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Can someone who reloads Federal Paper hulls advsie how many reloads you can expect from these hulls (an estimate or average)?

Derrick

I'm doing about 3 and tossing them. If you want longevity, use a plastic hull.

Chuck, I've got a few Fed paper hulls that I've been thinking about reloading. How do you determine when they're no longer worth reloading or capable of being reloaded?

Mine usually start burning through where the paper comes out of the brass base, and/or start showing burn through along a crack running the length of the shell. I throw them away when I see any of these signs.

Mine start delaminating at the crimp area. But I'm shooting them in a 2 5/8 chamber also, which may contribute to the short life. The rest of the hull looks fine and could probably go twice the 3 reloads I'm getting. Some of the guys say there was an old "ironer" to remelt the wax and rebond the laminations. I may try something like that including dipping the mouths in hot wax.

Derrick,

I loaded some Federal paper hulls with the traditional 3 drams of 2F black powder,1 1/8 oz. of shot, card and cushon wads. They really looked neat. Unfortunately they only lasted 1 round, most burned through along the seam.

I am going to try some high grade 3f to see if it burns cleaner and perhaps a bit cooler.

RPr

Without the use of a case conditioner to melt the wax and reshape the hull wall, trying to get more than two or three reloads is not advised. Really, I try for two reloads and then toss them but I have thousands of them to use. They cut down well for 2 1/2" or 2" shells very nicely. Nothing looks nicer than a roll crimped paper hull next to a double gun. They look great and smell great when shot. You can pick up Federal Papers on Ebay for a very good price sometimes.

I too load 'em twice & discard. Another loading usually will result in finding 'pin holes' just above the brass. I have never noticed that happening on the second reload. BTW, it does not seem to make much dif if its a 7/8oz or a 1.25oz load, at least not that I could ever notice. All my loading is smokeless and they have that 'smell' irrespective of the particular powder being used, so it must be the paper & the wax that imparts the aroma. Always triggers good memories, that.

For BP, I only use them once and toss 'em. Leakage starts to show around the primer pocket and pinholes burn through just above the brass. When I started reloading, in about 1960, paper shells were all we had. Even with smokeless, we were lucky to get 3 reloads. The crimp would get so weak, the second shell would sometimes open up after the first shot and start dribbling shot out. This was true with a semi-auto and/or even with a twice-barrel gun. When AAs came out, we couldn't believe we could get 15-20 reloads out of them. Amazing!

That Herters Case Conditioner to melt the wax and reset the base wad was the greatest. Wish I had one again as I recently bought a flat of Federal Papers for the smell. Can't say I miss lining up a nitro card and two 3/8 inch Felton Blue Streaks into a column and sliding them into the wad guide though!! When I started, the load most everyone shot was a Federal 209, 23 grains of Red Dot, a .135 nitro card, two 3/8 inch Felton Blue Streaks and 1 1/8 ounces of shot. Usually started to see pinholes after three reloads. The first great advance was replacing the nitro card with the plastic PGS wad and reducing the powder to 18 grains.