Vintage 12 & 16 Gauge Brass Shells:

[Bruce P Bruner]

Just sharing my new cache of Winchester and Remington Brass Shells.
25-12 Gauge
17-16 Gauge
I can't understand why there isn't any available data for using smokeless powder in these. Low pressure loads with proper over powder wad and vegetable filler wads should be just fine in my opinion. Thoughts?

[Mike of the Mountain]

You try Ballistic Products brass shell reloading manual? I load FFg black powder in mine and in paper hulls. No plastic wads, just nitro cards, fiber/cotton/wool fillers and a thin overshot card.

[Researcher]

A hundred and more years ago, warnings not to load anything but black powder in brass shells were all over. From the 1903 Baltimore Arms Co. catalog --

Recommended Loads May 1903.jpg

The 1923 Remington Arms Co., Inc. catalog --

1923 Brass Shells.jpeg

I've got to believe that the WW-II to Viet Nam military all brass 00 Buck shells are smokeless --

Military 00 Buck Winchesters left, Remington right.JPG

and the Remington Ducks Unlimited Commemorative shells --

Ducks Unlimited Commemorative.jpg

are also smokeless.

[Paul Harm]

You can load nitro in brass shells if you make the final crimp strong enough for a complete powder burn. Seeing how you're not crimping, the glued in OS card has to do it. The way I found to accomplish this is to use hot glue and make sure there's at least a 1/4" of brass surface for the glue to grab a hold of. The fiber wads seem fitting for brass shells, but a OP card and a plastic wad would also work. The plastic wad will be too loose so you'd need the OP card. If you're using low pressure data for plastic wads you'll want to go up about 10% for the fiber wads. You'll have to play around a little to find what works.

I had some of those Remington Ducks Unlimited shells and took one apart. They use a Nitro powder, couldn't determine which one it was. Now I don't even remember what kind of wads were used.

Just MHO, but I believe Remington was just CTA because some of the old smokeless loads had quite high pressures.

[Bruce P Bruner]

I read somewhere the Remington Ducks Unlimited Commemorative brass shells were loaded hot and when firing them they would split down the side. I have the appropriate over sized op wads and the correct oversized vegetable wads for 16 and 12 gauge. These wads are among the many items that are now reclassified as "unobtanium" .