What better way to spend a rainy day than in the garage with a shot shell loader? I have been wanting some dummy rounds for a little while now so today was the day.
Usually the DIY dummy rounds say to cut off the crimped portion and fill with silicone like this:
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I am wanting something as close to the real deal as possible to practice the "load 2" method in my Benelli and ^^^ aint gonna cut it, so heres what I did.
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The Lee Load All...Cheap and simple. This was given to me by a friend a few years ago and this is the first time ive used it...or any sort of loader for that matter.
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Here is the goal. This is a good example of what I usually shoot, estate dove & target.
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Load the powder side up with corn meal. Throughout this process I would say the hardest part was to get the cornmeal to feed reliably. The next time I will use a coarse meal. Towards the end I would just spoon some meal in the shell to make sure it got enough.
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some #5 shot I got at a garage sale a while back. any size should work since all your looking for is some weighting material.
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Since this machine deprimes while resizing the brass I had to do this manually. A lot of people will punch out the primer and fill the space with silicone or an eraser to use as a snap cap. I just left the old primer because these are for loading not dry firing. I probably didn't need to resize the brass for an inert round but wasn't sure.
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Usual loading method...
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And BINGO! pretty nice eh
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People always recommend painting the inert rounds to avoid any confusion and these were the 2 brightest colors I had. Figured a splatter of light blue and copper would suffice since its all I had. Its flaking off pretty easy so to do it right you really would need to scotch bright the shells -> wipe with lacquer thinner -> hit with some adhesion promoter -> paint. After this flakes off bad enough I will pick up some bright orange are the hardware store and do it right.
Usually the DIY dummy rounds say to cut off the crimped portion and fill with silicone like this:
[Broken External Image]
I am wanting something as close to the real deal as possible to practice the "load 2" method in my Benelli and ^^^ aint gonna cut it, so heres what I did.
[Broken External Image]
The Lee Load All...Cheap and simple. This was given to me by a friend a few years ago and this is the first time ive used it...or any sort of loader for that matter.
[Broken External Image]
Here is the goal. This is a good example of what I usually shoot, estate dove & target.
[Broken External Image]
Load the powder side up with corn meal. Throughout this process I would say the hardest part was to get the cornmeal to feed reliably. The next time I will use a coarse meal. Towards the end I would just spoon some meal in the shell to make sure it got enough.
[Broken External Image]
some #5 shot I got at a garage sale a while back. any size should work since all your looking for is some weighting material.
[Broken External Image]
Since this machine deprimes while resizing the brass I had to do this manually. A lot of people will punch out the primer and fill the space with silicone or an eraser to use as a snap cap. I just left the old primer because these are for loading not dry firing. I probably didn't need to resize the brass for an inert round but wasn't sure.
[Broken External Image]
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[Broken External Image]
[Broken External Image]
Usual loading method...
[Broken External Image]
And BINGO! pretty nice eh
[Broken External Image]
People always recommend painting the inert rounds to avoid any confusion and these were the 2 brightest colors I had. Figured a splatter of light blue and copper would suffice since its all I had. Its flaking off pretty easy so to do it right you really would need to scotch bright the shells -> wipe with lacquer thinner -> hit with some adhesion promoter -> paint. After this flakes off bad enough I will pick up some bright orange are the hardware store and do it right.
