BP 12 ga and Federal Hulls

[Jack Spade]

Does anyone load BP 12 ga shells and use Federal hulls?  I am going to shoot frontier cartridge occasionally at special events and am learning all I can about loading for that.  I am using APP powder, not interested in real black so please just reply if you use APP.  I am not against roll crimping but since I am only doing this once in a while I want to keep it simple so if you fold crimp it would be a plus.  Mainly wanting to know how much shot, powder, and which wad you use.  Thanks!  

[Edward R S Canby, SASS#59971]

Which Federal hulls do you want to load.  Top Guns are poor for reloading.  High Overalls will load well.  

[Jack Spade]

I have a bunch of Federal field hulls with both the plastic base wad and fiber base wad.  My plan is to load and toss them which is why I want to use the Federal field hulls and not my STS, Nitro or AA hulls.  The Federal HOA hulls are in the class with my STS and Nitro hulls so I want to save those for multi uses with smokeless.  I also have an abundance of off brand hulls that use federal or cheddite smokeless load data so those would be used as well.  

Edited September 28 by Jack Spade

[Sedalia Dave]

I load Federal hulls with APP. That said the old Top Gun hulls with the unplated steel base work better than the new hulls with the brass plated base. No matter which hull you use be sure you resize the head with a collet style sizer like a MEC SuperSizer or if you can locate a MEC Sizemaster the collet sizer is built in.

The collet style sizer works 1000% better than a simple ring style sizer like the one on the MEC 600jr or the Lee Load All

 

This load has worked for every KD I have come across as long as I do my part.

 

Primer of choice.

3cc (35 grains by WEIGHT) of 3F APP.  (#37 MEC Bushing)

Claybuster CB0178-12 gray wad. I load on a single stage MEC and seat the wad with about 40 lbs of wad pressure. 

7/8 ounce of shot

 

The above load works with Federal Top Gun or Remington Gun Club hulls as well as most Cheddite style hulls.  It also works in STS or Nitro Hulls.

 

 

 

[KatfishKid]

I've been using new pre-primed federal top gun hulls and I like them. They roll crimp nicely. I trim about 1/4" off. I load with 40 grains by weight of 2F APP, a .070 nitro card on top of that, then a claybuster CB1138-12 wad, enough #7.5 shot to fill to the top of the wad cup, overshot card then roll crimp using a manual roll crimper. Since you'll only be using them occasionally, you might as well just buy them new already primed. 

 

https://www.ballisticproducts.com/Federal-Top-Gun-12ga-275-Pearl-Blue-209A-100_bag/productinfo/06212TG/

[Jack Spade]

10 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

I load Federal hulls with APP. That said the old Top Gun hulls with the unplated steel base work better than the new hulls with the brass plated base. No matter which hull you use be sure you resize the head with a collet style sizer like a MEC SuperSizer or if you can locate a MEC Sizemaster the collet sizer is built in.

The collet style sizer works 1000% better than a simple ring style sizer like the one on the MEC 600jr or the Lee Load All

 

This load has worked for every KD I have come across as long as I do my part.

 

Primer of choice.

3cc (35 grains by WEIGHT) of 3F APP.  (#37 MEC Bushing)

Claybuster CB0178-12 gray wad. I load on a single stage MEC and seat the wad with about 40 lbs of wad pressure. 

7/8 ounce of shot

 

The above load works with Federal Top Gun or Remington Gun Club hulls as well as most Cheddite style hulls.  It also works in STS or Nitro Hulls.

 

 

 

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for.  I will be loading on a sizemaster.  

[Lucky R. K.]

2 hours ago, KatfishKid said:

I've been using new pre-primed federal top gun hulls and I like them. They roll crimp nicely. I trim about 1/4" off. I load with 40 grains by weight of 2F APP, a .070 nitro card on top of that, then a claybuster CB1138-12 wad, enough #7.5 shot to fill to the top of the wad cup, overshot card then roll crimp using a manual roll crimper. Since you'll only be using them occasionally, you might as well just buy them new already primed. 

 

https://www.ballisticproducts.com/Federal-Top-Gun-12ga-275-Pearl-Blue-209A-100_bag/productinfo/06212TG/

I bought 200 of these a while back and really like them. I have used both a roll crimp and star crimp to close them and they have stayed closed. I have not shot any of them yet so I do not know how they will shuck. I suspect they will not shuck as well as the STS's or the AA's.

Lucky 😁

[SnakeM]

Doing using federal gold medal paper hulls for APP for about 20 years. It was called Cleanshot back then. 1 1/8 dipper for both powder and shot. 1/2" overpowder wad. Works great!

[KatfishKid]

1 hour ago, Lucky R. K. said:

I bought 200 of these a while back and really like them. I have used both a roll crimp and star crimp to close them and they have stayed closed. I have not shot any of them yet so I do not know how they will shuck. I suspect they will not shuck as well as the STS's or the AA's.

Lucky 😁

For me they shuck better than the AAs from both my shotguns and just as good as the STSs. No complaints at all on my end. 

[Lucky R. K.]

22 hours ago, KatfishKid said:

For me they shuck better than the AAs from both my shotguns and just as good as the STSs. No complaints at all on my end. 

Thanks for the feedback.

Lucky 😁

[PrairieDogPete]

On 9/27/2026 at 8:01 PM, Sedalia Dave said:

 

Primer of choice.

3cc (35 grains by WEIGHT) of 3F APP.  (#37 MEC Bushing)

Claybuster CB0178-12 gray wad. I load on a single stage MEC and seat the wad with about 40 lbs of wad pressure. 

7/8 ounce of shot

 

 

 

This is the same as I have been doing. You can still reuse your hulls with BP as well Jack.

[Too Tall Bob]

You might want to remember Federal hulls are straight wall (except the Fed HOA) and STS AND Gun Clubs are a tapered hull.  You may get better results with stack setting and crimp if you use the wads appropriate to the hull configuration. Just something to consider. 

[Jack Spade]

Well I loaded some BP shells today and I didn't do what I asked lol.  When rummaging around in my hull collection I discovered a box of 500 Gray Winchester AA's.  I thought these would be perfect to load only BP shells so I can tell at a glance what they are.   I set up a MEC Sizemaster I had, using a #36 bushing is throwing right at 36 grains of APP 2F.  I am using a cheddite primer, White winchester WAA12 wad and 7/8 oz of shot.  Stack height was about as perfect as i could ask for and made some nice crimps.  Thank you everyone for all the input and suggestions.   

Edited October 1 by Jack Spade