Brass 8’s

[6pt-Sika]

Originally Posted by Arthur Shaffer

I have the 8 gauge hulls along with most other gauges. I also have one of the Paradox crimpers for a 1-58" 20 gauge chamber in a rifled Sauer cape gun. The 8 gauge is a hoot with a full bore size ball (which are available already cast) since my 8 gauge is an 1870 single with no choke. It's really accurate for a round ball.

I am not really keen on the paradox crimp (or the roll crimping either). I my experience, neither works very well without annealing the case mouth area. This wouldn't be a problem except that, like rifle brass forming, with that much movement it needs to be annealed after each shot. If I had a Paradox gun, I might load some for display and show, or if I wanted to hunt with them to insure the load didn't shift I might special load for that. For everyday use, I would strongly recommend the glue in based on my experience. By the way, the crimper shown is specific as to the length. If you anneal, I am not sure that a regular crimp starter wouldn't work.

You’re probably correct , but I wanna possibly do the brass shell thing with crimped brass . I don’t even entertain the idea of glueing a top wad etc that whole idea while maybe working well leaves a bad taste in my mouth so to speak . I’ve killed with roundballs in roll crimped black plastic Remington hulls using roundballs once and buckshot once . At present I’ve got a 730 grain .775” hollow base slug mold I wanna use on a deer . Accuracy for this slug in my smoothbore barrels is thirty yards possibly 35 or 40 on the outside . But typically I don’t try a shot on a deer with any shotgun much over 25 yards . We’ve got a Manton fully rifled hammer 8 bore double in the shop I’d love to buy and mess with and of course kill a deer , but the asking price is a BIG deterrent .