I have reloaded them. No resizing issues. They seem thinner to me as well but seem to remain flexible. I haven't reloaded them that many times.

 

There are two versions of this hull. The older one has a paper basewad, the newer one has a plastic basewad. I have experience with the paper basewad only. Whether I used Federal 209A primers or Cheddite primers, by the third to fourth reload, there was soot on the base around the primer flange. I tossed them after four reloads. The crimps were also showing signs of splitting by this time.

Bob.

 

I like them, they reload like Cheddite hulls for me. I shoot 1 ounce loads but with reduced powder, to what I think is about 1220 fps (by math)... it's far under max load so I am confident with them. The extra volume is nice.

 

I just started reloading some once fired hulls on an older Versamec machine and it is a very stiff punch during depriming and I'm finding brass dust residue under the resizing collar also. These are the yellow 20 ga high brass top gun with a ribbed hull. I didn't have any issues with winchester AA hulls.

 

Federal Top guns are not 'high brass' shells. They just use a higher external base than Winchester or Remington.

High brass shells are a marketing item for hunting loads.

At one time all they made were Gold Medal hulls and the base metal was brass.

Many years later came the Top Gun budget ammo loads, and to keep the price economical, they switched to a steel external base.

One thing to keep in mind is the Federal 20 gauge target hull, with one exception, has been the same hull for more than 30 years.

That exception is the internal base wad has changed from a rolled paper to a plastic disc. The hulls now have a larger internal volume.

Since the invention of the Top Gun ammo, hulls have been free just for asking. Most shooters at my club throw them away.

I now load them one and done, however, in the earlier years before the Top Gun introduction, I loaded them multiple times and averaged 8-10 loads per hull.

A little soot around the primer in now way affected their performance and caused no damage to my gun. I shot tens of thousands of them with soot around the primer.

 

With the current version fitted with the plastic basewad you will likely find that you get dished crimps with most of the available 7/8 oz wads because of the greater internal volume especially if you load with dense powders. I would advise that you use little or no wad pressure and maybe a felt filler in the shot cup if the crimp doesn’t suit you. I like to load with about 17-18 grains of Herco because it is somewhat bulky, has been available recently and won’t migrate past slightly undersized wads. I understand that Ballistic Products has a wad for for the riffenhauser (straight wall) hulls that fits a little snugger. The Federal 20S1 wad has long been unavailable

 

The old Remington "SP" fiber base hulls from the 1960's would shave off the plating when "ring sizing" and was pretty much accepted. Eventually the hulls would rust where the sizer scraped off the plating, but noone really reloaded the "SP" more than 1 or 2 times. Modern "Top Guns" didn't seem to have this issue, at least on my loaders. No worries.