doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Other good 28 ga. hulls?

I've always loaded 28 ga. AA hulls. Now that the originals are starting to dry up, and the HS hull gets alot of "bad press", are there other brand hulls that any of you have been pleased reloading? Comments on the HS would be welcome. Rem STS, Federals, etc.

I have a small bunch of ribbed, green Remington shells that one of our friends on this board gave me. They seem to be good for a half-dozen loadings and make a nice looking shell,using Federal or Remington wads. However, these, and all the other Remington shells of the various incarnations are hard to seat the primers fully(MEC Grabber). IME, Federal cases are pure crap. I don't even try to use them. The AA HS, if Winchester has indeed, started making them longer as they said they would, will probably be my next favorite. That's if my stock of original AA compression formed shells don't outlast me.

Fred

AA HS hulls are just fine. Seperation you hear about of the base wad is in the 12ga. I shoot skeet. I have loaded thousands of HS 28ga over the last year or so. Started loading them in Oct. of '05. The key is to have your loader set to the HS hull. For some reason, Winchester made the HS hull slightly shorter than the older style AA. They have seen folly in their way and new ones are the same lenght as the old hulls were. So you need to set your loader for either the shorter or the longer HS hulls. When I went to the HS I got rid of all the older hulls to buddies who stuck with them, usually we did a trade out. I keep 14 16 flats loaded at all times. Weather permitting I shoot 1 - 2 flats a week. Since I had heart surgery the recoil of larger bores gets to me, so I use the 28 in doubles, 12, 20 & 28 ga. events.

The HS is the best out there. Will load many more times than the green ones.

Good luck to you and keep shooting. JD

Like Jim I have a nice supply of old-style AAs. But the longevity of HS 28s and .410s is so good that dealing with change ("all change is bad") is worthwhile. We have never had this sort of hull lifespan.

The STS28 hull is just miserable, IME. But perhaps the best kept secret in shotshell reloading is the 28 ga Federal GM. I just assumed that they were junk, but noticed that some older guys (like that, huh?) were scrounging them from the trash. So I tried them, and find that I can get at least 6 loadings.

Sam

To reinforce what has been said HS 28's load great and that's all I use now with the Duster red wad and 5/8-3/4 oz. loads. My machine is set up and cranks em out. I'm up to 7 reloads on one batch and although they're blackish, they have crimped fine and show no plastic fatigue.

Hansli, the loading manuals will never give you such hints, but prematurely blackish hulls are caused by low pressure loads that don't seal the case mouth in the forcing cone on discharge. If you load very light 5/8 ounce loads, switch to one step faster powder to keep the pressure in line with good ignition. I would switch from Unique (which I use in 20 and 28) to Green Dot for 5/8 ounce loads. Good luck.

I like the HS 28's a lot, with the caveat that the published Unique load won't work--not enough hull capacity. (Maybe that's only in the older, shorter HS hulls--not sure.) But they reload very well with Longshot. And you need to use the HS wads, rather than the old AA 28 wads.

Agree with the above on STS, which is too bad, because 12ga STS are really good. But I've had very poor hull life with 28ga STS.

Federal Gold Medal also work very well for me, using Unique and the old AA 28 wads. I don't like them quite as well as the HS, but they'd be my 2nd choice--assuming one doesn't have a bunch of the old AA 28 hulls lying around.

Thanks fellas,
I'm in good shape then between "old" style and HS.
This board is great for getting and trading ideas, I appreciate all the good advice!!
My wife isn't so sure, as I spend alot more time pouring over " Guns For Sale " arenas.

I have not seen the Federal Gold Medal 28 ga. shells. Who sells them? Are they ribbed or slick? Brass heads? Compression-formed?My description of Federal shells as "crap" was in reference to the common Wal*Mart variety. The Gold Medal shells I've seen in 12 ga. are compression formed and a lot better than the average Federal stuff.

I'm using Universal, but have some Longshot. I'll see what results the faster gives. Thanks for the tip, mr. m.