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darkgael · September 26, 2012, 05:23 AM

Reload without a press? Yes, you can do it. The quality of the shells will be a function of how meticulous you are....and reloading will be slow.
Without proper equipment, you will not be able to resize the hulls. That may not be a problem at all, especially since you have a single gun in ten gauge.
You can deprime the hulls with a nail or punch. Place the base of the hull over a hole in a piece of wood...a hole large enough to accept a 209 primer or two. Knock the primer out with the punch and a mallet.
Reprime - get a flat, clean piece of steel, hard plastic or marble. Put a 209 primer that is appropriate for your load (check a manual) on the flat surface, place a deprimed hull onto the primer, put some sort of rigid tube - aluminum or PVC, about 1/2" diameter and four to six inches long into the hull and gently tap the hull onto the primer with a mallet. Do not use a solid rod or dowel for this.
Measure the appropriate powder charge (check a manual for powder type and charge weight) - you will need a scale - and drop it into the hull. Place the appropriate wad (check a manual) into the hull atop the powder charge. This may be difficult as the crimp will be in the way. I used a piece of dowel sanded into a cone as a way of opening the old crimp folds. insert the wad with a dowel. Firmly. Measure and drop your shot load (check a manual). You will need a shot dipper for this.
The hard part is the crimp.
If you don't want to load the hull more than once, you can cut the old crimp folds off and glue in an overshot wad. Results may be iffy.
You could, with a bit of work, refold the old crimp, and reset it with an appropriately sized dowel - best to fit the hul inside a tube for that operation. VERY slow.
You could buy a roll crimp tool for use in a drill and roll crimp the hulls. This last is by far the best option. The issue to deal with when roll crimping is the old crimp folds.....They may prevent proper rolling. They can be cut off completely or partially, thus shortening the hull a bit or the folds can be spun out using a crimp doctor tool (a cone shaped item that fits into a drill chuck and is spun into the mouth of the hull; friction heats the crimp folds and relaxes them. With care, this works.)
This is one set of ideas...I have done this with 12 gauge hulls. They worked....but not as uniformly well as what I reload on my presses.
Pete

September 26, 2012, 05:23 AM	#3
darkgael Senior Member Join Date: February 9, 2006 Location: Homes in Brooklyn, NY and in Pennsylvania. Posts: 5,473	reload Reload without a press? Yes, you can do it. The quality of the shells will be a function of how meticulous you are....and reloading will be slow. Without proper equipment, you will not be able to resize the hulls. That may not be a problem at all, especially since you have a single gun in ten gauge. You can deprime the hulls with a nail or punch. Place the base of the hull over a hole in a piece of wood...a hole large enough to accept a 209 primer or two. Knock the primer out with the punch and a mallet. Reprime - get a flat, clean piece of steel, hard plastic or marble. Put a 209 primer that is appropriate for your load (check a manual) on the flat surface, place a deprimed hull onto the primer, put some sort of rigid tube - aluminum or PVC, about 1/2" diameter and four to six inches long into the hull and gently tap the hull onto the primer with a mallet. Do not use a solid rod or dowel for this. Measure the appropriate powder charge (check a manual for powder type and charge weight) - you will need a scale - and drop it into the hull. Place the appropriate wad (check a manual) into the hull atop the powder charge. This may be difficult as the crimp will be in the way. I used a piece of dowel sanded into a cone as a way of opening the old crimp folds. insert the wad with a dowel. Firmly. Measure and drop your shot load (check a manual). You will need a shot dipper for this. The hard part is the crimp. If you don't want to load the hull more than once, you can cut the old crimp folds off and glue in an overshot wad. Results may be iffy. You could, with a bit of work, refold the old crimp, and reset it with an appropriately sized dowel - best to fit the hul inside a tube for that operation. VERY slow. You could buy a roll crimp tool for use in a drill and roll crimp the hulls. This last is by far the best option. The issue to deal with when roll crimping is the old crimp folds.....They may prevent proper rolling. They can be cut off completely or partially, thus shortening the hull a bit or the folds can be spun out using a crimp doctor tool (a cone shaped item that fits into a drill chuck and is spun into the mouth of the hull; friction heats the crimp folds and relaxes them. With care, this works.) This is one set of ideas...I have done this with 12 gauge hulls. They worked....but not as uniformly well as what I reload on my presses. Pete __________________ “Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games.” Ernest Hemingway ... NRA Life Member Last edited by darkgael; September 26, 2012 at 05:34 AM.