Gone to the "Dark Side"

[Keith Doty]

Well, I have given this much thought and decided I just HAD to try it. I bought 20 of the Track of the Wolf 10 ga. Parker headstamp brass shotshell hulls. I took a load that tested at 5500 psi in a plastic Cheditte hull with a Rem SP-10 wad 1 1/4 oz lead shot, backed up 2.2 gr (Longshot) to 28 gr., loaded the brass up with Lg. pistol primers, 1/8" nitro card 9 ga., 3 fiber 1/2" fillers, an OSC and a thin bead of hot glue. In theory this load should be pretty low pressure. Headed for the club with my PHE 32", barrel walls like a sewer pipe.
I fires the first two straight up, holding the gun with a single hand well above my head, no digits forward of the triggers. A satisfying bang from both barrels one after the other. Ejected the hulls and examined. They looked like spent brass hulls, nothing weird or ominous, snapped right out on the ejectors. Burned nice and clean, hot glue completely gone, report and recoil indistinguishable from the tested plastic hull loads. I then fired the other 4 rounds at clays. Other than the confetti effect of 3 filler wads, seemed to shoot just fine, broke clays (3, missed one). Interesting!
I will experiment a bit more, want to chrony the load, may back up another 1 to 1 1/2 gr. of powder depending on chrony results. My goal is to open "big duck" with a pair of brass shells in the bore.

[Keith Doty]

Note to self: DO NOT eject the brass shells out on the ground. I forgot the PHE 10 was an ejector gun, snapped it open and only caught one hull before they hit the ground. The one that went to the ground was slightly "dinged" out of round at the mouth, required a bit of love before it gets reloaded. At 10 bucks a round you want to avoid this. I did measure the spent rounds, appear to have "blown out" a very small amount, about .001 over the unfired ones.

[charlie cleveland]

black powder will get the job done on those ducks...and recoil is not bad at all....charlie

[Keith Doty]

Charlie, you are 100% correct BUT the guys I shoot with aren't gonna like the clouds of smoke and I'll hate the cleaning! My goal is the convenience of modern non-corrosive and the "style" of times gone by. I'd like to basically use the same supplies I stock anyway (Longshot, among others, and large pistol primers) and still enjoy the brass hulls. I'm weak for roll crimps as well, particularly with paper hulls. Again, fond memories of people, hunts, and years gone by. If you had told me 20 years ago I'd be shooting damascus barrels and paper hulls today I'd of thought you'd lost your mind!

[charlie cleveland]

a bucket with soapy water and a paper wad pushed thru the bore 2 times and then a oil patch and your ready to go...I use to hate to clean a black powder gun...but after I read about using soap and water no big deal any more....charlie

[6pt-Sika]

I’ve never loaded brass shells so I know nothing other than what I’ve read , however I’ve got a nice old MacFarlane precusion double 10 that I’ve shot some . My dislike for BP knows no boundaries and in the double I used Hodgdon 777 2Fg with decent results . Triple 7 has no corrosive properties and if left over night or a month after shooting it’ll not rust and all that’s required for cleanup is water a rod , a brush and patches of some type .