How to Make Shotgun Shells at Home

Home-loading, that is creating a shotgun ammo supply personally, was once the main option for hunters and woodsmen. Nowadays, it’s far easier to buy ammunition. There is a huge array of options. But, home-loading is still a viable option. Smoothbore shotguns, or scatter guns, were among the earliest short-range weapons for shooting devised. Today’s version is not entirely un-similar. A high-tech slug and wad system is usual. But, even with the ammo options available, there are unusual gauges that make finding factory loads problematic.

Home-loading is an intricate are. Basically, one needs some specific supplies and to go through about seven very exacting steps. But, while seeing a pair of lists makes it all seem highly doable, a “jump on in” exercise, newbies should actually do a lot of due diligence in the form of reading and research. Basically, one needs the ammo components, specifically, a hull, primer, powder, the wad and the shot. The seven steps consist of de-priming the hull before repriming with fresh powder, then dropping a powder charge, seating a wad, dropping the wad and lastly starting and finishing the crimp. Other techniques involve making old-fashioned paper hulls by wrapping the outer layer around a sizing dowel and using a buckshot mold to create shot pellets. The further down the technology scale one goes the less likely one is to get reliable online data. Moreover it can not be stressed strongly enough that the art of ammo-making is exacting and potentially lethal.

Key Takeaways:

Home-loading is an exacting art, requiring a lot of research, but basically encompassing about seven specific steps.
Just to start off, you’ll want to de-prime your empty hull and then re-prime your cartridge with fresh powder.
Other steps are dropping a powder charge, seating a wad, dropping the shot and starting a new crimp and completing that crimp.

“Nowadays we have an unimaginable choice of commercial shotgun ammunition on the market, but still, you will have a hard time to find the factory loads for unusual bore sizes and chamber lengths. There we mean at older, oddball gauges such as 2 7/8″ 10, 14, 32`s and some of the more exotic numbers.”