If you have thousands of them I would probably just sell them as is and whoever wants to salvage them can decided how they want to go about taking them apart.

great idea.....charlie

edgarspencer- here are a few pics of the hulls (loaded and clipped open) Let me know if they don't show up and I'll figure it out. As you can see, my opening up the shell only clips off about 3/16" of the hull, just not sure if this is a bad thing or not.

I think its going to depend what loads and wads people are using if the length off matters. I think most of the 8 gauge guys are using SP-8 wads. I know with the 1 3/4oz loads I loaded using SP-8 wads I could lop 1/4" off the hulls and still have room, by removing the 1/4" filler wad. Using fiber wads on the other hand you can pretty much configure the stack height to work with a wide variety of hull length and shot weight. So cutting 3/16" off the end wouldn't necessarily ruin the hulls but I think its going to depend on what specific loads 8 gauge guys are shooting.

I just noticed that one shell looks identical to one I loaded myself with a homemade shotcup. Does it have a sleeve in it ? I have pulled apart some old Winchester Industrial loads that had a shot collar or sleeve in the hull, not really sure why since they were lead loads.

Yes, the #2 kids have a sleeve. Powder, cup, fibre wad, shot and sleeve, overshot card

Mr. Starr thank-you for your response. That is exactly the kind of info I’ve been looking for. If what I’m doing still leaves the hull usable then I literally have thousands of hulls that the 8 ga guys will find useful. Thanks for your input.

Well it’s none of my buisness , HOWEVER ! If a person roll crimps ONLY I think they’d be okay . However many folks like myself fold crimp , SO I want the full 3.25” on a WIN hull and having trimmed some WIN hulls down a bit to try in Edgar’s friend roll crimper WIN hulls thicken up not to far from the mouth . Again roll crimping is fine for most but with WIN hulls I wanna fold and not have to roll like I do with REM hulls .

Good to know, thank-you Sitka.
So, are there guys out there that would want to roll crimp that need hulls and are OK with them being slightly shorter…

First there’s no T in Sika . Second most folks that use WIN hulls do so because they WILL fold crimp , REM hulls will not they’re to thick to fold well . After you trim let’s say 1/4” you’re pretty much in the same ballpark . I do not like anything that slows the loading process . Heck it’s bad enough loading 8’s on a single stage loader much less adding on the roll crimping part . For my own use the only thing I roll crimp are slugs and buckshot . All my birdshot loads will be fold crimped . You’re talking about a lot of time and effort to salvage the primers and I think most of the shot will be zinc . For time outlay versus selling the loaded shells outright to me it’s a no brainer sell the ammo and buy what you’re after with the proceeds then whomever buys them can do with them as they see fit .

Good to know Sika. I've actually had a fellow on another forum suggest making an inertia hammer to blow the shells open so I'm going to try that. The shot is all lead (as seen in the posted pictures)- I've already ran it through my dripper and made #7 w/ it.

Made an inertia hammer to try- didn't work that well. The overshot card doesn't blow the end of the hull out very well, only unfolds it slightly. As it sits right now, just cutting the very end of the crimp off. I guess if guys are willing/able to use a shortened hull, that's what they'll get

Here's pictures of the various components once shell is disassembled. Shell includes overshot card, shot, sleeve, felt wad, seal cup and powder. About 3 oz. of shot loaded over approx. 28 gns. of powder that has a burn rate real similar to WSF and Herco.

Here's the rest of the pics

lots of good components in those shells.....ever figure out how much a hull will cost if you decide to sell any...if the price is right I would be a buyer of some of the hulls...charlie

Charlie, I have no use for any of the components other than the lead, powder and primer. Not too sure what the hulls or other components are worth to guys, I’d more rely on guys like you to tell me what a good price is. Regardless, the whole point of me jumping on this forum was to figure out if the stuff was useful to guys and how to salvage the shells to keep it useful. I’ve done my best to keep the hulls as long as possible for reuse by guys, hopefully it is. I understand that there are guys that would only want full length hulls and that’s their business but I’ve had similar instance where “not perfect” is plenty good enough if the price is right. I prefer to shoot my .357 as a .357 but when I guy gave me 3000 rounds of loaded .38 rounds- they shot just fine…

Charlie,
Further to that, I cannot use the classifieds yet and I don’t think I can do PM’s either so not really sure how to put it up for sale at this point. Would like to get rid of it though, just not sure how…?

join the pga for 40 dollars it will be the best 40 you ever spent and will give you a chance and way to sell your hulls....charlie

Salvaged components from these rounds have been posted for sale under the thread "8 GA. RELOADING COMPONENTS FOR SALE"