REMINGTON PLASTIC SHELLS
 

Are all the current Remington shotgun of similar construction and thus can all be reloaded with the same recipes? I am looking at load data for 16 gauge 2 3/4" Remington hulls and the site only lists "2 3/4" REMINGTON SP PLASTIC SHELLS". I can not find a specific reference to "SP" shells. Just the usual STS, Game Loads, etc. I am a bit confused. I would like to use the Black Game Loads shells if I can safely do so. Thanks, Steve

I've got ots of the black RGLs if you need any Steve.
I've loaded all Remington the same, but loading light loads.

I load all the Remington hulls the same.

The following are all the same internal volume, just a different color; some smooth and some ribbed on the outside. STS, Nitro27 and Nitro Sporting Clays have brass heads, the others are steel heads.
STS (Green smooth)
Nitro27 (Gold smooth)
Nitro Sporting Clays (Gold smooth)
American Clay and Field (Transluscent green smooth)
Gun Club (Green ribbed)
Game Load (Black ribbed)

There has been some chatter over on 16GA.com about the recent black RGL being loaded in Federal hulls. I cut an older RGL (perhaps 8-10 years old) hull and a fairly recent Federal 16ga. hull. The older RGL had a plastic base wad and the Federal had their typical fiber base wad. I don't have any recent RGL hulls to inspect. If you have recent RGL hulls you might inspect the base wad as to whether it has a plastic or fiber wad. Might provide good info.

The older RGL hulls are only good for 3-5 reloads, at least in my experience.

I forgot to note that these are for 12 and 20 gauge hulls. The 16 gauge are straight-walled hulls.

My recipe is for 16 gauge and calls for the Remington hulls.,

Today's 20 gauge shells are required to be yellow. If I remember correctly, Federal made a promotional run of 20 gauge "ladies shells" which were pink. They had to recall all of them because of the color

The new 16ga Remington Game Loads are the same as the Federal hulls.

https://i.imgur.com/C5Ph1fR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DCDxsKb.jpg

Steve, the SP Remingtons were made back in the 60's and 70's and perhaps a bit later. Here's how a 12 ga box was labeled.

Sorry, I don't have a fired hull to look at its base wad. I'm not certain but I'm fairly sure the SP 16's were made in the standard Remington green color, not purple. Also, I’m thinking the hulls had a separate base wad and were not compression formed. Again all this is conjecture.

I understand Steve's confusion with Remington hulls and published reloading recipes.

Every time I've looked at them from any source, I ended up having the same questions Steve expressed. Because of this when I started loading for the 16, I went another route with available components and ordered new primed Cheddite cases & have stuck with them ever since. I am going to have an issue in the future though, because the recipe I found & like uses 20/28 powder & when I run out of it, I'll be on the hunt again for a new 16ga recipe.

Apparently, the Remington 16 ga as changed. Likely due to the relatively low volume compared to 12/20. Could be a temporary change due to component material issues (wads) or a strategical change. I will check into it and report back.

Try Longshot. It's available and it's relatively affordable.

The "SP" hull was introduced in 1961, still using fiber wads but with a plastic H-Wad replacing the nitro card. From the 1961 Remington catalog --

Attachment 140966

Here is a cut-away from the 1962 Remington catalog --

Attachment 140967

The Power Piston plastic wads were introduced in the Remington Skeet & Trap loads for 1964 and in the Remington Express loads in 1965.

From the end of WW-II to the 1960s the paper Remington Express load numbers were prefaced RX. With the introduction of the SP hull the load numbers were prefaced with SP. I have boxes of Remington Express 16s and 20s well into the Lonoke, AR years and the load numbers are prefaced SP.

What hull are these from a recent Remington ad --

Attachment 140968

Your right Frank, I still have a few boxes of SP16s and they are green.

I have about 6-7 cases express and field all are green. And about 22 boxes of Peter’s plastic power piston all 16 which I have shot for 65 years

Longshot is probably the way I'll go once my 20/28 powder is used up. I use longshot in both my 20 & 28ga loadings & like it.

I found a couple of empty 12-gauge plastic Remington Express hulls in the storage room last night. Application of a rather dull hacksaw revealed this.

Attachment 141005

One on the left is head-stamped REMINGTON 12 GA EXPRESS and has the "Hydraulically formed in the shell fiber base wad."

The one on the right is compression formed and head-stamped --REMINGTON--12 GA.

The Remington RXP compression formed 12-gauge Trap and Skeet shells were introduced in 1973 and the 20-gauge by 74. The 1976 Remington catalog still shows the Remington Express hull with the "Hydraulically formed in the shell fiber base wad." The next Remington catalog I've found that shows a full cut-away of the Remington Express shell is 1982 and it shows a compression formed hull.

Attachment 141022

So, the likelihood of running into the smaller volume fiber base wad SP hull in a reloading situation today is pretty remote.

I confirmed that the current 16 gauge Remington Game Loads are being loaded at Anoka using Federal hulls and components. Be sure to explore the reloading recipe data to see if there is any internal volume differences between the Remington and the Federal hulls. If the Remington GL's you have is the one-piece hull, it will have different internal volume and use different wads from the straight-walled Federal hulls currently in use. No way to tell until after you fire the factory loads unless you cut them down.