Home Forums Reloading Shotshells AA problems

been loading Win AA hulls 1 oz of 7 1/2,wsl or green clay duster wsl replacement no problems until I got into AA HS or high strength hulls. Now the HS hulls want to bend at the end of the base wad. Messed around with the wad pressure and crimp nothing seems to help. any thoughts?

What kinda press?

DF

Its in the crimp station set ups, check the hull before it hits the taper die station(MEC), if its not kinked going in and it is coming out, then back off the die until it isnt. I had the same issue and its easily fixed.
Make sure the wad is for the tapered case, thats about all I got...

my press is a Mec 600 jr. the hulls are not kinked until the final crimp stage. i'm going to look it over for miss alignment.

The 600jr doesn't have the last taper crimp die station, so it will be a cam and punch adjustment to get the problem solved. I didnt think it out, I mostly use the 650s and up.

Throw them all away and start loading Remington STS hulls.

You can wrinkle those also if the machine isnt set properly, just takes a bit more effort to to do the deed... but you are right, they are better hulls in most instances.

To bad Winchester went away from the old AAs. I guess being the best for 30+ years wasn't good enough for the bean counters. Sure seems to have cost them a lot of business. I watched a $100,000.00 winner takes all shoot off at Sparta at the Grand. When they showed what each shooter was using for a gun and ammo not one person was using AAs, it was 100% Remington and Federal ammo.

Guy

I have my main hyd press set up for 12ga, and only have to do a crimp station adjustment to tune it for about any hull I choose to load. I stay with the 1oz of shot and a 17.5 to 18gr of Promo for the majority of my clay bird use. Tailor the wad to the case and I have a 16to 22yd load and skeet too. The SX-1 and the BT's eat anything, the older SxS sometimes need a more rigid hull, by and large, anything that hits the ground, I will load if I have the proper wad.

I have a LOT of good hulls if any one is in need, at a reasonable cost. Cant load em all, just too many stashed, and can get more than I need in the junker class of hulls.

the hulls have HS stamped into the brass, I assumed that they were high strengh,probably my first mistake huh?

+1

AA hulls start to crack at the crimps creases and show powder burns thru the cracks after very few reloads. The STS cases lasts longer at the crimp and they they don't crack like AA's.

DF

I stopped using AA's a while back when they came out with their then new plastic. The newer ones have a shinier plastic than the good, old AA's. After getting only 4-6 reloads out of the new AA's, I switched to Remington STS and Nitro hulls. MUCH BETTER plastic in those as far as I am concerned. Still have some of the older AA's that I load for my upland hunting.

Sure would like to find a few cases of the old AA's. Doubt that will happen, so I'll be loading all my target loads in Remington hulls.

A little late to the discussion but here is my 2 cents.

The seperate base wad in the newer HS hulls takes up a bit more room than in the older CF hulls. Although these hulls use interchangeable data less internal volume of the HS's might cause the hull to buckle slightly when the press is trying to fit everything. While I did not have your specific problem when switching, I was getting poor crimps. They were shallow, had holes (that leaked), and many would pop up (tent) after only a few days. I tried adjustments to the press without any consistent success. Other Reloaders suggested that it was a stack height problem and the Downrange DRA series of wads would solve the issues. My problem had been occurring with CB-1100's and DR XL-1's. This solution worked for me. My Win AA HS crimps are excellent and stay crimped. Performance is good and I get 6-8 out of each hull before they crack and show signs of seperation at the upper edge of the base wad.

I still won't shoot these in my auto. Even though others are confident the base wad won't seperate and become lodged in the barrel I still like visual verification the break opens provide.