2 7/8" SHELLS IN 2 5/8"

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Jerry Harlow

I've seen all the debate about 2 3/4" shells in 2 1/2" or 2 5/8" chambers which I shoot all the time, but do you believe the same applies to the short 10? I picked up a lifter 10 on a No. 2 frame with Plain Twist but it has 2 5/8" chambers. All of my shells are 2 7/8" with about 7700 p.s.i. according to the chart. Shooting 1.5 ounces which I like. I know I could roll crimp but I've never had success with that and don't know of a 1/4" spacer for the 10 short kit.

Opinions? Thanks.

I'll get a picture for you- I put a 1/4 riser under my MEC 10's short kit, just a scrap of maple plywood I had around- just traced the shell holder and cut it out on the band saw- works fine

but lately I have been using the Ballistic Products roll crimper- i like the results,

[J. A. EARLY]

p.s I might add the bores are larger than .791 where the choke starts so the bores are oversized from the usual 10 gauge measurements of my other 10s. They are big ahead of the chambers also. I'll need to get my pin gauges out since the Skeets gauge will go no higher. They have .030 choke in both but the thinnest spots are .050 on the right and .045 on the left and almost all over .050. Since this is not in the book I wonder if this started life as a 12?

[J. A. EARLY]

Originally Posted by Rick Losey

I'll get a picture for you- I put a 1/4 riser under my MEC 10's short kit, just a scrap of maple plywood I had around- just traced the shell holder and cut it out on the band saw- works fine

but lately I have been using the Ballistic Products roll crimper- i like the results,

Rick,

Thanks for the photo of your riser. I finally made a riser for my short kit out of 1/4" plywood and that worked great.

Now the problem with the loader. I wanted to use 6 point crimps so I cut down some Federals to 2 5/8" and cut petals off of the SP10 wad, and put the 1 1/4 oz. lead load using 32 grains of SR7625 which called for a 6 point crimps.

Trouble is, even though it looks to have plenty of room in there my MEC crushes the side walls on every load I have made. If I back it off enough to avoid the destruction, it won't crimp. I'm guessing it is just too much stuff in there. I can roll crimp, but then I only can get one load out of each hull and that's too expensive.

2nd question: Any problem shooting shells with slight dimple in the wall? I can't see how that would hurt and it should straighten them back out!

Thoughts.