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Unread 06-11-2015, 11:45 AM   #5
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What gauge are you shooting? It is also important to find out what your actual bore size is. Many Parker shotguns pre (If I remember Austin Hogan's research correctly) about 1885, have larger than modern bore sizes. Many 12 gauge guns have bore sizes around .750, and 10 gauge guns have bores .790+.

The reason I point this out is that if you gun does have the larger bore size, it will perform better if you use thin walled brass hulls and card wads. For example if you use the thin walled Magtech brass 12 ga. hulls, you load 11 gauge (.754) card wads in them which will give you good compression and efficient powder consumption in the barrel. It can be difficult to load 11 gauge card wads in plastic or paper hulls, which were designed to use .729 wads.

If you have a 12 gauge, you are in luck because the Magtech brass hulls are cheap (about 1$ each) and last forever if you take care of them. If you have a 10 gauge, it is more expensive because the hulls available on the market are lathe turned, and not mass produced. Loading brass hulls will require getting some specialty tooling, like a hand wad press/de-capper, and wad tube, which luckily, are very easy to find on Ebay.

I think Ballistic Products produces a booklet on reloading black powder in brass hulls, if you are interested.

As already mentioned, many use modern hulls, and 12 gauge card wads and get good service out of them. Which is very fine for breaking clays or light game shooting. Another plus, is many people already have some of the components to get started if that is the route you take, i.e. hulls, press, 209 primers...etc.
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