Question on reloading a 12 gauge

[John S]

There is high & low brass hulls. Why is this.? You can load low brass hull with heavy loads, like 1 1/2 shot in 2 3/4. It is a lot easy to resize the low brass.

 

[SweetWilliam]

I haven't reloaded for shotguns in 15yrs or more. But I all so never understood the high brass low brass differances. I always used Win. AA cases for everything from 1 1/8 to 1 1/2 loads with no problems. AA cases were always availible & they always crimped nice for me.
I remember reading about high bases & low bases, has to do with the way the inside of the case is made.

 

[The Blackhawk Kid]

It is because of the different hulls. Different shot cups for heavy loads and light loads. Also, the different hulls take a certain wad. You can look in the Lyman shotshell manual and learn a bunch. I still look up different loads to find what wad to use, and the shot bushing and powder bushing, too. I use a Mec 900 G. Hope this helps! BHK

 

[SweetWilliam]

If I remember correctly I used Rem. Power pistons for 1 1/4oz, the Win. Red wad for 1 1/2oz & a Fed. Wad for 1 1/8oz.
But it does matter with the cases inside if it's a high or low base. (Not high or low brass) I just can't remember which is which.
I've since sold my shotgun reloading set up.

 

[Rick Courtright]

There is high & low brass hulls. Why is this.? You can load low brass hull with heavy loads, like 1 1/2 shot in 2 3/4. It is a lot easy to resize the low brass.

Hi,

This is one of those historical things once based on practicality but now unnecessary. The high brass/low brass thing got started in the days of paper hulls, particularly w/ those being used for "wet" duty such as waterfowling.

The paper could absorb moisture and swell, making it hard to impossible to chamber a round. So a longer brass head made that job easier. You may find pictures of old shells where the brass looks nearly half the length of a loaded 2 3/4" shell! Because the loads w/ high brass were usually heavier than regular field loads, "high brass" became somewhat synonymous w/ a heavier load, and the mfrs cashed in on that idea: even a "medium range" pheasant load which wasn't likely to get wet too often would have the high brass head. American marketing philosophy at work: "bigger is better!"

Today, w/ plastic hulls that don't swell, the main purpose of the "brass" head w/ a one piece plastic hull is to help w/ extraction, though there have been a few hulls made over the years that didn't even have a metal head. Wanda, Eclipse and Activ are the ones I recall, and Herter's may have offered one, too. They've usually been short lived and probably more popular on target ranges than in the field. The extractors on pumps and autos can be rough on them, cutting thru the edge leading to stuck cases. Activs were better in this department than the others, as they had a steel disc molded into the plastic to reinforce the rim.

On a multi-piece plastic hull (separate tube and base wad), the metal head serves to hold everything together, too. And many of the heads today are actually steel w/ a brass or other protective wash, particularly w/ factory "throw away" loads. Brass works better, especially for reloading, as it "springs back" on firing better, and resizes easier, than steel. But cost is becoming the primary factor there.

The base wad is the inner wad built into the hull. Its purpose is to give some strength to the base of the hull, and take up space. It's independent of the brass height. So a high brass duck load might have a low base wad to allow extra room for a heavier load, while a light dove load w/ low brass could have a high base wad.

Today's hulls are pretty much multipurpose as we can adjust the inner capacity w/ various specialty wads, and the relatively "low brass" is all that's required for consistent extraction. Just follow tested recipes and life is good...

Rick C

 

[SweetWilliam]

Very informative Rick,thanks.