[tdt91]

I bet you were using Winchesters. Try the Rem brand from wally world or Rem Gun Clubs, they work fine in most all guns.

 

[jimbobborg]

I used Remington steel based stuff on Saturday. My Remington 11-87P, which feeds the Remington brass based stuff with no problems, choked a LOT during my match. It's really obnoxious when a semi-auto becomes a straight pull bolt gun when it's normally a pellet hose. The Winchester crap is worse. I'll try to find AA or STS shells. Thanks.

 

[tdt91]

You need to clean that gun up real good. Go to Shotgun World and I bet you will get some answers. Your gun should cycle the Rems just fine. IIRC there is a different piston to use for light loads. Shotgun world has the info.

 

[Numidian]

What's your chamber look like? You could always polish it up.

 

[possumman]

I shot with a guy Saturday who used Wallyworld Winchesters in his Remington and never had a bobble-My Beretta eats all that cheap stuff without a hiccup,as does my sons ancient Ted Williams/Winchester. I have put a couple thousand through it in the last year. Your gun should cycle that stuff ok too.

 

[blackthorne]

You can add Federal Gold Medal to the list of brass based shells.

Here is what I know:

Steel bases expand more than brass. Some thinner steel bases, like the Wally World Winchesters expand quite a lot. Brass is more elastic than steel, so when it expands, it also then retracts a wee bit whereas steel does not. So, steel bases will expand and stick to the chamber walls. The more they expand, the worse they stick. If a chamber runs on the large side, the steel sort of over-expands and these are the guns that have issues with steel shells. The sticking is not really proned to exist in any certain guns, but those companies (or certain lots of guns) using chamber reamers that are a bit large run into sticking issues with steel based shells.

In measuring some of the chambers in some of my guns, I find this information to be spot on. Steel hulls will stick in both my Ljutic, a Rizzini and in an LC Smith I own, both having chambers that run on the large size. They don't stick in any Beretta 391 I've owned, any of my Krieghoffs or in a couple of Italian SXS guns I have. These all have tighter chambers.

In target guns, some guys will have the chamber sleeved with a smaller chamber size in order to solve this problem. In less expensive guns, this might not be cost effective. I have seen others actaully mil some very shallow rings in the back of the chamber so the steel bases have less of a bearing surface on which to stick.

If you reload, you can also mitigate the problem by both using steel based hulls with thicker steel, like Gun Clubs & to load lower pressure rounds.

Another downside of a steel base is they are tough on extractors & ejectors and on reloading machines.

 

[Numidian]

Interesting. You'd think the steel would expand LESS than the brass... (IE, why Wolf is so dirty in rifles, the case mouth doesn't seal the chamber)

 

[blackthorne]

Interesting. You'd think the steel would expand LESS than the brass... (IE, why Wolf is so dirty in rifles, the case mouth doesn't seal the chamber)

Different. You are talking about case neck on a rifle case (thicker too) vs a base on a shotgun shell. The higher pressure is in the base.