doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Federal Paper shells

August 2011 issue of Handloader magazine has a nice article on the manufacture of the Federal Paper Champion trap load. After you read this article you will know why they are the only US maker of a paper shot shell. It takes 20 minutes to make a plastic hull and 10 DAYS to make a paper. Also I had no idea that shotgun shells are packaged by hand.

I haven't seen paper Champions in years.

Last I could find were Gold Medal paper.

Although a fine shooting shell, the traditional smell is about gone and they have no reloading life to speak of.

They aren't Champions.

You are correct. I always thought of them as Champions. I have an old stash that I load for hunting. Checked the magazine and they are Gold Medal Paper shells. On the tube it says Federal Premium Target. I've only been able to get 2-3 loads out of any paper shell.

I have about 500 of them stashed. Only load them for my vintage guns in low pressure. That way I know all my papers are low pressure suited for my damascus guns.

I have at least 1000 hidden away, load red dot, it smells best and it is easy to get under 7000 psi with 1 oz loads.
bill

Same here, they look good,smell good and shoot good.
I load them with 19.5 gr Greendot and 1 oz and it is great with my old doubles.

Gotta' love them papers! The Federals never smelled as good as the Winchesters or Remingtons, but they're all we have now.

I load light (1150 fps by the book) one ounce loads. I count the number of loads but don't discard until there is some little sign of burn. With WST that worked out to about three reloads per. I switched to Promo about a year ago and find that most of the hulls are going past three. It's still early in the game, but that's what it looks like.

Regardless, everyone seems to like to stand close when you shoot papers. Good conversation starters, too.

Get some RST Papers

I'm partial to the aroma of burnt 7625 in papers. It works fine in the warmer temperatures down he'ah.

SRH

About 20 years ago the USA Olympic team had Federal Papers from practice for sale to the public. They ended up with tens of thousands of them to sell. If you shot a case of shells every day you would end up with a small mountain of them like they did. UPS donated shipping cost for them and they sold them by the thousands and they still grew.

A friend ended up sending me 40K. I still have about a third of them left and they only go into my doubles. I have to say that more than a few of them were loaded with Red Dot as they came from the factory. Paper shell, burnt powder and a few feathers on a cold morning will always bring me back to boyhood memories. Of course back then I thought that 200 pounds and 50 years old was fat and old, now I know better. The hulls still smell great.