Can I reload old fashioned paper shells?

[Steve McCarty]

Originally Posted by Jeff Christie

I sorta did that. I bought all the rest of the family out as I did not want to see the land get away. Impossible to get back once it is gone. I may someday see if the state is interested in it for Public Hunting. The first time the farmer says he is no longer interested in farming it I am seriously thinking about letting it return to natural cover.

My grandfather had a nice piece about 20 miles south of Bucklin. He farmed about half of it and left the rest as is. There was a little draw that ran through it and water ran a bit. There was an dead cottonwood and you could see where there had been a soddy. A dimple in the hillside, a few smashed soldered tin cans, some square nails, a battered oil lamp. Ernie, my grandfather, said he knew the people who had lived there. My great grandmother, Eva, also lived in a soddy and she wasn't nostalgic about it one bit. She was born in 1887. Living in a soddy on that cold, wind blown prairie was not a piece of cake. They made them as cozy as they could. White washed walls and a window or two, life was hard. Eva said it drove her husband into an early grave. She lived to be four months shy of 100 in a little house on the north edge of town and raised chickens and had an egg route until a year or two before she died. Boy could she bake!

South Western Kansas was Indian Country, and in the 60's and 70's they were none too friendly. A hundred would pop up as if from no where. When you scanned the country, flat as a pancake, you wouldn't see a thing, but a slew of Indians could be hunkered down in a draw just 50 yrds away.

Lots of western Kansas towns are dead or dieing. Little Bucklin, a burg of about 700 is still hanging in there. They have the school. Kids from Ford and Fowler go to school in Bucklin. The place seems to be caught in a time warp. Little has changed since I lived there in the 50s and early 60s. Hays had a bit of a rennaisance, but I think it has died down again. Greensburg might as well be dead...it blew away like Dorothy's cabin in The Wiz of Oz.

[Paul Harm]

Precision Reloading has the best roll crimping tools at a better price than Ballistic Products. I believe BP's gets their wads from Circle fly so you may be able to save a buck or two going with CF. If roll crimping shells that have been star crimped you'll need to cut off the star crimp end to get a nice roll crimp. That'll put you at around 2 1/2" shell. In 12ga or smaller you'll want to go to fiber wads so everything will fit in the shell. Or, as I have sometimes done is use like a 1 3/8oz plastic wad [ which is shorter ] with 1oz of shot. Precision Reloading will also work with you for Mec parts cheaper than what Mec will sell them for. About the only thing I buy from BP is the new 10ga plastic hulls. Good luck.

[timcornish]

I use Federal paper, BPI has them and I scrounged about 500 the other day at my local gun dealers. I have a special mec crimp starter made for paper and the crimps look new with this device (I think I got it from BPI or maybe Mec. Steve, get a Mec! I have both but have had Mecs since 1964 and the extra is well worth it. The Lees are fine but if you start relaoding much at all you will end up with a Mec sooner or later.