I've been casually loading up Remington promo hulls with good success for a while now, but really hadn't ventured beyond the Rem hulls other than to play around and kill some time at the bench. I recently decided to specifically load once-fired 12ga hulls from each of the bulk-packs offerings (Federal plastic hunting, Winchester Universal/SuperX/HiSpeed, and Remington SportLoad/GameLoad/ShurShot) to see which ones worked the best in regular range use. My test loads were made with a scant 7/8oz of #8 shot, using either Helarco VP05 or Claybuster WAA12L clone wads, and just enough Clays to achieve a 1200fps (estimated) velocity. I did not try to pick a wad that really matched any given hull; I just wanted to see how each hull would stand up over time.
So far, the Remingtons are (as my experiences in the past had shown) proving quite satisfying; the vast majority of the hulls have lasted for half-a-dozen reloads, and retain a strong crimp right up to the point where the hull is just too filthy and nasty to want to load again. I have lost a few hulls so far due to cracking/work-hardening at the crimp, but for the most part I can see no reason to suggest that four or five reloads is not easily within the average lifespan of these hulls without losing crimp quality. I have found that some of the promo hulls (specifically in the ShurShot packaging) used six point crimps instead of eight, and I had to really pay attention to keep them separated.
The Federals are working about as well as the Remingtons, although they seem to need a bit more fiddling in the crimp starter to hold a crimp. I had to adjust the crimping station of my MEC a bit to get these to work well, but I think that I've got that pretty much in line. Hull life has been good, and I've reloaded most of them four times so far with no external signs that I can't get a half-dozen reloads out of them. The hull tubes themselves seem quite robust; the single biggest concern that I would have about reloading them too many times would be a breakdown of the paper basewad. I've struggled a bit to get good clean performance with either wad. The softer WAA12L wads gas seal would occasionally collapse into the basewad, while the Helarco's wad had too large of a gas seal for the relatively light powder loads. If I was going to keep using these hulls (which I might), I would probably switch to Green Dot paired with the VP05 or perhaps the Fed 12S0.
The Winchesters have been (as many suggested) an utter disaster. Many of them will not hold a solid crimp even on the first loading. I eventually got a batch to load up and shoot, but it took a lot of work and fiddling around. They did not work well with the Helarco wads at all, presumably because the Helarco is pretty firm and not 'pliable' in the gas seal like the WAA12L. The hull is clearly the thinnest of the lot, and uses a six-point crimp. I have played with these hulls a bit in the past, but never really tried to make them work. Frankly, they are just not worth the trouble considering that the other promo hulls displayed far better characteristics.
So far, the Remingtons are (as my experiences in the past had shown) proving quite satisfying; the vast majority of the hulls have lasted for half-a-dozen reloads, and retain a strong crimp right up to the point where the hull is just too filthy and nasty to want to load again. I have lost a few hulls so far due to cracking/work-hardening at the crimp, but for the most part I can see no reason to suggest that four or five reloads is not easily within the average lifespan of these hulls without losing crimp quality. I have found that some of the promo hulls (specifically in the ShurShot packaging) used six point crimps instead of eight, and I had to really pay attention to keep them separated.
The Federals are working about as well as the Remingtons, although they seem to need a bit more fiddling in the crimp starter to hold a crimp. I had to adjust the crimping station of my MEC a bit to get these to work well, but I think that I've got that pretty much in line. Hull life has been good, and I've reloaded most of them four times so far with no external signs that I can't get a half-dozen reloads out of them. The hull tubes themselves seem quite robust; the single biggest concern that I would have about reloading them too many times would be a breakdown of the paper basewad. I've struggled a bit to get good clean performance with either wad. The softer WAA12L wads gas seal would occasionally collapse into the basewad, while the Helarco's wad had too large of a gas seal for the relatively light powder loads. If I was going to keep using these hulls (which I might), I would probably switch to Green Dot paired with the VP05 or perhaps the Fed 12S0.
The Winchesters have been (as many suggested) an utter disaster. Many of them will not hold a solid crimp even on the first loading. I eventually got a batch to load up and shoot, but it took a lot of work and fiddling around. They did not work well with the Helarco wads at all, presumably because the Helarco is pretty firm and not 'pliable' in the gas seal like the WAA12L. The hull is clearly the thinnest of the lot, and uses a six-point crimp. I have played with these hulls a bit in the past, but never really tried to make them work. Frankly, they are just not worth the trouble considering that the other promo hulls displayed far better characteristics.
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