Fix for PW 800B wad insert problem

Started a reloading session with once fired Nitro hulls. Load was 9/8 oz with WAA wads.
More than 30% of inserted wads were cocked, had to cut off exposed petals to cycle the lever.

Shifted to WT12 wads, 15% of inserted wads were also cocked with exposed petals.
Tried all the suggested fixes in the owners manual. Problem never happened with straight wall hulls.

Gave serious thought to shipping the machine to Idaho for repair, or replacing with a new Spolar Gold.

Then the Bright Idea light bulb lit and I put a BPI hull skiver in the hand held drill and lightly touched 10 hulls. That removed the sharp edged crimp folds and changed the overall mouth shape to almost round. Now all hulls get that fix and 200+ reloads later with no cocked wads. Finished reload has the same crimp appearance as new rounds and prior reloads.

Now I skive 50 hulls at a time, nice change of pace while reloading.

 

Did you check your wad finger guides for any broke off pieces?

 

what Stu said.

 

I have 2 of these old monsters bolted down to the bench. One is the original 1978 model so I have seen just about everything these things can think of to ruin your day. Like they have a mind of their own sometimes.

First thing I thought was the same as the 2 guys above, broken fingers. But when I reread your post one line hit me

"Problem never happened with straight wall hulls."

IMO, and that's ALL it is, if you had a broken finger or two you would have the same problem no matter the case type.

Take some pictures if you can of the process as you load a few. Hate to ask you to put cases in there that you haven't prepped but it it might help if we saw what the screwed up wad looked like.

Now, if you like prepping those case by all means do NOT do anything just to show us. That black bugger can do things all on it's own without you teasing it.

Good luck.

BTW, like that" 9/8 oz" measurement. Never saw or heard anyone describe 1-1/8 oz in that way.
Or did you mean to type 7/8

 

Update.

1,000+ reloads since I started each reloading session by skiving all hulls. My BP hull skiver wore down it’s abrasive surface, so I touched it up with pliers.
Not 1 cocked wad upon insert.
Hope this doesn’t start a hoarding run on BP skivers, like toilet paper.

 

I had a very similar problem with my PW 800+. Wad would catch on the top edge of the hull about every 30 to 40 shells (and sometimes more frequently). Drove me crazy! I replaced the wad guide fingers even though they looked fine, no help. Tried adjusting the wad ram, no help. Went to Whiz White's website and found the info that completely solved the problem! I loosened all the bolts and set screws holding the vertical support bar that the swing out wad guide rides on and rotated the support bar about a 1/16 of an inch counterclockwise. Tightened all the bolts and set screws back up and I've loaded about 10,000 rounds since then without a single wad catching the hull. It was such a simple fix but I just didn't realize those support bars could rotate. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the input.
I found that fix in an old owner manual, and it did not eliminate the problem.

I should have described the wad base on the cocked wads. They had an indent on the edge, looked like pressed on a V shaped edge.

My guess is the unshived hulls would allow the original crimp to push through the guide fingers and catch on the wad as it was inserted. That caused the wad to have the indentation and seat cocked.

Spolar has an accessory that clamps on the powder drop tube that spreads the crimp and eliminates the problem. Too bad it will not fit on a PW, the powder empty tube is too close to the primer seat rod.

After the current batch of skived hulls have been fired, I will reload 100 of them, without skiving again, and report the results.

 

They PW does have expanders.

 

Try Hornady white guide fingers that’s what PW told me years ago and it worked !

 

Installed the PW hull mouth expander.
Problem SOLVED!
Have a well worn BPI sliver, think I’ll cast it in a clear resin for a paper weight.

 

Years ago I had problems with the primer knock out pin becoming magnetized, somehow, and it would pull the old primer
back into the hull and causing all kinds of issues. I had a piece of good non-magnetic stainless roundbar in the shop so I
made a primer knockout out of it. I had problems with wads catching on the lip of the hulls too so I cut a taper on
the new part so the hull is expanded a bit and the wads insert easier.

 

Remington hulls are noted for varying lengths. All it takes is a batch of overly long ones to create havoc in a PW. You probably got lucky and your new batch of hulls were a bit shorter. Instant fix!

 

I believe P/W also have a similar device.....it may not appear on their website, so call them and speak to Wayne./

 

Please excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by skiving?

 

Get a PW Case mouth flaring tool, 12 ga. $11 from this site
Jim's Ear N Eye - Products for the shotgun shooter

 

An abrasive cone is spun inside the hull mouth to remove a small amount of material. Results in a more rounded mouth with a slight chamfer, which eases wad seating and helps with consistent crimps. Can extend life of hull.

 

Case mouth expander was just what I needed. As the cases were loaded more times the worse the problem. Now I load those “last round up” hulls that the case mouth are quite closed.

 

MY solution is THE Final Solution ................................................................................

Get a PW Case mouth flaring tool, 12 ga. $11 from this site
Jim's Ear N Eye - Products for the shotgun shooter,

Picture of mine installed