Federal Shorty Shells
 

So is a low recoil 1 3/4" shorty shell at 1200 fps considered a low pressure shell like the RST? Are they considered safe in a damascus barrel?

Maybe this will help you .

Federal would have to tell us the PSI for the shorty shell. They only have to make them to meet SAAMI specs. RST gladly provides their PSI for their loads. Good luck getting it from Federal.

Ken

Do not have any experience with those but if they are marketed to function in auto loaders i would not believe them to be ''low pressure''unless the manufacturer will give you the established pressure information.

Can someone explain what "low pressure" is? Below a certain PSI? I have not seen pressures on RST I think you have to ask them unless I missed it.

As the posted sheet above shows in the upper left hand corner in small print PSI is 11,500.

I would say that is high compared to RST loads but .....

Andy,

I emailed RST in Feb of this year about their 2" loads. Chris sent me a pdf with most of the 2.5" loads in 12, 16, 20, and 28 gauge loads along with the 2" 12 loads. The highest 12 gauge psi listed in 6300. Their 2" loads range from 4800 to 6200 psi.

Bruce,

The sheet Milton posted looks like the SAAMI spec for the shell and not necessarily the Federal shell.

Ken

The Federal 1 3/4" load is the only one with a SAAMi spec , the other ones out there dont have one such as the one sold by Aguila.

Ken: Yep. I took SAAMI to be the upper limit of that load which in and of itself is a bit "HOT" for some of our guns....

Wow that’s low. Thanks Ken.

Wow, thanks for the feed back. Looks like I won't be using these in the old girl.

Does anyone have a clue how RST makes them so low pressure? Types of powder and wads, etc? I have yet to cut one open to "explore" but think I will tonight.

Andy, low pressure is different to different people. A lot of us reload around 5000 to 7500 psi. Some consider anything below 8 or 8500 psi to be low pressure. For years it was the 7's range for me, now it's anything in the 8's or lower.

Andy, I once called RST and ask what wad they used in their 10ga shells. Remington SP-10 I was told. I said they seem to be a loose fit in any 10ga shell. He replied " how do you think we get low pressures ? " I once ran out of my 3/4oz 12ga reloads and had some 1oz RST shells handy. They shot every bit as soft as my reloads.

Thanks Paul. I cut apart an RST Falcon Lite the other day (16g) and it was surely a Gualandi Sporting 16 wad. The powder looked an awful lot like International Clays to me.