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I recently found the forum in hopes of learning more about reloading. I also enjoy your blog posts. I am a complete beginner when it comes to reloading, other than some dove loads several years back. My question to you is, could I open up some factory shells I have and add heavyweight or tungsten to create a duplex load and recrimp them? Or could this cause pressure issues? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks"
So, the answer is NO, you can't ADD tss to a commercial shell and recrimp. Adding any payload will increase pressure. However, REPLACING payload with a more dense shot, such that total volume in the hull is DECREASED, seems like it has a reasonable chance to be safe. To be clear, this meansfor example taking say a 1-1/8oz commercial steel load, removing 50 grains of steel shot and replacing it with exactly 50 grains of tss shot, then recrimping.
Yes, I THINK it would be safe pressure wise and would reduce pressure. But as with all things reloading, making any changes or deviating from recipes, you are 100% on your own to assess and accept the personal risk. I pressure test anything I intend to shoot a few of, personally. Basically, I never want someone thinking, "this dude Dave on the internet told me this was OK". I want them thinking that some unknown internet guy gave them one more opinion from which to form their own personal decision for which they accept all risk
