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< 16ga. Ammunition & Reloading ~ Slitting Steel shot wads |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 12:28 pm
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Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy
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Every once in a while the topic of unlit wads pops up. Pre slit wads are nice, but unfortunately, I am not aware of any pre slit 16 ga. steel shot wads on the market at this time. This morning I spent about 15-20 minutes slitting a bag of 250 PT 1680's with a home made slitter and figured that some out there may actually want to make one of these since it works so well.
The whole reason I even have the thing is because some 18 years ago a friend and I stumbled onto a closeout deal fro JSC. They were closing out all of the old original NTC steel shot kits. These kits either came with 10 lbs. or 20 lbs. of steel shot, a reloading data book, and all of the wads needed to reload that quantity of shot. The 10 lb. kits were $4.95 and the 20 lb. kits were $9.95. We bought them all, cleared out the warehouse. This was back in the days when I was shooting gobs of snow geese and much to my surprise, we used this stuff up in less than ten years!
Anyway, none of the wads came pre slit. That is a lot of snipping with shears! We weren't going to do that. One guy I knew had a prebuilt slitter that fit on his Mec press and I sort of copied that by taking an old archery broad head and modifying it.
I removed the blades and ground the cutting edges dull first; the commercial version used razor blades and was a bit dangerous, I didn't want that. After this I ground a radius in the wide end of each blade; I then sharpened this radius before reinstalling the blades backward. Why the radius? So it would have somewhat of a self centering effect and also to keep the petals from pushing out away from the cutting edge. I trimmed the broad head point and rounded it off; it serves as a built in stop so that petals are cut a uniform length each time.
Next I took a 1/4 x 20 tpi bolt and cut the hexagonal head off. This was then epoxied and crimped inside of a short remaining section of aluminum arrow shaft. This allowed the assembly to be mounted on the press in place of the crimp starter. A trimmed hull held the wad in place.
Well it didn't take long to figure out that I was going through a lot of unnecessary work. By screwing the wad slitter into a handle and just placing wads on my table I was able to merely stamp away, pulling each wad of off the slitter every time I brought it up, holding them in my cupped hand until it was full then dumping them in a box in multiples of 10-15 at a time, a minimum of maneuvering to maximize production.
Slitting a whole bag of wads isn't such a nuisance using this method and many of you could build the same tool in your garage. Back to loading snow goose ammo...purple of course.
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Last edited by WyoChukar on Mon Apr 02, 2018 4:41 pm; edited 2 times in total _________________ Only catch snowflakes on your tongue AFTER the birds fly south for the winter... |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 12:42 pm
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Joined: 15 Apr 2007
Posts: 9455
Location: Amarillo, Texas
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Honk, honk
That is from one old goose to the young goose, saying well done
Mike
Class of 90??
I was class of 67 ![Shocked](images/smiles/icon_eek.gif) |
_________________
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USAF RET 1971-95 |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:00 pm
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Member
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Joined: 09 Dec 2009
Posts: 1370
Location: Cheyenne, Wy
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skeettx wrote: |
Honk, honk
That is from one old goose to the young goose, saying well done
Mike
Class of 90??
I was class of 67
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Mike, you are just a kid, I was class of '60.
Dale |
_________________ One man with courage makes a majority.
...Andrew Jackson... |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:17 pm
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Joined: 24 Jun 2013
Posts: 2062
Location: canandaigua - western n.y. (formerly deerhunter)
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my wife sez I have no class and am a Jackass !!! I just use a back edged razor blade and squeeze the wad to get it close to even . |
_________________ Molly sez AArrrooooooah ! |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:37 pm
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Member
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Joined: 09 Dec 2009
Posts: 1370
Location: Cheyenne, Wy
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16gaDavis wrote: |
my wife sez I have no class and am a Jackass !!! I just use a back edged razor blade and squeeze the wad to get it close to even .
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Very wise woman, your wife.
Dale |
_________________ One man with courage makes a majority.
...Andrew Jackson... |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 7:17 pm
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Joined: 12 Feb 2018
Posts: 258
Location: West-central Missouri
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If you normally roll crimp, attach the broad-head at the crimp-starter position of your single stage press. That's how we started reloading duck loads with our then new Steelmaster press way back when... |
_________________ An ounce of fives, the smell of nitro in paper hulls, wet gundog, and Hoppe's #9... |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:04 pm
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Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy
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Oops, I made a mistake in my write up. It was the crimp starter station. Thanks, I will fix that. Punching them by hand is still faster for me though. |
_________________ Only catch snowflakes on your tongue AFTER the birds fly south for the winter... |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:06 pm
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Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy
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Class of 90, 67, 60? All I know is that the class of 57 had it's dreams. |
_________________ Only catch snowflakes on your tongue AFTER the birds fly south for the winter... |
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Posted:
Wed Mar 28, 2018 8:40 pm
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Joined: 12 Feb 2018
Posts: 258
Location: West-central Missouri
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[quote="WyoChukar"]Oops, I made a mistake in my write up. It was the crimp starter station. Thanks, I will fix that. Punching them by hand is still faster for me though.[/quote]
Wyo, with the wad in the blade-retro-fitted-crimp station on the stroke that charges the hull with powder, zero time is added to the reloading process (if using two hands to place wad and hull simultaneously and not planning to use a fold-crimp). No extra steps that way. A cutoff hull with a bolt through the primer hole acts as the cut-station base keeping fingers safely away from blades as the lever strokes down.
Nothing wrong with a table punch. Did many that way b4 replacing my Lee Hand Tool. |
_________________ An ounce of fives, the smell of nitro in paper hulls, wet gundog, and Hoppe's #9... |
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Posted:
Thu Mar 29, 2018 4:40 am
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Joined: 19 Apr 2014
Posts: 429
Location: Maine
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Had supper last night with a vibrant 92 year old Marine who spent his 19th birthday on Iwo Jimi. He watched them raise the flag. Don't know what class but he has a lot of it. |
_________________ If it weren't for women cats would be extinct. |
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Posted:
Thu Mar 29, 2018 9:31 am
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Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy
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This is the only member of my household that is from the Class of 60. She's lost most of her hair and is due for new legs and a heart transplant once cosmetic surgery and make up are complete. Her stainless steel girdle is securely fastened to prevent any future loss of skin. A true woman of the trades, she's expected to spend long hours bearing my guns, decoys, rods, tackle, equipment, and of course, carry Rusty to and from his athletic events. All in all, the perfect lady, a real 16 gauge of the road.
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_________________ Only catch snowflakes on your tongue AFTER the birds fly south for the winter... |
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Posted:
Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:38 am
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Joined: 15 Apr 2007
Posts: 9455
Location: Amarillo, Texas
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WOW!!! YOU have a lot of work to do!!! |
_________________
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USAF RET 1971-95 |
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Posted:
Thu Mar 29, 2018 12:06 pm
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Joined: 28 Dec 2017
Posts: 87
Location: Northern Utah
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I wish I had thought of that.
I built a die since that is what I do for a living and all I know. I used three layers of half-inch plywood and laser-burned a hole with kerf stemming out from it to fit 2 point steel cutting rule from the paper converting industry. I buit a four slit, three slit, and a five slit. The trick was calculating the expansion of the petals so there would be enough relief it took three tries. The wad is centered in the staring hole all I do is press it down over the wad. Now that I have a depth I will build a stop into it. It's still a pain. I like the ease and simplicity of your idea better. |
_________________ Bret
https://bretwonnacott.com/
A Millionaire's Dream - a novel |
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