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bruski
PostPosted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 11:56 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 21 Sep 2019
Posts: 31
Location: Lake Taupo, NZ

Anyone using the Magtech full brass hulls?
Looking to start reloading 3/4 oz loads for a 5.25 lb gun.
Am new to this so be gentle.
Anything to look out for? etc?
Cheers and thanks.

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Upland Carpenter
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2020 7:15 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 24 Jan 2007
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Location: SC PA

The attached link (and the link posted by skeettx within that discussion) should give you a bit of info on Magtechs.

http://www.16ga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17397&highlight=magtech

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old colonel
PostPosted: Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:40 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 01 Dec 2008
Posts: 605
Location: Topeka, Kansas

I have used MAGTECH briefly, but found I prefer Rocky Mountain Cartridge Company (RMC) brass superior. I still have a hundred or so MAGTECH I have not touched in years and probably should get rid of.

The thick RMC brass has an interior diameter of regular plastic hulls allowing the use of standard wads and not the oversized wads required for MAGTECH.

Also there is not smokeless data easily available for MAGTECH whereas there is some good data for RMC.

Lastly RMC brass is practically immortal. I have some that have seen 75 reloadings each and seem almost new. I regularly cleaned them with boiling hot detergent water in an ultrasonic cleaner between loadings. I have not even had the primer pockets wear much yet, but when they do I can always switch to larger diameter primers (like Fiochi).

The only two down sides are RMC brass is expensive ($74 for ten brass shells), and they are hard to resize after fire formed to larger diameter chambers. That said after the first 30ea 2 1/2 inch I picked up, I have purchased a hundred more to include 30ea 2 3/4 and 10ea 3in (just in case I might need them some one day). Though I have to admit I have not used other than 2 1/2 inch as 1oz and 1 1/8oz loads fits with glued overshot cards (glued with hardened sodium silicate gel or Duco cement).

On resizing I have found that on some SXS guns have tighter chambers than others. I have discovered once fire formed to the larger chamber they are a bear to resize down to fit smaller chambers again. So much so I segregated 30 for the larger chambered Christophe, and the rest for the tighter chambered Guns like my German 16 and my Purdey. The good news is once fire formed set to the chambers of a gun there are no issues needing any resizing and it was only when changing to a third gun after no problems with the first two, did I discover the challenge. The brass can be resized, but it requires a heavy duty press.


https://www.rockymountaincartridge.com/products.htm

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goathoof
PostPosted: Sat Mar 07, 2020 8:59 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 15 Dec 2009
Posts: 226
Location: eastern oregon

more to consider: http://www.16ga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20584&highlight=goathoof
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bruski
PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 12:17 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 21 Sep 2019
Posts: 31
Location: Lake Taupo, NZ

I never knew this would be so convoluted.
Going to need time to digest.

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MaximumSmoke
PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 9:44 am  Reply with quote
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Rocky Mountain Cartridge? OK, so they use regular sized wads, which is a plus for smokeless loads maybe, but not black powder, which just melts those wads.

MagTech? About 80 cents each vs $7.40 each for RMC!! Resize easily -- well, much more easily -- they aren't conventional plastic hulls. Large pistol primers work just fine with smokeless powders. Wad fit? Not really a problem once you understand the need for it. It isn't hard to buy, make or modify the wads you need.

Load data? Not a problem with any brass hull. Simply start with any data you find for a flat-based Reiffenhuaser-type hull (Fiocchi, Rio, Cheddite, Federal, etc, etc.), Get wads that fit -- forget about plastic wad units unless you are shooting RMC's, where they might fit better, make sure you get a good fitting overpowder wad, use fiber fillers, use a plastic cup or sleeve around the shot if you must. Load it up and shoot it. If you like it, load some more. The pressures will be lower than the load in the book for the hulls mentioned above -- greater hull internal diameter, less efficient powder burn because of the internal shape of the brass hull, glued on thin card overshot wad instead of a nice tight pie crimp, a full length metal hull, being more rigid than a paper or plastic hull deflects less and passes less stress (pressure) to the barrel chamber, etc. If you don't like the result of such load, and you're sure you've got a good-sealing overpowder wad, then chronograph it and bump up the powder until you get the velocity you want. Stop at about 1200 fps and you'll be OK.

Try to remember why you're shooting a brass hull -- it probably isn't to extract super magnum performance; you can buy that or load it in a plastic hull if you want. You're probably using brass to feel good about shooting a gun from the "brass age". You'll be loading some fairly mild loads. If you're worried about pressure (oh my god!) use the published load with the slowest burning powder -- probably something like Unique or Universal or even 800-X, Blue Dot, HS-6 or Longshot for 1 ounce loads in the 16.

Also, to ease your mind, read some of Sherman Bell's writings in The Double Gun Journal, showing his excellent experiments. His data shows that for the same external ballistics (muzzle velocities of a given lead shot charge weight) black powders and smokeless powders generate very similar peak pressures and pressures down the barrel. Additionally, black powders from different sources are not equivalent and the differences are significant. And then there is the effect of different grinds of black powder, which is considerable. I never see anyone talk about that very much on forums -- as if just because you use any powder as long as it's black powder you're guaranteed to be safe! We all swallowed too much of the propaganda printed on shotshell boxes back in the '50's and ''60's, without understanding that the reason for it -- product liability and marketing concerns. Folks were damaging those dangerous Rolling Eyes damascus barreled guns by loading those new-fangled smokeless powders by the same volumes previously used with black powders in the crude reloading methods and ideas of the early 20th century. Such labeling helped manufacturers (same manufacturers as for the ammo) sell new guns and kept them in the clear for liability concerns with old guns and handloads.
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skeettx
PostPosted: Sun Mar 08, 2020 1:46 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 15 Apr 2007
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Location: Amarillo, Texas

I am an old fart
I use ALCAN all brass hulls and *57 primers Smile

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bruski
PostPosted: Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:28 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 21 Sep 2019
Posts: 31
Location: Lake Taupo, NZ

All good. Thank you all for the responses.
I would insert an emoji but somehow I can't bring myself to do so.

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