Cutting shotshells for short Chambers

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Howdy all,

What is the best way to cut shotshells for roll crimp to fit short 2 5/8" Chamber?

Thanks,

Sam

[hornetman]

I use a tool that I got at either Lowes or Home Depot.It's a tool made by Rigid that plumbers use to cut flexible plastic water pipes. Works great and cheap as well--I think it cost four or five dollars.

[Johnch]

If the Better 1/2 isn't around
Snag the meat slicer

I made a cradel to hold the rim up and the hull in the proper alinement

I then set the slicer to take off the proper amount and cut away

When you are done clean the blade good

John

[3006guns]

A piece of dowel (or aluminum) that fits the inside of the shell for a length guide, then a razor knife cutting the excess down to the dowel.

[megafatcat]

Drill some holes in a piece of wood and push the shells through. Then run them through the table saw.

[Springfield]

I put them in a piece of PVC pipe I have cut to the proper length and cut them with a razor knife.

[DIRT Farmer]

I have a fitting I made for my trim saw to cut 16 gauge shells to 2 9/16. A 10 inch trim saw might be over kill.

[DAMN YANKEE]

Dremel drill press with cutoff wheel.

[Fredx10sen]

I use the Trim Doctor that I bought from Ballistic Products. Works great.

[cajun shooter]

Sam, Go to Precision Reloading and they sell a tool that is made for this task. I am not saying that the ways posted will not work but I have been using this tool for three years. It is called the D-Loader and it works better than the Trim Doctor by Ballistic Products tool which tends to cut like you are peeling a apple. The D-Loader is a wooden box that requires another piece to be purchased that cost about $10 for a total of about $20. The extra piece is adjustable and you can start with a 3 inch hull and make a 2 3/4 and then a 2 1/2 and so on. My 1887 loves shooting the 2 1/2 paper hulls by Federal and others after I make my roll crimp. Precision also sells a plastic roll crimper for $10 that is intended for paper. I bought two thinking I would wear one out but it has not worn any that I can tell. I use it on my table top drill press.

[Huntducks]

I bought this from Harbor Frieght to cut off brass cases and shotshells it works great and was on sale for $24 and has 7800 rpm's.

[Dale53]

I got commissioned to load several thousand 2" 12 Gauge shells. First nighter 2 3/4" empties are easily obtained so I made a little jig out of a piece of 1X2 of the proper length. I put two shells in it and used my standard "chop saw" (powered miter saw) to make short work of the project. It worked like a charm, did precision cutting, and the finished shells worked perfectly.

By the way, MEC Reloaders were very cooperative and made me a crimp die that worked perfectly. It didn't cost an arm and leg, either. They are GOOD people to do business with.

Dale53

[recycledelectrons]

If the Better 1/2 isn't around
Snag the meat slicer

I made a cradel to hold the rim up and the hull in the proper alinement

I then set the slicer to take off the proper amount and cut away

When you are done clean the blade good

John

I'm not the kind to be afraid of lead poisoning but that scares the heck out of me. Those hulls are full of lead dust after they have been fired.

Cutting them with kitchen equipment is scary.

[robertchambers]

Here's a homemade job that I made when I was young. I made it from an old broom stick with two interchangeable heads in 12 & 16 gauge...first I bought a forcing cone reamer, then decided to keep the guns original 65mm so I started cutting down shells and loading them star crimped (not rolled)...then I read Gough Thomas' book and abandoned all that thinking altogether...I suggest you do the same unless your hell bent on loading some two inchers for some high grade Beesley shotgun or something.

[Kskybroom]

I bought this from Harbor Frieght to cut off brass cases and shotshells it works great and was on sale for $24 and has 7800 rpm's.

Woooow Im Thukin Now

[fisheadgib]

About 20 years ago I was very heavily into USPSA 3-gun shooting and people were always looking for a way to get an edge. Some friends of mine and I experimented with making short shotshells so that we could hold more in the magazine and lose less time on reloads. I came up with a 1-11/16 shell that held 1-1/4oz of #4 shot at 1200fps and my modified 1100 could hold 13 of them. I also cast and loaded some short, low recoil 12ga slugs. To make the hulls, I took a piece of aluminum stock and turned it down to .710". I then drilled a series of holes through it at a slight angle to fit a piece of exacto knife blade through it and installed a set screw to hold the blade in place. The length of the hull is determined by the distance between the tip of the fixture and the blade. The cutter is placed in a drill press and the hulls are held and pushed onto the shaft of the cutter until they bottom out. The spinning piece of blade cuts the hulls quickly and cleanly. when I set it up with my drill press, it takes about two seconds per hull and there is nothing out ther that cuts them faster or more cleanly. If I ever made another one, I would install an adjustable screw on the end so that I could adjust the length of the hulls.
Incidently, this was made with drills, files, and sandpaper. No lathe was used and the prototypes were actually made out of pieces of broomhandle. (they worked fine)
Also, I recommend wearing heavy leather gloves when using it as an obvious injury potential exists with a spinning blade.

[dnotarianni]

Hey Fisheadgib You wouldn't happen to remember what you were using for wads and powder would you? I am doing the same thing at the moment for Tac Shotgun matches and have been experimenting with diferent loads
Thanks Dave

[fisheadgib]

I just checked my load book and I mis-spoke earlier. It was 1-1/8oz of #4 shot at 1300 fps. It's a trimmed Rem hull, a trimmed Federal champion wad,(cut at the lip right below the shot cup) 21gr of 700x, Fiocci primers, and it chrono'd at an average of 1300fps at 58*f. This was out of a ported 22" 1100. It was a very sweet load and the recoil was equivalent to the cheap #8 promotional loads that you buy at Wal-Mart.

[Newtire]

Hi Fishead,

I used to make those short shells when I was younger and used to get all the miles I could out of a shell. I have been doing this now for my old 10 gauge with 2-7/8" chambers. I was hearing from some guys how the pressure was higher and really think that it makes not one bit of difference. At least if it does, I can't see why it would. I used to get 4 in my Dad's plugged 3-shot Model 12.

[fisheadgib]

One thing I forgot to mention is that when you cut the hulls real short, you have to thin the end of the hull wall a bit as it gets progressively thicker as you get to the base. The hull will bulge a bit on the end from crimping if you don't. It probably wouldn't matter in a pump or double but I had to do it to get them to run in an autoloader. I held the hulls in a cut off piece of shotgun barrel and ran a reamer into the end of them. (without holding them in a piece of barrel, the plastic would just swell and not cut.)