Rem 3 inch high brass

[bullet maker]

:-) Hello everyone;
   I have a question for you. First of all I`m not that much of a shotgun reloader, so this question maybe mute for some of you. I`m just starting out, however I`ve been doing pistol and rifle for many years.
   My question is I`ve got about 500 3 inch high brass Rem brass hulls. Some of the hulls have been fired with steel shot and some have been fired with 2, 4 and some with 7 shot from them. That`s marked on the casses. These are range fired hulls, that I`ve picked up to reload for myself. Now, can I load, say no.2 in all of them. or 7,in them, or does what was put in them from the factory, the only size of shot you can use?
Thats for your reply`s
bullet maker

[rickyp]

as far as i have seen  (and done) you do not need to use the same size shot that was loaded from the factory. but dont use led shot componats for steel shot other then that you should be fine

[dakotashooter2]

In most cases you can use any size shot you want. Hulls that say steel may look similar but can have a different capacity (usually larger) than those used for lead. You would probably discover this when your crimp collapsed when loading. A good loading manual (you have one don't you?) can point out the differences in hulls even if they look the same on the outside. I recently bought some once fired winchester cases that were originally loaded with buckshot and there was nearly 1/4" difference in basewad height in nearly identical hulls.I discoved it when some crimps collapsed and had to disect a couple of hulls before I figured it out. Going from very small shot (#9) to very large can require some component/crimp adjustment to crimp correctly. Large shot generally needs more space because it doesn't "nest" together as tightly.

[bullet maker]

OK
   thanks fellows, for the advice, I learned somethin, yes I do have some reloading manuals but there about 20 yrs, old. Yes I will get more up to date ones also. I dont like steel shot, but with the hull`s I pick up at the gun range, I need to bone up on the reloading angle of the hulls.
thanks all
bullet maker

[.45 COLT]

Hodgdon's Annual Manual (and probably others as well) has load data for lead shot loads in hulls that were factory loaded with steel shot.