At one time there was a lot of talk on this forum about which hull can you reload more times. So I set about testing just how many loads can you get out of Gun Clubs vs STS Nitro 27's. I tested the Guns Clubs first and you can read my first report here:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=306942
A fellow shooter gave me 100+ Nitro 27's so I decided to see how many times I could reload them compared to the Gun Clubs.
The Nitros held up fairly well and still made good crimps up to their last loading. The Gun Clubs started to see splitting and separation in the crimp folds by load #8 becoming much more pronounced by load #14 to the point that I declared them unload-able after 15 reloadings. With the Nitros the failure mechanism was different. The crimp folds showed very little splitting in a few of the shells. The failure was in the primer pocket. I was experiencing primer blow-by in almost all the shells (see photo below).
![Image]()
The black ring of soot is a sigh that hot gasses are leaking past the primer. This is considered to be an undesirable condition(unsafe) and makes a sooty mess in the receiver. So after 12 firings (11 reloads) I decided that was the limit on these shells. The top of the shell does not look to bad, just a little blackened and crispy. (see photo)
![Image]()
So the score is Gun Clubs: 15 reloads, Nitros: 11
But this test took the hulls to the extreme. I personally think that 8 reloads is about max for either hull if they don't show damage before then.
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=306942
A fellow shooter gave me 100+ Nitro 27's so I decided to see how many times I could reload them compared to the Gun Clubs.
The Nitros held up fairly well and still made good crimps up to their last loading. The Gun Clubs started to see splitting and separation in the crimp folds by load #8 becoming much more pronounced by load #14 to the point that I declared them unload-able after 15 reloadings. With the Nitros the failure mechanism was different. The crimp folds showed very little splitting in a few of the shells. The failure was in the primer pocket. I was experiencing primer blow-by in almost all the shells (see photo below).
The black ring of soot is a sigh that hot gasses are leaking past the primer. This is considered to be an undesirable condition(unsafe) and makes a sooty mess in the receiver. So after 12 firings (11 reloads) I decided that was the limit on these shells. The top of the shell does not look to bad, just a little blackened and crispy. (see photo)
So the score is Gun Clubs: 15 reloads, Nitros: 11
But this test took the hulls to the extreme. I personally think that 8 reloads is about max for either hull if they don't show damage before then.
