Gun Craft

A simple formula governs traditional gunmaking, and it is this: Time and skill produce quality, and quality consequently is not cheap. No matter where handcrafted guns are made—England, Italy, Austria, America, wherever—the more talented the craftsmen and the more time invested at the bench, the better the final product will be and the more you will pay for it.
    It follows that this is evident to those who appreciate bespoke guns, but you wouldn’t necessarily expect the same in shotshell manufactory. The making of shotgun shells is largely an automated process nowadays (see “‘Maxamum’ Impact,” p. 54), and it is mainly raw-component costs that drive prices, right?
    RST/Classic Shotshell Co. is one of a handful of American producers of shotshells designed specifically for double guns, especially vintage guns that are ill suited for today’s crop of high-pressure, high-velocity shells that have mainly been made for repeaters and modern over/unders.
    RST’s shells are everything that typical “hot” factory loads are not. Low-pressure, low-recoil and of moderate velocity, they still get up enough speed to break targets and kill game cleanly.
    They are not, however, inexpensive. A flat (250 shells) of 2-1/2" cartridges begins at about $100 and ranges up to $150, depending on the load; 2-3/4" offerings start at $90 and range to $130; pigeon loads go from $110 to $142.
    RST uses only premium components in assembling its shotshells—primed Cheddite hulls from France, Elio Gualandi wads from Italy, Lawrence or West Coast high-antimony magnum shot, and Hodgdon and Alliant powders—so it’s natural to assume that raw-component costs plus smaller economies of scale result in prices higher than those charged by companies likes Winchester, Remington and Federal.
    But there’s more to it than this, as I discovered during a recent visit to RST’s factory, in the Endless Mountain region of northern Pennsylvania. “We like to think of RST as the small-batch bourbon producer of shotgun shells,” said production manager Dave Conklin. And Conklin, I found, was not spouting hyperbole—he spends most of each day seated in front of a BSN cartridge-loading machine carefully monitoring the loader through the various stages of production. Should anything go awry—a missing or misfed wad, for example, or a skipped powder drop—Conklin is there to stop the machine and instantly correct the problem.
    Just to the right of Conklin sits Mark Stanton, who monitors crimp quality as finished shells roll down a ramp to a box-loader, which Stanton operates by hand. A mirror behind the ramp lets Stanton observe all sides of the shells, and any he sees that do not have perfect crimps are discarded. “A perfect crimp in every shell is our goal,” Stanton said.
    RST has three automated loaders in its warehouse factory—the BSN, which handles 10-, 12-, 16- and 20-gauge production; a Cortini, which is dedicated to 28s; and a Ramba, which serves as an all-around backup. All are Italian-made to top-quality specs, but only one runs at a time and on one chosen load, with Stanton and Conklin continually manning the machine as it operates.
    The fact that RST’s quality control is labor- and time-intensive is magnified by the slow speed at which the company’s loaders operate. The BSN loads about 40 shells a minute—that’s 2,400 shells an hour, or less than 10 flats. Automated loaders at bigger factories might run at many times that speed, with many operating simultaneously. “What we lack in speed,” Conklin said, “we make up for in consistency.”
    And consistency—especially in controlling pressures—is critical in shells made for old guns, some of them barreled in pre-modern or Damascus steel. Each time a different load is set up for production, a small batch is made and then fired and tested for pressure as well as velocity. During a production run, Conklin will stop the loader and run additional pressure and velocity tests at random intervals.
    It is this insistence on consistency that has helped RST grow every year since owners Morris Baker and Alex and Jill Papp took over the business in 2004. RST was founded by George Olson Sr. and his wife, Rusty, in New Hampshire in the early 1990s as a specialty cartridge producer. It developed a cult following among shooters in the Northeast eager for the sort of American-made loads ignored by the big operators. Distribution was always sporadic, however, and after Olson’s death in 2004 it appeared RST would close its doors.
    “We loved the shells so much we bought the company,” Baker said. “Their shells were so nice and shot so sweetly I didn’t want to be without them.” Baker, a cigar-chomping ex-banker, entrepreneur and collector of vintage double guns, teamed up with friend Alex Papp and his wife, Jill, who together had run a hunting preserve in New York for 20 years.
    The new owners moved the operation to Baker’s family farm near the hamlet of Friendsville, Pennsylvania, and spent the next year setting up the factory, purchasing new equipment and replenishing stocks of components. Shotshell production resumed in spring 2006, and the firm’s cartridge lineup has expanded considerably every year since.
    At first Baker and Papp dropped almost all of the loads that could be duplicated more inexpensively by the big factories—standard 2I" target offerings, for example. But they found their niche with the short stuff: 2" 12s and 2-1/2" offerings in 12, 20, 16 and 28 gauge.
    Larger US manufacturers, in particular, have grossly neglected shooters of the 16 gauge. Their thumping, high-pressure shells are manifestly unsuitable for old double guns, and RST’s light, low-pressure 16s have become something of a company signature. Today RST offers eight 16-gauge 2-1/2" loads, including one with copper-plated shot and another with spreader wads. The company has even introduced an ultralight woodcock load with I oz of No. 10 shot for the fragile, thin-skinned birds.
    Nowadays RST lists 34 short-chambered offerings in its catalog, from 2-7/8" 10s down to 2-1/2" 28s. Baker and Papp also have reintroduced low-recoil 2-3/4" shells in 12, 20 and 28 gauge and are loading low-pressure, vintage-gun-friendly nontoxic Nice Shot in short-chambered cartridges in 10, 12, 16, 20 and 28 gauge.
    RST cartridges designed specifically for vintage guns include offerings with plastic and paper hulls; with plastic, fiber, biodegradable paper-fiber, and spreader wads; and in star-crimped and roll-crimped configurations. Varied as the RST lineup is, characteristics common to all of its vintage-gun loads are modest velocities—between 1,100 and 1,200 fps—and chamber pressures that mostly range between 5,000 and 6,000 psi. Low pressures are easy on old metal, and tamping velocities makes them soft on the shoulder.
    Sensible loads—and such a diverse offering of them—stem from the partners’ passion for double guns and for hunting and shooting with them. Baker met me at the factory door in brush pants and hunter orange (it was November grouse season), and Papp had politely informed me not to visit anytime in October: “I’ll be in the woods . . . .” Three English setters and a German wirehaired pointer stirred in the office, looking mildly annoyed that their owners were gabbing with me instead of taking them hunting. “We’re avid hunters, and we love old guns,” Papp said, “and we want to make shells for people like   us.”
    “Us” now includes live-bird pigeon shooters—unquestionably the world’s most demanding clientele for shotgun shells—for which RST is offering 10 new loads. “It’s our fastest-growing market,” Papp said. Different from the vintage-gun crowd in that they need heavier, faster loads to plant birds quickly, competition pigeon shooters have been impressed with RST’s obsessive quest for consistency. “I went to a shoot down in Texas,” Papp said, “and 80 percent of the hulls on the ground in the ring were ours. I met one guy cutting open shell after shell and counting pellets from each. He told me, ‘You’ve got good equipment and good operators.’”
    Time and skill make for producing good guns—as well as the shells to shoot in them.

Author’s Note: RST shells are available from 45 dealers in 25 states and can be purchased and shipped direct from the factory. For more information, contact RST, 570-533-1651; www.rstshells.com.

Vic Venters’ book Gun Craft: Fine Guns & Gunmakers in the 21st Century is available for $30 (plus shipping) from 800-685-7962; www.shootingsportsman books.com.