High Brass? Low Brass? - Difference??

J

jonnyB

Well-known member
Is there a difference between these shells? Or is it advertising hype? From what I've read - there's no ballistic difference in shell performance.
 
brass

the brass, actually isn't, is only cosmetic, it doesn't even have to be there. the high and low was to show the diff. between say a pheasant load and a clay load, so we could keep them straight cause the mfg. were to cheap to properly mark their shells

cheers
 
There is no difference in loading for high brass or low brass. Years ago Activ hulls had no brass.
High and low brass goes back to the old black powder days. Remember in the early days many of the hulls were all brass. In those days it took a pretty stout load of powder to launch heavy shot loads. The high brass was used to reinforce and protect the paper hull from the tall powder charge of heavy loads. Low brass was used for lighter loads because they didn't use as much powder. Might or might not have made a difference but there is a logic to it. The practice just carried over to smokeless powder like Dram Equivalents did. We are living with both to this day although neither is relevant any more.
 
I think the trend is the more shot, the more pow(d)er needed to propel them, the higher the brass. Without the brass, is there a greater chance the shell will stick in the chamber? Danged if I know, just a thought.
 
I too use the brass to differentiate between target and game loads when they end up in my pouch out of the box it's quicker than looking at the worn off print.
 
I have always used high brass. They seem to work better for hunting. I use target loads for shooting clays.
 
I reload most of my shells for both clays and birds. I load my pheasant loads in AA shells or the Remington STS which are all low brass. Although I don't load 1 3/4 OZ shoulder crushing loads which in my opinion are just a true pain in the shoulder and do not increase kills (the old "square load" theory for those who reload), I don't have problems with shells sticking in my over/unders. The loads are about 1300 fps with 1 1/8 oz of lead and are proven.
Just my 2 bits.
Wolf
 
Jakeismydog2 said:
I used to shoot those activ loads. What happened to that company? Why doesn't anyone still make all plastic shells?
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I used to shoot turkeys back in the early 90s(I think) with 3" activs out of my 20ga. They were deadly. Then someone told me 20ga wasn't enough for turkeys and being a "green" high school kid decided I must have been lucky 4x and went to a 12Ga. Still have the other 6....guess I will just save em for the nostalgia.

Actually kilt my 1st 2 longbeards with #6 pheasants loads, so those birds must have been real unlucky. Ha ha. 20ga not good for turkeys. What a crock.....
 
Jon,

I always was taught to look at a shell and see how long the brass was. The longer the brass the more powder that was in the shell. More powder is what I use for pheasant hunting (like we did on Saturday). But lighter loads for target shooting had lower brass. Slower speeds and less powder. Now I guess the need for the brass is obsolete, but why then do they still load game loads with high brass and target loads with low brass? I don't know, but I will ask the kid who was hunting with us last weekend who works for federal! Maybe he can answer this one for us.
 
Deuce said:
I too use the brass to differentiate between target and game loads when they end up in my pouch out of the box it's quicker than looking at the worn off print.
Click to expand...

Same here!:)
Actually I use them for two different field loads, , usually non -tox and plated lead.

DHT
 
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brass again

that was the purpose of the brass, actually steel, to begin with, for identification, it just does not have to be there

cheers
 
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