Gun Clubs delivered to my club at less than $5.00 a box means that my 20 gauge 800B has been put aside for a few years. The hulls are great to load, but no one will take them, even for free. Gun Clubs and other $5.00 12 gauge shells are all anyone uses around here any more. Since I moved in July, I have been selling and giving away components, even lead. My shooting buddy built my new gun room hardware and was paid off in components.

Bill your saying you can buy 20ga gun clubs for less than $5.00 per box? Wow that's cheap!!!

Yes, but I can reload 7/8oz shells for 3.45/box. That's still a nice savings - 29,or round it off to a 30% savings. I'll keep reloading.

If your looking for an inexpensive factory load consider the Italian company Clever. I have been using these in both 12 & 20 for about $6/box. The 3/4 oz 20 is a joy to shoot. Easy on the recoil and murder on targets.

I have loaded all of the cases mentioned with CCI primers and have not had any problems.

I have used CCI for years because they are a low pressure primer (CCI regular not magnum primers which are very hot). Federal primers are very hot and winchester less so but still hot. Remington primers are good and just a bit hotter than the CCI's. You can find load in the manuals that uses CCI primers, Remington wads and IMR 4756 for 12 bore 1 and 1 1/8 oz loads. Pressures will be under 7,000 psi and the loads are very comfortable to shoot.

From everything I've read only the Fed209A and CCI209M are hot primers. Everything else is about the same with slight differences. Remington primers are usually considered the ones giving the least pressure. I use the Cheddite primer and if loading at low pressure, say under 7500psi, I don't worry which of the mild primers is used in a formula. The pressure won't change all that much. PB, 7625, and 4756 are all discontinued. It's too bad because many of us liked them. American Select, Promo, Red Dot, Green Dot, and E3 are some of the powders I've used for light low pressure loads. I'm sure there's many others.

Further to the Remington hull primer pocket dimensions. I was measuring the STS vs AA pockets with a pin punch set. Picked one with a slip fit on the AA that goes all the way through. And entered the STS then stops short.

Yesterday turned a gauge that is a nice snug fit all the way through the AA hull. Pushed in the fresh de-primed STS it stops a measured .01O short = Ten Thou short. Reaming with a tapered hand reamer from the mouth opens the flash hole enough for the gauge to slip through snug fit. No doubt about it the Remington hulls primer pocket is different.

Have not loaded any of the reamed STS yet. When I do will measure primer depth carefully comparing to factory some of the reloaded STS that gave my tight Trojan trouble. And some of my AA reloads, see what that says. Real test is will they function.

William

Man, I don't know. All you guys having trouble with the 12 and 20ga shells. Only the 28ga have given me any problems. For as long as I can remember primers have always gone in the 12 and 20 with no problems. Most of the guys at my club load Remington shells and have never complained about primer fit. They use either the Cheddite or Win primer. I tried a Rem Gun Club 12ga and there was plastic going over the end but I had already been reloading it a couple of times without problems. A 15/64 drill bit cleaned it out. If using a tapered hand reamer I'd always be worried about going in too far. With the drill, which is cheaper and easier to find, it's a no brainer - what I need. I just checked to see what size drill it took. Never in all my years of reloading have I had to fix anything but the 28ga Remingtons. My friends and I must have magic presses that push the primers in.

Paul primers are a press fit. Successfully inserting a part pressed fit into another will vary according to parts size, how much pressure is applied and the material itself. Plastic will allow a larger variance in size than other materials . It’s my guess differences in result we see is due to the amount of pressure applied when seating the primer. Probably differences in the plastic itself and different guns have different high primer tolarance . Likely smaller the gauge more it shows.

I agree with you, tapered reamer may not be the best tool,considering how much needs to be removed. I plan to measure my reamer and see what the size differences are. Point of contact vs reamed. Easy to use a drill to do the same thing. Would take a very small cylindrical reamer but they are available. None in my toolbox.

None of this needed if I had not bought a 2nd 20 G Trojan or been able to match STS hulls with Remington primers. Rain the last few days time to experiment too.

William

Paul, if you look at the loading manuals and compare loads, you'll see that Winchester primers are relatively hot, especially when using compression formed AA hulls. You are right about IMR 4756 being no longer made. I used to buy a few 8 pound canisters at a time to get a discount and have about four pounds left.

With the CCI regular primers, my target 12 bore loads developed only 6,600 PSI with minimal recoil. I used the CCI primer to get under 7,000 PSI. I couldn't do that with any other primer except for Remington which is a tad higher pressure than the CCI.

For my taste, red dot has relatively high pressure and green dot less so. When my 4756 is gone, I'll go to 700X. I don't like American Select because I can't get the pressures where I want them.

I like to keep my 12 bore target loads under 7,000 psi. I shoot a ton of them through my Parkers and the lower recoil is easier on old wood.