As a kid I loaded many hundreds of paper cases with fiber wads, one shell at a time, on a single stage press. That was a while ago for sure. As I recall I would prime, add powder, then seat a .135 card and then dump in whatever shot charge I was going to use. Once done, I would measure the distance from the top of the shot to the case mouth. For 12 ga. I believe I subtracted 9/16" (Star crimp). The remainder was the height of the fiber/felt wad that was required for a good crimp. For a final tweak I could switch from a .135 card to a .2. Once I did this I would dump the shot, add the fiber wads and press on. I kept notes for each load. I even had a case 'iron' that heated the case until the wax melted. This would give a nice stiff case mouth for the crimp. The wad column height had to be right on as there is very little give when crimping. The paper cases would only last a couple of loadings before they would start to burn through around the base. A lot of work for a box of shells!
Carl Bachhuber
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