How to make a Shotshell Handle Shotgun Rod

It gets cold in the Midwest, and trapshooting really slows down from November through March. Many of you will be spending some time in your reloading room, getting enough shotshells reloaded for the next shooting season. But there are other ways you can fight off the mid-winter doldrums, and this article will detail how to make a shotshell handle shotgun rod.

 

The materials needed are already in your home or your nearest hardware store. You will need:

 

An empty hull

A reloading press

A 5/8th inch wood dowel

A 3/8th inch wood dowel

A one inch Tea Cup Hook

Elmer’s wood glue and/or Gorilla glue

A drill with 5/8th, 3/8th and 9/64th inch bits

A Hoppe's Handgun and Rifle Conversion Thread Adapter Converts Outers Rods to 8 x 32 Thread (Midwayusa.com product #    847103)

Begin by cutting the 5/8th inch dowel to a length that will easily fit inside your shotshell and allow your reloading press to provide a good crimp. For my project, I found that a MEC 9000 press with Remington STS hulls required the dowel to be about 1.75 inches long.

 

Drill a 3/8th inch hole about 1.5 inches down the center of the dowel. Hitting the center of a dowel with a drill is rather difficult, so take some time and care doing this. The better the hole is centered, the less tilt there will be to your shotshell handle when completed.  I tried various methods to reliably center the 3/8th inch hole, and finally decided that it was best to mark the center by eye with a pencil, drill a pilot hole, then drill the 3/8th inch hole on my drill press. I have nicknamed the 5/8th inch dowel with a centered 3/8th inch hole the “dowel wad.”

 

De-prime your empty hull. Now place the “dowel wad” into the shotshell with the hole facing up. Run the shotshell with the “dowel wad” through your pre-crimp and crimp station, but not the final taper station. Your shotshell should now have a beautiful crimp enclosing the dowel wad.

 

Go back to your drill, and drill a 3/8th inch hole through the crimp to expose the hole in the “dowel wad.” I hold the shotshell by hand, and when drilling out the crimp using the slowest setting on the drill press, it tends to find the center of the dowel wad as you drill through the crimp. It should look something like the photo on the right. If your crimp is messed up, run it through your crimp station again.

 

Your 3/8th inch dowel should now fit into the shotshell. Decide what length of rod you want and cut it about 1.5 inches longer. I prefer 36 to 37 inches for a barrel rod and 3 inches for a chamber brush rod. Go ahead and put the 3/8th inch dowel in the shotshell. Don’t be surprised if the “dowel wad” cracks and splits a little. Once you are certain your 3/8th inch dowel fits in, you can fill up the hole in the “dowel wad” with glue. The glue will take care of any cracks or splits in the dowel wad. I prefer Elmer’s glue for this stage. Insert the 3/8th inch dowel, and let sit for the recommended time on your glue bottle. Then put some glue in the primer hole and screw in the tea cup hook through the primer hole so you can hang up your rod. Sand, stain, and finish the dowel protruding from the shotshell handle to your own preference. I liked using an oak stain followed by 3 coats of spar urethane. If you stop here, you have a very fancy “reload” to hang up by your trap field for your other reloads that , well, are less than you expected. If your gun goes Pffft rather than Bang!, your new shotshell handle rammer stick will be there for you.

 

For a shotgun cleaning rod, I drill a 9/64th inch hole in the end of the 3/8th inch dowel, drip in a few drops of Gorilla glue, and screw in the Hoppes shotgun brush adapter.