20 gauge 2 1/2 inch loads

[Double Play]

Originally Posted by Bruce Day

So what are the measured chamber lengths for SN 208,485?

Not sure yet as it went right to Mr. Chaber for a good cleaning but it will be ready for the Southren so you will see it there. It's an interesting gun as it is a very late Damascus gun.

[C.O.B.]

I load all 2 1/2 inch hulls from 12, 16, 20 & 410 For everything except the 410 I use RST hulls which are Cheddite hulls and can be ordered through various reloading supply houses. If you come to any of the bigger sxs shoots such as the Southern or hausmanns you can easily scroung once fired RST hulls. I can't get to the load data for my 20ga loads at the moment but I'm using 20/28 powder and 7/8th or 3/4 oz shot charges. These are all low pressure loads, easy on you and your Trojan.

[William Davis]

Rich

How are you crimping ? Roll or fold.

Bill

[C.O.B.]

Fold, I think it's a six star crimp. I can't get to anything in the gun room as it's chucked full of mounts and stuff as I'm having the basement finished off. They just have trim to do so by the end of next week I can get you my load data. I'm using a Mec 9000 press.

[jim garrett]

Double check your RST hulls. You might find that they are amazingly similar to RIO hulls. Jim

[Autumn Daze]

Jim, RST and Rio are both indeed Cheddite hulls.

[jim garrett]

Cheddite and RIO are two separate companies. Cheddite is an Italian company with plants located in Italy and France and RIO is a Spanish company with plants located in Sp[ain, England and now has a new plant in McEwen, Tennessee in the USA. I shoot quite a few RST shells, particularly in a 2 7/8" 10 gauge, a 2 1/2" 12 gauge, a 2 1/2" 16 gauge and a 2 1/2" 20 gauge. When I started shooting RST's and subsequently reloading them, I also thought they were Cheddite hulls; however, on comparing the headstamps on the hulls with those of Cheddite and RIO I thought they were similar enough for further analysis. I then sectioned a number of shells and it was obvious, at least to me, that the base wad for the Cheddite and RIO shells were different. I then compared base wads in different gauges and determined that RST could be using Cheddite hulls in some of their loads, as is Nobel and Multi Hull by BP and RIO hulls in some of their loads, such as the 2 1/2" 16 gauge lite loads and the 2 1/2" 12 gauge loads...I had no 20 gauge Cheddit hulls to compare. I concluded that nothing is certain when you buy factory loaded shells and as an example, I bought some 2 1/2" hulls with Eley's headstamp that were shipped to Ballistic Products by RIO in a shipping error. The only way to be sure about a shotshell hull is to buy factory hulls from that company, section them, and examine the base wad for comparison with other shells in question. In conclusion, RST, Cheddite and RIO are not the same unless these companies have recently merged.

[Autumn Daze]

Jim, Let me rephrase that last statement RST and Rio hulls use the same loading data. They may not be made by the same company but they are basically the same design. You can have different base wad design and still have the same internal volume.