Читать книгу Reloading for Shotgunners онлайн

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The height of the brass base on a shotshell is not an indicator of its contents or power. A high base shell does not necessarily contain a heavier load or greater charge of powder than a low base shell.

The metal visible up the side of the hull is designed to stiffen the shell, to give the extractors a firm shelf to grip and, especially with paper hulls, to provide a firm base of support for the load’s components. During the first half of the twentieth century, the size of the brass on a shell varied as manufacturers experimented with new paper and plastic hulls, new base wad materials and heights, new progressive powders and various configurations for consolidating the elements of particular loads. A sneaky difficulty with new hull materials was finding combinations that would best contain gas pressure from the burning powder without leakage around the seal or the base wad.

Today’s hull makers vary the height of the brass for the same reason that they use differently colored hulls. Different sizes help them and their customers distinguish between different types and sizes of shells in their line.