28 gauge reloading, good,bad, ugly and then Winchester

Just was emailing Charles for another tool for 28. Need the bin 2 finish crimp and was thinking damn I wonder how this thing would do on paper.
It’s gonna cost you for the results though

Ok Justin first whirl and it snapped the blade. Had to change blades. Little bit of a pita for me as hands don’t work like they use to after 20 years as a mechanic. But I did trim them with my home made trimmer and it cut them nicely.

The paper is pretty tough shit. I don’t think the blades are beefy enough for paper hulls. I will keep a tab and when I move that way I’ll hit you up for a little field time.

I did notice with the gaep one that it also tore a little first. Mine goes in a drill and it buzzed it right off. Not like you couldn’t make one. It’s pretty easy just have to be patient, which as much as you work with stocks, it would be no problem for you.
Hey blind fold works for me, shit mouth and nose covered anyway.

Ok new tool arrived today to I’m gonna give it a whirl to see if it’s worth the review or not. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say the package is printed wrong and should be 20-24-28-410.
So it did open it a little bit, it was spinning at about 1300 rpms and it has to spin a little to heat up the plastic. If you rush it, it just splits the plastic where the folds are.
The black hull is a 16 gauge cause I know lots of people reload those. On the 16 it seemed to do a little better.

The next tool arrived much to my surprise early. This is the bin2 finish crimper from gaep. The shell pictured is the crappiest shell I could find in the wtf box. Don’t know if you can see the dimples in the top of the shell left by the pre crimp on the mec v or not(out of adjustment) but they are there. The bin2 puts a nice tapered edge and makes the top of the shell round. And yes there is a whole in the center that’s not acceptable. More on that in the next post

Little bit about the whole in the center, couple things cause this to my knowledge. Most often it’s an adjustment on your machine. Mec says if you have a hole then your final crimp punch needs to be lowered. If your out of room for adjustment then you pre crimp needs to be lowered. The pre crimped shell hole should be about the size of a pencil eraser. Sometimes you still won’t get a good looking crimp and that hole just won’t close. That’s when the hull trimmer comes into play. Do yourself a favor and trim them so they are all straight again.
I’m not saying that the hole is gonna cause you huge issues, cause it’s not. I can remember when I was a kid carrying shells that had been loaded 20 years prior and the bb’s would fall out and be in my pocket. I have seen scotch tape, glue and even red man stuff in the hole, then fired and it still does what it’s suppose to if you do your part. You should always make the most professional looking shells you can, but the whole is not the end of the world and it will still go boom.

Hull volume- quick note on this..... it’s a waste of time. You can measure every hull volume you have with water, shot or whatever and you will get a measurement. You will get more water in some hulls so yes they have more volume, but what to do with that info? Bottom line if you have the right components in your hull then volume don’t matter.

Amen

Got a chance to shoot the RIO 1 oz loads today. Busted clays, recoil more like a 20 in my baby frame silver pigeon. Don’t see much advantage to the extra recoil and cost for clays. May be more effective on upland game if your using a sub gauge. Did notice that there was a lot of residue left in the barrel after shooting. Would compare to federal shells. Nothing that won’t clean up, but know some don’t like to look down the barrel and see dirty residue.

Hopefully it will help someone if they want to start reloading 28 gauge. There is more to come to complete the thread, this time of year is busy with my daughters cheer so everything gets put on hold for now.
21 out of 25 not bad at all. I never thought I would like the 28 as much as I do. I am also a big fan of 410.
109 for a flat right now is a great price. I just seen 28/410 yesterday at local range. It’s now 20.00 a box.

I’m hoping to get time to finish this thread, but had an experience today that needs to be mentioned. Remember you never know the experience of the shooters that you may encounter in the field, either hunting or on the skeet field. Today’s pictures are from the skeet field. Shooting skeet with my normal group for the last 6-7 years. One of the gal’s that I always follow was on station 1 with a new Winchester 20 gauge. I actually wasn’t paying any attention, as I was talking to the other shooters, until she pulled the trigger, and it sounded like a dude. She had purchased a bunch of old reloads from a fella that just passed away, so I ask who’s reloads are those? She followed with there factory!!! I said ok well something isn’t right, where is the ejected shell, they are all thinking I just wanna look cause I’m a hull bitch and look at lots of hulls. I see the range officer take the gun and look in the chamber, he said it’s clear and handed it back to her. Bullshit came to mind and I headed to station 1 and grabbed it as she hit the bolt release and the bolt slammed forward. I’m the asshole when it comes to safety, so not much was said, but got weird looks. Again asked where is the ejected shell, no one seemed to know or care. So being the ass I asked who cleared the gun, reply was range officer, this time bullshit came out of my mouth pretty loud. Did you pull the barrel off? No was the answer. Then how do you know it’s clear? No answer! I pulled the barrel off and there was a shell about 1 inch in front of the chamber down in the barrel. How could this happen? Well I found the ejected shell and it was a 28 gauge. Shooter had no clue that she loaded and fired a 28 shell in a 20 gauge. She also didn’t know that 20 gauge shells are mostly yellow. So long story short don’t be afraid to be an “ass” when it comes to safety. Make sure you know what your shooting, and what your putting in the chamber. FYI these shells were 28 gauge boxed in 20 gauge box, bought from a registered sporting clay event.

The range officers on the skeet field are all kids. Most under 20. When there are new shooters, I watch very close, didn’t think I had to with experienced shooters. Learned today you never know

Still haven’t figured out how the firing pin hit the primer. Looking at the firing pin marks being way off to the right I’m guessing the rim of the shell was caught on something. I’m just glad no one got hurt.