Slicked up Shot Shells

[German Jim]

Does anyone slick up your shot shells for easy extraction from your SxS?  If so , what do you do?

[Warden Callaway]

I load my black power rounds with a roll crimp.  I generally wipe them down with a rag with a litte Johnsons wax. Don't know if it's a secret to success but I can generally shuck them. 

 

[I. M. Crossdraw, SASS# 8321]

Some use silicone and wipe down their shells, however it makes the shells slippery to handle.  Personally I rather just swab the chamber and be able to hold on to the shells during loading.  A finely tuned SG will be easier to extract shells.

[Tarheel Doc]

There are at least three different devices to taper the end of the shell so they will load easier in the chambers of a SXS. I have tried them all. The one I like the best is called Cowboy Edge. Made by a guy in Wisconsin I believe. I highly recommend this device. 

[Tarheel Doc]

The other key is how slick your chambers are I am not sure it matters what you put on the shells themselves. 

[Navy Davey]

Ask any three shooters  and you will get four answers 

[Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001]

get a 97 and don't worry about it 

[Possum Skinner, SASS#60697]

58 minutes ago, German Jim said:

Does anyone slick up your shot shells for easy extraction from your SxS?  If so , what do you do?

Yes, some do.  However, I don't and dont think its necessary, but probably not harmful.

[Eyesa Horg]

I wipe all my empty hulls with a rag and ArmorAll before loading to remove grit. They never feel slippery and always shuck just fine. Lately I've been using the Quick load taper tool mounted on an old MEC at about a quarter the cost of the one mentioned above. Not sure if the taper helps or not!!

[Chas B. Wolfson, SASS #11104]

 I recently tried prepping my hulls just like my brass.  Fill the rotary tumbler 2/3 with hulls.  Fill 3/4 with water.  Add one tablespoon each of car wash/wax and Strat-o-Sheen.  Run for about two hours.  Rinse and dry.

Hulls are very smooth and slick without being slippery and not a dirt magnet.

Run through the press nicer as well if the first station is a resizer die.

Been working well for Annie and myself.

Chas B 

 

[Leroy Luck]

I use the checker/sizer from slix springs. Then use a 10/12 gauge cleaning swab and use SILICONE based Swiss navy lubricant in the chambers. It can be picked up at Walmart in the same section as KY. Or most any adult store of your choosing. 

With the lube in the chambers and shells sized correctly they shuck like a dream. 

[Slick McClade]

I use a cotton swab sprayed with ballistol to swab the chambers after every stage. Then I use a shot shell sizer that’s mounted on my cart from Scarlett Darlin. Once I size them, I’ll use the ballistol swab and wipe down the shells before placing them in my belt. I’ve done the swab & ballistol for years now and it’s worked fantastic for me.

Slick 

[Eyesa Horg]

ArmorAll before loading, size check, taper, pack and shoot! No messing around at the match where you have other things to worry about! Have never swabbed my Stoeger chambers and have had only 2 really old burnt hulls ever just slightly hang up in 13 years. YMMV

[Eliphalet R. Moderator]

I don't use anything on the shells themselves.  The shotgun has been properly honed.  When I reload the shells I use a MEC Super Sizer to make sure the base is properly sized.  Then I use Rubicon Ryder's shotshell sizer, (sold by Scarlett Darlin'), mounted on my cart.  It makes sure that there is no bulge at the business end of the shell and tapers it about 3 degrees.  (SASS Legal).  Reloaded shells, and even some factory shells, have a tendency to flare at that end.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

 

HA!!!  NONE OF THE ABOVE.  MagTech ALL BRASS HULLS dontcha know!!

[Brett Cantrell]

Every 2nd or 3rd stage I would brush out the chambers, (which were polished) then swab them out with a mop wet with Armor-All.

After running them thru a chamber checker I left the shells dry. I found that made a noticeable improvement in shucking them out.

[Nostrum Damus SASS #110702]

A few folks at our club swab their shotshells with a Ballistol-wet brush.  Both to help them pop out of the shotgun, and to make them slide out of their shell belts more easily.  I've never found any need for either sort of slippery assistance.  My MEC 9000GN creates SASS-legal tapered hulls all by itself.

[Silver Creek Jack]

On 6/22/2024 at 2:26 PM, Chas B. Wolfson, SASS #11104 said:

 I recently tried prepping my hulls just like my brass.  Fill the rotary tumbler 2/3 with hulls.  Fill 3/4 with water.  Add one tablespoon each of car wash/wax and Strat-o-Sheen.  Run for about two hours.  Rinse and dry.

Hulls are very smooth and slick without being slippery and not a dirt magnet.

Run through the press nicer as well if the first station is a resizer die.

Been working well for Annie and myself.

Chas B 

 

Chas, I have been thinking of cleaning my shotgun hulls like this, are you just drying them in the sun after water/ cleaner mix or what drying method do you use?

[Chas B. Wolfson, SASS #11104]

2 hours ago, Silver Creek Jack said:

Chas, I have been thinking of cleaning my shotgun hulls like this, are you just drying them in the sun after water/ cleaner mix or what drying method do you use?

 After I rinse them, living in the Phoenix area I put a towel on a fold out table, shake them out and put them on the towel letting Mother Nature do the work.

The redhead is one of those pesky females who erroneously believes that foreign objects such as brass, hulls and other items do not belong in the oven.

Fortunately for me, she has never found out what I have used the dishwasher for!

Chas B

[Three Foot Johnson]

First, polish the chambers.

 

After sizing/depriming, I run all my hulls through a MEC Supersizer set as tight as it will go, then I wash 'em all in hot water with Dawn dish soap. Even after three rinses, the Dawn seems to slick the hulls up somehow, and with the Supersizer treatment, they fall right out.

[Irish Pat]

I just spray WD-40 in the box of shells when i open it and start using them. I have a air conditioner duct cleaning brush that cost a couple of bucks and run it in my shotgun chambers if nothing is going on 

 

[Palmetto Traveller]

After reloading I spray a rag with PAM (equal parts peroxide, alcohol, and Murphy's oil soap) and wipe each shell with it. It does a good job of cleaning the shells off and as the peroxide and alcohol evaporate the Murphy's will leave a slick but non greasy coating on the shell. 

I still swab the chambers with a bore mop soaked with Ballistol after each stage. Overkill? Yeah probably but takes very little time and the results are worth it to me.

[Griff]

Polished chambers... take shells out of box, insert into gun, fire, turn shotgun over, (or jerk backward quickly), shells fall out.  Pick 'em up, put in range bag, dump 'em out on reloading bench, wipe off with static free, anti-cling cloth, reload on 336, load in box.  Repeat...*  End of story.

 

*  Sometimes wipe out chambers around the middle of a 3-day match.  

[Buckeye Pete, SASS # 29941]

First, I choose my hulls for either a sxs or '97 use.  If for my sxs, the hulls are once fired Winchester AAs.  Then I run them through my MEC Supersizer and check them with a MEC go/no go gauge.  Reload the hulls on my MEC 650 and then wipe down with a rag sprayed with WD-40.  At the match, I'll use my shell sizer and put them in my belt.  I always swab out the barrels on my sxs after a stage.  The only difference with my '97 is that I'll use the AA hulls at least a couple of times provided the outside of the hull is still smooth.  Polished chambers on the sxs are a must.

 

Buckeye Pete

[Fordyce Beals]

18 hours ago, Buckeye Pete, SASS # 29941 said:

  Polished chambers on the sxs are a must.

 

Buckeye Pete

For me I do a lot less then most above.  I take a rag with water sprayed on it and wipe off the spent Remington Nitro hull.  The MEC Sizemaster has the Super Sizer functionality, load then case gauge.  Often 6 or more reloads.  I will clean the shotgun and shoot up to 12 stages, no further cleaning, wiping,  or gun cart sizing.  One more thing is I use Hogdon Triple Seven.  Same for Leia my wife she just dumps the hulls out of her Browning BBS and never complains.

 

Fordyce