Home Forums Reloading Shotshells Federal Top Gun

Has anyone tried reloading Federal Top Gun or Range and Field hulls ? I went on Federals site and they give data for both, but say with fiber base wad. All the ones I have have a clear plastic base wad. Just wondering if anyone has tried them and where you got the data. Even one or two more reloads would go a long way.

Do yours have a gold base or silver?

I don't know if they make em with nickle colored base but all of mine are brass based.

Sure they aren't Gold Medals? The TGs I've loaded all had paper basewads.

Then, I used GM data anyway, so....

I've reloaded thousands of top guns. They were given to me free once fired as factory's . The gun club I belonged to sold them at $4/box for trap and skeet so most folks shot them and tossed the hulls. They all had the rolled paper base wad same as Federal papers. I have loaded them up to 5 times with no problems but I have so.many that I usually load the just once and let the ejector do it 's thing. Same data as fed papers. They are a skived mouth hull and crimp well. They are the most painless hull I have ever reloaded
Make sure you use the recommended wad. Mb

Thanks for the input. These have the silver base, and say Top Gun on the side of each case, and also on the empty boxes. I am familiar with the paper base as I have reloaded 16ga Federal hunting loads but these are plastic base wads like the Range and Field. There was a 40 gallon barrel full of once fired so I filled half a trash bag to try, also lots of 3inch Premeum turkey load cases,just want the right data.
Savage Arms uses our range for testing and when the Turkish companies bring over new shotguns they blast away as fast as they can shoot until they can't hold the gun even with gloves. I've seen it, the Turks are real proud of their product.
I've loaded rifle/pistol for over 40 years but pretty new to shot shell and all the warnings about components makes me careful so any input would be great.
Thanks

My bad. Just opened a 10+ year old box of Top Gun and they have silver bases.

Not sure where I got the idea they were gold.

I had a buddy that reloaded the heck out them, You just had to get the right wad, they loaded fine and shot good too.

I have both silver and gold with plastic wad bases. More capacity than the fiber base.
They seem to be a "tweener". Between GM and .090 wad base.
I started using them for bismuth with 1.1/4-1.3/8 and 1.1/2 oz loads.

I fired off a couple of boxes of the pink ones yesterday shooting 5-Stand, and the guy who pulled for us said they make great reloads, so we gathered up all the hulls for him. Didn’t look inside.

Federal has used Rio hulls for some of the cheaper shells in the past. And they have one that is similar to the Rio, but takes US sized primers (the tweener mentioned above perhaps?) They've also have a deeper base wad hull that mimics the .090 on peice in profile.
Then there's the paperbase...

All make good shells depending on what you're doing.

I just measured the volume of new Cheddite cases and they have the same volume as the Top Gun. [plastic base wad] For your info!

The rolled paper base wad was phased out at least a year ago. They load a little different because the plastic base wad takes up less room, resulting in dished in crimps. Remedies include use of a more bulky powder, changing to a taller wad, or use of card wad fillers.


HM

Use gold metal plastic hull data. One wad may crimp better than another.

Kent

Don't know about Federal using Rio hulls hadn't heard that. Do know that the Estates are essentially the same as top gun in the hulls that had rolled paper base wad. Easy to load and painless to use. ...mb

I use the new Federal plastic base to reload 1.25 oz bismuth #4&5 pheasant loads. As previously stated , the volume is very close to a Chedite. That's the data I use.BP MG42 wad, 28gr. Win WSF powder, Win209 primer. They work well!
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there are better used hulls for reloading than trying to use Federal top gun . just go to a trap shooting club and get some better used hulls.

Lots of worse ones too. I’d chose them over any 2 piece Winchester hull for example. The Win AA’s are not uniform in length causing poor and inconsistent crimps. The Universal’s are the same with crappy, thin plastic.

Once set up with proper wads Top Gun crimps are consistent and solid. After 2-3 reloads the crimp folds start to split. This is when I toss them.

My favorite Fed hulls are the one piece (no separate base wad). I also liked Remington Nitro’s and Premium’s, and of course the older Winchester one piece AA’s.

Honorable mention are the Remington “Top Guns”. Also one piece and consistent hulls. Good for many reloads.

I should mention it’s been a few years since I was active shooting competitively. May be some changes to what’s commonly available now.

another problem with using Federal top gun shotshells new and used is the base is made of hard steel and can damage your injector on your shotgun. i have seen this happen to some trap shooters using Federal top gun and it also happened to me . the very finest used hull for reloading many of us feel is Federal gold metal papers the bass of the hull is a softer medal and the paper hull reloads so nice but the price is expensive.

I’ve heard shooters complain and swear off the steel based shells claiming damage to chambers and ejectors. Never experienced or witnessed either. When I was active I shot steel based Rem Gun Clubs, Estates, Federal TG etc. by the thousands. New and reloaded. Some steel bases are brass washed. My guess is that’s just for appearance.

The Federal GM Premium’s, Win AA’s, Rem STS’s, and Rem Nitro’s are (or were) brass based. Think the Fed papers were too but I never messed with them much. A few shooters loved them and I would give any I ran across to them for reloading. My recollection is that after a few reloads pin holes would form in the paper just above the base. Guys who shot them would toss after seeing this. Seem to recall too that a special crimp was needed. May just have been a 6 fold vs 8 fold or there was a special guide for paper hulls. Experience taught me to avoid two piece hulls for the most part but if necessary they can be used.

I do recall guys pushing the limits with the Top Guns. Would load them 8 times and more. Seen more than one paper wad come out of a barrel uncoiled and on fire. My experience was 4-5 reloads from Top Guns before the crimp folds began splitting. Rem STS/Nitro 6-8 before they did the same. Rem Gun Clubs often lasted 10+ reloads. Fed GM Premium’s usually 4-5. The difference in number of reloads might come from my uses. I shot Gun Clubs for 16’s and first shot doubles. Light loads of 7/8 or 1 ounce of shot, ~1100fps. Fed GM Premium and STS/Nitro reloads were handicap and second shot doubles, much stouter loads with 1 1/8 ounce of shot.

Ran two MEC 9000’s at the time, one for Gun Clubs and one for the Fed GM Premium or Rem STS/Nitro’s. Had another MEC 9000 and a Grabber set up for various hunting loads and or for “games” such as Annie’s, Protectors, Blue Birds, etc….. Saved a lot of time not having to adjust presses for different hulls.

I realize now that in both of my replies I have gotten some of the hull names confused. In the first reply “Remington Top Guns” should have been “Remington Gun Clubs”. Also, “Remington Premium” should have been “Remington STS” In this reply I am referring to “Federal Gold Medal” hulls were I write “Federal GM Premium” Apologies for the errors. Hope it’s not cause for confusion. Been years since I focused on such things.

i had a ejector broke on my Perazzi caused by using Federal Top Gun and so did a few friends . one of the shotguns was a Remington 870 he worked at Federal and shot Federal Top Gun trap shells, he also was one of there better trap shooters too. we had all had the best trap shotgun gunsmith fix these shotguns in MN. and he recommend us not to use Federal Top gun shells or any solid base hard steel shells in our shotguns anymore. Federal now owns Remington ammo company i have been told Federal will be using Remington type plastic in all of there better trap ammo in the future. i am going to find out a little more about the steel bases vs the wash typed ones and if there is a differences . i used to use Mec reloaders that press is ok but i now use a Ponsness -Warren reloader press and there is a night and day difference ,pins holes from some powders like Red Dot can happen but the powder i use now does not do that . what i found about papers is don`t use them when its raining then i use Winchester AA or Remington STS or Gold Medals .