Nearly 68 y/o, hunting for almost 60 of those years, and never heard of this cut and wax. Very interesting. I watched this video and was amazed. I am definitely going to try this. Lots of time on my hands. I noticed that he only used what we call low brass shells. I wonder what difference the makes. All my shot shells are high brass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3M46XVfVOU
High brass/Low brass makes little difference. It likely is more important what the wadding inside is, and the dram equivalent.
If I were to experiment, I would buy cheap shotgun shells to experiment with.
I love Iraqveteran8888's videos he covers a lot of other interesting and valuable subjects as well. We have had some correspondence on occasion. I am very glad that this “cut shell” video has been brought to my attention. It looks like something interesting to look into. The video has over 1.7 million views and a follow up video which has some clarification and cautions has nearly 300,000 views.
I have a number of slug molds and various sized round ball molds from smaller buck up to balls that are as large as you can fit into 12 and also 20 gauge cartridges. Although I stick to mostly pistol and rifle ammunition... reloading is a source of almost endless fascination for me.
As someone a little more than vaguely familiar with shotgun shell assembly and construction... it appears that the outer shell is being cut in the middle of the wadding assembly being careful not to cut the inner shaft of the wad. So the cut is above the powder charge and just below the shot.
Wadding varies depending both on the type of shell you are using and the manufacturer. Birdshot is constructed far differently than buck as are different lengths and “magnum loads”. I have an assortment of wadding material.
But back to your question... I personally would dissect whatever type of shell that I was contemplating doing this with ahead of time to see exactly where the cut should be made. Then I would verify that the shell that I was trying this with was identical in every way to the one that I had dissected. Whether the shell is “low brass” or “high brass” doesn't give any guarantee how the shell is constructed. The shell must be disassembled to find out for sure.
There are limitations to this procedure... First after you compromise the integrity of the outer shell you obviously cannot expect them to hold up in any kind of magazine. Each will need to be placed by hand into the firing chamber no matter what type of gun you are using. Second and more seriously if there is ANY TYPE OF CHOKE OR RESTRICTION OR NARROWING at the end of your shotgun's barrel it would seem that there is a very real danger of over-pressurization and blowing up your gun. In the second video it is mentioned that the some of the shells being used have the lightest charges available.
It might have been better if it had been mentioned in the first video that... the pointy end of the barrel of a shotgun is almost always smaller in diameter than the end closest to the operator. Shotguns are not designed for a projectile the same diameter as the shell to go through the end of the barrel.
So I love the video. I love shooting stuff with shotguns. In the first video it is mentioned that people have been using this “procedure” for the last 90 years apparently without a lot of gun failures. I will still approach this with a great deal of caution and make sure that I am using a shell with a light charge, make sure that my gun has the widest possible choke, make sure that I am wearing some type of safety gear, and I won't be using a gun that has a lot of value to me.