WB
Modern shotshells are all plastic these days.
Friday, December 20, 2019, 10:38

You have to try hard to find old cardboard paper base hulls. The "brass" on them in only an assist to extraction and people just "expect" a hull to have "high brass" or "low brass" as it used to be for reinforcement of a paper wrapped cartridge. The paper stuff is not really good for multiple reloading but it can be done.

The plastic flexes and springs back. You can split the brass if you try but it's mostly just for looks anyway. I've seen 3rd world country guys put a 12 ga. shell in a 3/4" gas pipe and slide a 1" pipe over it with a galvanized pipe and bolt ground for a firing pin. These "slap fire" guns work just as deadly as any fine shotgun and is actually technically "safe" and able to handle the pressure. A lot of that is due to the improved integrity of the modern plastic one piece shotshell. But with all that said it will never be recommended to shoot something in a gun not originally designed for it, even if you can get away with it at least once.