Realistic Shotgun Dummy Rounds

[Whip Assalot]

Which shotgun dummy rounds or snap caps have the most realistic weight and feel to real 12 gauge shotgun rounds for practice?

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Realistic depends on what you are talking about.  Realistic for loading or unloading?  Two significantly different weights.

[Sedalia Dave]

If you are shooting a SXS, you want the weight of the dummy rounds as close as possible to that of an empty hull.

 

This will prevent bad habits from developing when shucking shells.  

 

 

[Yellowstone Vic SASS#32968]

10 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

If you are shooting a SXS, you want the weight of the dummy rounds as close as possible to that of an empty hull.

 

This will prevent bad habits from developing when shucking shells.  

 

 

This has worked the best for me...

 

A good friend taught me to:

Use hulls a different color than what I use for loaded rounds.  I fill the primer pockets with RTV and trim flush after it has dried overnight.  I then stuff 1/2 a plastic grocery bag into the shell and crimp on my reloaded.  The plastic bag keeps the crimp from collapsing with minimal weight.

 

Keep all loaded ammunition away from your practice area.

 

YMMV

 

Vic

[Whip Assalot]

Ya know...I hadn't even thought about the loading versus the unloading and how the weight will be different.

 

I guess more so for loading from my belt.

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

At the Texas State Black Powder match a few years ago my wife was shooting BP shotgun shells loaded in blue Peters hulls.  As she discarded the hulls a couple was carefully grabbing and saving them.  They explained that they never reloaded blue hulls and these would be made into dummy practice rounds.  So, blue hulls would be dummy rounds and every other color considered a live round.

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

If it were me, I would fill the primer with hot glue/RTV, substitute sand for the powder, and load the hull as I normally do = weight close to if not exactly a regular shotgun shell.

 

and it would certainly be in a different-colored hull

 

getting a dummy mixed up at a match is a few seconds

 

getting a live round mixed in with the practice rounds is potentially life-ending

 

 

 

 

[G W Wade]

The weigh of the dummy to me work depend on if I was practicing loading or shucking.   Someone talked about unweighted hulls in gun. Shuck the reload with weighted dummies.    I use unweighted       GW

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

Brownells had dummy weighted shotgun shells (25 in a box).  I don't see them on the web site any more.   Amazon has a number of dummy shells on their web site  Some are pretty pricey.

[Bladesmith, SASS 113085]

For those shooting ‘97s another consideration is that if your dummy rounds mimic the weight of unfired rounds, you’ll create extra wear on the parts that are intended to extract/eject an empty hull.

[Major Art Tillery]

I have been trying these.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00RG6RJ32?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[Abilene, SASS # 27489]

3 hours ago, Yellowstone Vic SASS#32968 said:

...I fill the primer pockets with RTV and trim flush after it has dried overnight....

You can wipe away the excess RTV off the bottom with a card while it is still wet, it will be flat and no need to trim later.  I do this for all my homemade snap caps.  

[Eyesa Horg]

I think it was @Grizzly Dave that once suggested small hot glue sticks. Chuck one up in your drill press and hold the primer hole up to it. It will melt into the hole, then trim off with razor knife. The glue makes a more durable snap cap primer with good cushioning for the firing pin.

[Grizzly Dave]

38 minutes ago, Eyesa Horg said:

I think it was @Grizzly Dave that once suggested small hot glue sticks. Chuck one up in your drill press and hold the primer hole up to it. It will melt into the hole, then trim off with razor knife. The glue makes a more durable snap cap primer with good cushioning for the firing pin.

 

Don't think it was me, but who knows.  I tried pencil erasers but don't seem like they'd hold up.  Don't remember how I made my dummy rounds and can't find them at the moment, and have been looking...I'm sure I put them somewhere safe where I'd be sure to know where they were....

[Sedalia Dave]

The most durable thing you can put into the primer pocket is a rubber o-ring. 6 mm diameter works the best.

 

You want one made of Buna-n 70 or Buna-n 90 rubber. Silicone o-rings will work but will not last as long.

Trim one end to blunt point and then push it into the hull until some of it is past the lip in the bottom of the primer pocket. The lip will prevent it from ever moving so no glue is needed. Trim flush with a razer blade.

[Griff]

Practice is a religious order that demands sacrifice, dedication, work and tithes... I'll just remain a sinner, thank you very much!

[Lucky R. K.]

I have had good luck with hot glue in the primer pocket. 

Lucky 

[Sedalia Dave]

Practice is about muscle memory. You will not notice the difference between a loaded hull and a dummy round made to be as light as possible when it comes to loading your shotgun.

 

However, when it comes to shucking them from a SXS the heavier hull will come out of the chambers 100 times easier. This will lead to you developing a poor shucking technique that will carry over to live fire. 

[Irish Pat]

Midway sells some

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

Here is what I use.  Put a wad into a deprimed case.

 

 

Run it into the pre-crimp.

 

 

Run it into the final crimp and you have this.

 

 

The wad stiffens the hull and the case mouth is strengthed by the crimp folding in over the wad pedals.  A final step is running the case into a Roger Rapid taper crimp.  Not shown is filling the primer pocket with silicon caulk.  I have some of these that are over ten years old and still work fine in a double, 97 or 87.

[Kirk James]

I train with both weighted and unweighted.     I practice with weighted for loading only practice and unweighted for everything else.  I have used Palo Verdes' s practice shells for years ( some as many as eight years) and they hold up well.  Don't know what he uses in his primer pockets, but it holds up.

[Abe E.S. Corpus SASS #87667]

I used crimped hulls to practice loading my ‘97 since I had heard that a weighted hull/dummy would stress the extractor.  Larsen’s tip about seating a wad is a good one.

 

After switching to a double I

made up some “semi weighted” practice shells using hulls that are a different color than my real ammo; I seated a wad and added uncooked rice to support the crimp.  I found these OK for practicing pulling shells from my belt and chambering them.  Anything heavier than a fired hull will shuck “too easily”.

[Bladesmith, SASS 113085]

1 hour ago, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

Roger Rapid taper crimp

Do you know where one might locate this fancy do-dad? My google-fu is letting me down.

[Eyesa Horg]

43 minutes ago, Bladesmith, SASS 113085 said:

Do you know where one might locate this fancy do-dad? My google-fu is letting me down.

Uniquetek

https://uniquetek.com/shop/ols/products/quikloader

 

@Outlaw Gambler, SASS #32050was carrying them as well and supports CAS

Above could be the incorrect Outlaw Gambler !! Try @Outlaw Gambler

I couldn't delete the first one!!

Sorry for the confusion

I had contact with Roger earlier this year, apparently he sold the rights to Uniquetek, but they are still made by the same machine shop.

[Outlaw Gambler]

check out the merchant corner for them

[Widder, SASS #59054]

On 8/2/2023 at 5:05 PM, Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933 said:

Realistic depends on what you are talking about.  Realistic for loading or unloading?  Two significantly different weights.

 

6 hours ago, Griff said:

Practice is a religious order that demands sacrifice, dedication, work and tithes... I'll just remain a sinner, thank you very much!

 

I can only speak from my practice experience using a 97.   And my practice experience has been with well over 40 cases of live rounds and

only Heaven knows how many dummy rounds.   And my dummy rounds were all empty hulls with the crimp portion curled back

into the shell to help reinforce the shell to help keep it in a round shape.   It works great for me.

 

Anyhow, as Griff stated, I put in many hours of sacrifice, dedication, work AND TITHES.  

 

And I quoted Larsen because my experience verifies his comment about the differences in loaded (weighted) and unloaded (empty)

shells can be different and reflect your performance on the firing line.   I will explain:

 

When I only practice with empty shells, I gain technique speeds.  This includes feeding, ejecting and going back to the belt to

grab more shells and feed the 97 more ammo.   With enough practice, using empty hulls, a feller can start to look mighty fast and

efficient.   But there lies the bump in the road when he goes to the firing line and starts using those weighted live shells.

 

I found meowndangself grabbing my live shells and slightly 'mishandling' them because they felt and handled slightly different than

the MEGA practice I had done using empty hulls.   Now, if I slowed down just a tad, it wasn't so noticeable.   BUT, I practiced MEGA fast

with dummy rounds and slowing down was not what I wanted.

 

To help cure this, I started doing more live fire in my practice sessions.   It wasn't a great amount of live fire, but enough to finish up

a practice session and help me during my match performances.

 

I can't tell anyone what will or will not help them the most.   But I learned a lot of my practice  routines from experienced shooters

and put a lot of their advice in my practice sessions.   A lot of it worked for me.

 

Below is a video of one of my practice sessions.  Honestly, it ain't close to one of my faster runs but it is one of my better runs that

I managed to get on camera..... so I'll share it.   Hope you enjoy.

 

 

..........Widder

 

[Kit Carson, SASS 60183]

On 8/2/2023 at 7:41 PM, Major Art Tillery said:

I have been trying these.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00RG6RJ32?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Totally agree.   I have ones like these and they are great.  Mine fit my chambers a little looser than a real empty husk, so I added a small wrap of scotch tape to make them stick in the chamber a little more, requiring a solid shuck in practice.