Aguila minishells

[Reddog1]

good morning
has anyone out there used these Aguila minishells in 12 ga.?
I was looking at them on the Aim site while trying to find 7.62x39 yugo.
how would this minishell be for home defence?

Jim

[mtnbkr]

I used them once in my 870 for trap just for grins. They don't cycle well in a stock 870 and they barely had enough juice to break a clay bird. Novelty factor only IMO.

Chris

[mattw]

supposedly they cycle flawlessly in a winchester 1300 defender.

All they had when i heard about these last was 8 shot 7 1/2 shot and a 1 oz. slug. none of which would be good for hd. the slug might be alright if you are not worried about it going through a couple walls and killing your little sister or your son or something, but they are very short and i wouldn't trust them for reliable cycling.

[ArmedBear]

Only in a double. Can't comment on cycling.

Remington Managed-Recoil buckshot rounds might be a better option in a Remington pump. Winchesters (except AA's which are great but expensive) make for short-shucking in my 870, or worse.

I'd assume that Winchester rounds feed well in a 1300, though.

WRT the Aguilas, I could see them having an application in CAS, if you're using a double gun with extractors. Quicker to get 'em in and out, I'd think.

[dfariswheel]

The Aquila "mini shells" were developed for use with an odd-ball Uzi-like foreign made shotgun that was imported in small numbers a few years ago.

When the gun don't make it, apparently Aquila decided to try to recoup the development and tooling costs by continuing to sell them.

"Supposedly" they will function in a Winchester 1300, but everyone I've talked to or read about says they are just too unreliable to trust for any serious HD use.

While increasing you gun's magazine capacity SOUNDS great, and they do work in single and double guns for short range hunting, they just aren't effective OR reliable enough to trust your life to.

[halvey]

Aren't they popular with the CAS crowd?

[Carl N. Brown]

I keep Aguila minishells as "snake loads" for my
single shot and double barrel shotguns.
The minishells do not feed for me in Mossberg 500
or S&W 916A fom the magazine, but that does not
prevent their use as manually loaded first loads.
Compared to .38 or .45 pistol shotshells or
even .410 they appear to be good "snake loads."

I have seen mini Aguila buckshot loads but like the
mini slugs I saw no personal use and have no
experience with them.

[ArmedBear]

Aren't they popular with the CAS crowd?

CAS forbids ejectors. Shorter shells = quicker reloads.

If you have a coach gun under the bed, then they might be worth getting for the same reason as a defense load.

[Sistema1927]

They feed fine in MY Winchester 1300. YMMV.

[JoeLansing]

I don't see much use for them in home defense for that matter. If you're worried about a powerful round getting over-penetration through walls or such just use smaller shot. I sure wouldn't want anyone shooting *reliable* 2 3/4" #4 at me inside a house. I suppose if you're a real HD geek and need a 18" barrel scattergun with a pistol grip and you don't want the recoil to hurt your wrists they might make sense, but I'd hate to sacrafice any reliability. I think the earlier post about them being good for snakes is the best use I've seen for them so far.

The opposite is true also. Good old 3+" shells. A 2 3/4" shell can get enough chamber pressure going to max out pressure limits of most guns. You get a little bit more out of a 3", but it's so little, and mostly just manufactures propaganda, that is isn't much of anything. And the more you push out the front, the more you push your shoulder. There is a point of diminishing returns. Just an old man's rantings.. - Joe

[9mmMike]

I bought some at a show once 'cause they were cute.
They break hand-tossed clays fine but they do not cycle reliably in any of my 870's.
As far as I can tell, they are a novelty only, at least for me.
Mike

[foghornl]

They don't feed well in the Maverick/Mossberg shotguns with the 'skeleton' shell lifter...tend to drop straight out the bottom of the shotty.....So, you would hear click! when you REALLY needed to hear BOOM! !

[106rr]

I tried the mini shell slug loads in my 870 and they will not easily extract. I have to bang the butt on the ground to get them out of the chamber. My buddy tried some of the mixed buck and birdshot loads. He said they make a huge pattern out of his coach gun.

[NMshooter]

Almost no payload, and almost no powder...

A waste of money.

[Hawk]

Methinks Defariswheel nailed it.

...complete with historical perspective.

[bearmgc]

They cycle just fine in my Winchester Defender and my 1300. About a 5in group at 50yds, shoot low though. So must not have much umpf behind the slug. I bought a box to try them out for HD. Decided against it. I use 00Buck