I have a very early Winchester 1897 shotgun, and at the moment I feed it lyvale Express super light 21gs, but these never seem to extract right. they cost £50 x250. I was told by a few club members to buy heavier cartridges, dump some shot back down to 21g and then roll crimp them, as it should give better extraction. is this mental or a good idea?
looking at cartridges, it looks like £50 is the best price anywhere for them, and I can't even see anywhere local to me selling them where I can see a price online (bristol area if anyone can help there). but this isn't about saving money, I know it's going to cost more, but I also don't want to spend out hundreds of pounds on shotgun cartridges trying to get them to work and winding up with the same issues if there was a more straightforward approach by tailoring them to me. as all those I can buy seem to be star crimped, the only roll crimped shells I see are 2" shells or blanks, and I keep being told roll is the way forward in my gun,
If this was a good idea and safe, how would I go about it, as it looks like I'd need longer cartridges? as 65-70 is for usual length, am I going to have enough material to roll crimp after cutting off the end of the star?
as I understand it, it is not dangerous to lighten a load, it is making it heavier where the problems occur. that's how americans like taofladermaus and demolition ranch were always able to safely reload their weird projectiles.