Brass Shot Shells for Black

Steel Horse Bailey · January 31, 2011, 03:37:05 PM

By the way, I use waterglass (sodium silcate, I believe - available at Tractor Supply and used in the equine trade, as well as a concrete sealer) but I will give one warning: If those shells sit around loaded, but unfired for about a year, the waterglass dries up totally and you'll have to re-seal them. As mentioned, it (WG) is water soluble, so no biggie - just put new over the white, flaky remains of the old. It'll do fine.

I do use dry-lubed wads from Circle Fly as the 1/2" spacer wads. I don't know if the lube helps or not, but it's only a bit more than the unlubed ones. They do seem to scrape some fouling from the barrel, at least it seems to me. Use 'em or don't - it's your choice and I doubt it makes a lot of difference.

If your shotgun has short-taper chambers the wads work best, but if your gun is like many of the newer ones and has longer "forcing cones" (not the proper term, but I'll bet you get the meaning) - like my old Stoeger, the pattern won't be as good as if a plastic wad is used. I had good enough patterns with my Stoeger, and didn't have ANY knock-down failures in the first 7 years of SASS competition, before I added NCOWS matches about 7 years ago to my fun chart. My Tula has the older style short tapers, so I'm good to go.

I don't use ANY smokeyless powder loadings - if I do need to shoot smokeyless, Wal Mart sells 100 count boxes after hunting season that are too economical to ignore.

(Naturally, YMMV! Your mileage may vary)

rickk · January 31, 2011, 04:57:23 PM

Steel Horse Bailey,

Any idea what the product is called at Tractor Supply?

I searched for concrete sealer online and found this stuff:
http://www.rutland.com/productinfo/water-glass---cement-floor-sealer.html

It's Water Glass, nothin else.

Not sure where to buy it locally though but mail order it is way cheap by the gallon :
http://www.northlineexpress.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=5RU-146&source=froogle&kw=5RU-146

Rick

Steel Horse Bailey · January 31, 2011, 05:31:53 PM

Quote from: rickk on January 31, 2011, 04:57:23 PM
Steel Horse Bailey,

Any idea what the product is called at Tractor Supply?

Rick

Rick, Howdy!

The bottle I have is 30 fl. oz/1 pint 14 oz. - probably a lifetime supply, as the loadings I've use have only used about 1/4" out of the bottle. It probably is near $20 now - but I've had it at least 4 years.

The brand is:
HUMCO
Sodium Silicate Solution

farther down the label, it says "Water Glass"

On the back it states to use for: Sealing concrete floors, waterproofing, carton sealing, & gasket cement.

It doesn't say so on the label, but I THINK it is also used as a horse liniment, but I may have confused that with something else as it DOES say harmful if swallowed, or skin exposure. It has never bothered me, but I've also had very minimal skin exposure. Seems to me that it would gum up a horse's leg hair, so perhaps it isn't used as a liniment.

It doesn't say to do this, but I have kept this and other chemicals and film in extended storage by putting it in the 'fridge.

This is probably more info than needed, but here you go!

rickk · January 31, 2011, 06:09:39 PM

I don't see it at Tractor Supply... maybe they don't carry it any more, but I did find it at the manufacturer's web site.

http://store.humco.com/cgi-bin/ez-catalog/cat_display.cgi?3X337921

I bought a mostly unlabeled 32 ounce bottle off of ebay last year for about 5 bucks more than Humco wants for it, so 16 bucks from Humco is a decent price.

The 1 gallon container is an even better deal but, like you say, 30oz = lifetime supply.

I've got a horse, but I have no idea what I would do with sodium silicate around him (unless he starts laying eggs). Most of the other Humco products seem to be veterinary related though so I can see why it might appear that is it's intended use if it was sitting on a shelf with the rest of the stuff.

Steel Horse Bailey · January 31, 2011, 11:40:48 PM

Rick - as you say, they might not carry it anymore at TSC. My pard Jed Cooper, bought 2 bottles and gave me one in exchange for teaching him to load brass shotshells.

We BOTH figure it's a lifetime supply! LoL! You're probably right about me getting it confused with other Vet-type supplies. I'm easily corn-fuzed.

cheatin charlie · February 01, 2011, 06:05:38 PM

I bought my water glass at the local family owned drug store. When I asked the young girl at the
counter for water glass she gave me a dumb look but the old drugist who overheard me knew
exactly what I wanted. Didn't have it in stock but had it nest day $15 a pint but that was 3 or 4
years ago.
Charlie

Steel Horse Bailey · February 01, 2011, 08:05:41 PM

I'd always heard about getting water-glass from the druggist, too C-Charlie.

But when I went there and got the same "deer-in-the-headlights" look, there was NO "old druggist" there to point me in the right direction. A little later - Jed found it, so ...

Pony Racer · February 01, 2011, 09:47:56 PM

Funny thing about switching to a glue gun near the manassas battlefield area is the two ladies who helped me pick out the smaller gun with brass tip and the glue at Michaels understood my needs completely for building blackpowder shells.

The one lady said they get re-enactors all the time for sewing stuff and glue.

PR

Tater Pickens · February 01, 2011, 10:03:07 PM

regarding water glass or Sodium Silicate, I found mine at a local drug store but I first learned of it years ago as a block sealant in a Model A Ford engine block. Worked for the old ford as well as the brass shotgun shells. This world is full of wonders ain't it?

Tater Pickens

Wildcat Will · February 01, 2011, 10:35:07 PM

I've been shooting brass shell for several years now and I've only lost a couple due to being step on and squished out of shape. Normally I can round them out enough to get them back into the chamber to fire size. I load 75 gn of FF and the only problem I've run into with the MagTechs are they size to the chamber. I have three 12 g sxs and they all have slightly different size chambers. If I fire a brass case in the Bakal it will not fit into my Stevens hammered. I've taken to separating them by shotgun and it is a bit of a pain.

I recently obtained a 10 gauge and decided to get the Rocky Mountain Cartridge brass hull (2 7/8) at a price of about $8/hull. However, they are extremely heavy and I expect they will out live me. I've loaded them with 120 gns of FF with a square load but have not had a chance to test them. I expect a great deal of Smoke, Fire, BOOOM and Stink along with a lot of OOOOOs and Ahhhhhhs.

Poney Racer converted me to a glue gun and I've not looked back. May not look real purdy but I'm more interested in what happens when I pull the trigger than what they look like in my shotgun belt.

YEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAA

Sacramento Johnson · February 06, 2011, 08:29:00 PM

Howdy!
Like the above poster, I, too, shoot a 10g SXS, and use Rocky Mountain Cartridge 2 7/8 inch brass shells. Yes, they are pricey, but they are basically indestructable (step on one and all you'll do is hurt your foot), and need no re-sizing. I use Duco cement to seal the card over the shot. Elmers didn't hold for me; after shooting one barrel, little shot balls would roll out of the other unfired barrel. No such problem with Duco, and I pick it up at places like Walmart.