The Misconception of Brass Height on Shot shell hulls

[sisu]

Here is the link I retrieved this information from. I know this topic goes round and round every year, so here is the answer for the modern plastic hull.
shot shell article

Rule#3. The brass head height may be any length. The reason for HIGH-BRASS goes back to paper hulls. Paper hulls often produced pinhole burn-through(s) parallel to hull powder containment section. When the powder amount was higher than the brass section a burn through could occur. Magnum (additional powder height) paper shotshells were made with a higher brass head to protect against burn through. Thus a fantasy was born! The higher brass indicated a more powerful paper shotshell - (i.e. magnum). With current plastic shotshells the head (steel – brass or nickel-plated) height/length has no bearing on the strength of the load. Hulls (ACTIV) were made with no metal heads. The important feature is the strength and often the thickness of the head and not the height. Promotional hulls are always suspect, because the metal of the head is often rolled super thin to save costs. Promotional hulls are expected by one and all to be discarded in the field. Perhaps the factory downloaded this hull with some load designed for cheapness such as a Mouse & Cockroach promotional load at 7000PSI. Some reloader tries to cram a SuperDuck formula into this hull and then wonders why the hull did not hold up.
From what you derive from the article is use quality hulls when reloading.

[CP]

Yep.  I only load Remington Gun Club, STS, Nitro, etc.  High “Brass” only increases the odds of the metal sticking to the chamber and jamming.

[high country]

what about activ no brass.....lol

[AWS]

I still have a few Activ Steel loads, they were the very best for shooting out in salt water, you never had to worry about the metal rusting.  Their target ammo was top notch with hard shot in even their cheapest loads.

Herter's had two lines of all plastic shells, one with a crimp end and one with a plastic overshot wad.  Killed more than a feww ducks with them but that was back in the lead days

I did allot of target shooting with Wanda shells, they were clear plastic with a overshot card.  They were kind of neat you could see the shot, wad and powder through the plastic.

I'd love to see some company bring back an all plastic shell for saltwater hunting.

AWS

[uplandhunter870]

  High “Brass” only increases the odds of the metal sticking to the chamber and jamming.

not trying to be a slang term for a piece of male anatomy but id love to see evidence of this.

as a trapshooter ive reloaded hundreds of thousands of shotshells and reloading shotshells all boils down to loading a quality hull and watching for signs of wear, brass height is all a matter of personal preference unless youre loading up some really hot field loads then higher brass can help lengthen the life of the hull due to the higher pressures.

my favorite hull to load is the old ribbed federal gold medals followed by the non HS AA grays and fiocchi white rhinos. ive loaded just about every hull out there and the brass is almost always the last to wear out usually the crimp petals are the primary reason a hull gets thrown out.

[boots]

I am still working through some of the old AA hulls my grandpa gave me along with his MEC reloader, but the only ones I load are Rem Gun Club, STS, or AA. I just dont feel like messing with the federals and the estate shells

[marlin]

I used to have an 870 express that would shoot perfect with target loads, but High brass shells would almost always get stuck in the chamber so I would have to really yank on the pump to get them out. My winchester pumps dont do that. Maybe the remington I had had a tighter chamber, idk. I usually just shoot target loads so its not a big deal. But the high brass 00 buck I keep loaded for home defense better not get stuck in the chamber if I ever need it! Almost makes me want to switch it out. I have 2 9mm pistols by the bed too so I dont think its gonna be a problem. 

[boots]

I used to have an 870 express that would shoot perfect with target loads, but High brass shells would almost always get stuck in the chamber so I would have to really yank on the pump to get them out. My winchester pumps dont do that. Maybe the remington I had had a tighter chamber, idk. I usually just shoot target loads so its not a big deal. But the high brass 00 buck I keep loaded for home defense better not get stuck in the chamber if I ever need it! Almost makes me want to switch it out. I have 2 9mm pistols by the bed too so I dont think its gonna be a problem.

I bet target loads would still get the job done at the close ranges of a home invasion type situation