snider with plastic .24 gauge

[samwithacolt]

So today I fell off the wagon and bought a snider. I've been looking at starting off with a .600 ball and 24 gauge shotgun hulls, as funds are low right now. I will get dies and molds for the summer.
How many times can plastic hulls be loaded with BP? Does'nt it melt them, or is that an old wives tale? I have only ever loaded a handful of 12 gauge with BP and buckshot for my coachgun, and I never reloaded a shell that had been fired with black once before.
Could they be lined with paper like some brass hells were?

[curator]

I have some Fiocci 24 gauge plastic shells that I trimmed to use in my Nepalese Snider MkIII. Unfortunately, I can't chamber a .600 caliber ball loaded into one. Apparently the shell walls are a bit too thick. .580, no problem but these are not as accurate as the .600. Another issue is the plastic shells are somewhat difficult to extract from my gun. Compared to the brass 24 gauge shells, the plastic is a PITA. I do load both 12 and 20 gauge plastic shells with real black powder and don't have problems with them "melting." Plastic wad columns are another matter. I have loaded some of the 24 Gauge Fiocci shells several times using 60 grains of FFg and 40 grains of Cream of Wheat, and a 580 round ball, and they worked fine with no signs of burn-though.

[Gunor]

No expert (my 2 cents) - My Snider loaded 50% of the time with .600 - So I bought some .595.
Haven't tried that

Geoff in Oregon

[bikerbeans]

sam,

I have a custom 24ga rifled slug gun and I use the 24ga BPI hulls. I roll crimp them and when fired the mouths of the cases are trashed. I am saving them for a friend with a 577 Snider so he can trim and use them in his gun. IIRC, he told me he gets about 4 firings out of a brass/plastic shotgun hull before the primer pocket loosens up. I don't remember what load he shoots other than it is BP.


BB

[Ed in North Texas]

One of the Grandsons and I were at Old Fort Henry, Kingston, Ontario this past summer. The Fort Henry Guard (amostly young volunteer reenactor group post WW II) put on a show with the Sniders, but they only fire blanks with their plastic shotshells so they get quite a few reloads. Burning/melting is not a problem. The 24 gauge brass shotshells aren't very expensive, given how long they can last.

As an aside, I was talking to one of the kids in the Guard and inspected his Snider (Mark II*). Good thing they only shoot blanks, there was no rifling even close to the muzzle. The exterior was in good shape, and the Mark IIs had iron barrels IIRC, not the steel of the Mark III (though after this many years of cleaning - the Guard re-started not long after WW II IIRC, even a Mark III steel barrel likely wouldn't have any rifling left either).

[zuke]

Do they fire blak powder?
Do they clean the barrel's afterward's?