October 18th, 2016

How Plastic Shotshells Are Made

federal premium shotshell
Ever wonder how shotshells are manufactured? Here’s a step-by-step trip through the shotshell production process, courtesy Federal Premium. Hulls are created from plastic pellets, of various colors, depending on shotshell type and gauge. Starting with pellets, here’s how shotshells are made:

Step 1: Plastic pellets are melted down into a plastic tube.

federal shot shell

Step 2: In the extruding process the tube is heated, stretched, and cooled to form the hull. The machine that does this is called the “Riefenhauser” after the German engineer who built the first model.

federal shot shell shotgun

Step 3: Hulls are cut to length as they come off the Riefenhauser. They then move along to the next stage in the process.

federal shot shell shotgun

Step 4: The case head is stamped out of sheets of metal (brass or steel depending on shell type). A series of strikes of the stamp produces a fully-formed case head with flash-hole.

federal shot shell shotgun

Step 5: The hulls move to the primer insert and heading machine to get primers and case heads.

federal shot shell shotgun

Step 6: Still untouched by human hands, the shell moves on to the loader where it gets its powder charge, shot wad, and pellets.

federal shot shell shotgun

Step 7: The hulls are then crimped, labeled, and readied for inspection and packing.

federal shot shell shotgun

Story tip from EdLongrange. We welcome reader submissions.