Estate brand shells

I see piles and piles of empty Estate boxes in the range trash. They must work good for some people.

Estate is a good brand and haven't read of any problems.. I'm not sure if the head is brass or plated steel. Many of the economy shell are plated and can be "sticky" in some guns. IIRC you picked up the used M500. They usually eat anything. Make sure the chamber is clean. This can contribute to sticking. Give it a good scrub with solvent and a 12ga brass/bronze brush.

I shoot Estates and have never had any trouble with them.

I have a friend that shoots sporting a few times a year in Michigan. At the club there were 2 shotguns ruined by Estate shells 2 weeks apart. This was the summer of 2016 , so not too recently. Cabela's took the whole shotgun shell lot back, and replaced the shotguns. Well done Cabela's, even though the shells were not their fault.

there were 2 shotguns ruined by Estate shells 2 weeks apart....

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How were they ruined ?



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MEHavey said:

How were they ruined ?



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Yeah how? If so was this a recall on a Lot# of ammo?

My buddy went through a ton of Estate brand shells over the summer on sporting clays and even loaned me a couple dozen or so with no problems whatsoever. Haven't heard about any recalls or problems.... But then; Most folks hear about those things before I do.

Odds are If there was a batch of shot shells in the last couple years that was ruining guns someone here would know about it.
Ammo recalls are widely published.

Estate shotshells were often the cheapest I could buy. I shot cases of them through a Stoeger double barrel and an old Winchester 97 with no problems in Cowboy Action competition.

Estate is part of Federal ammo company. They suck to reload, but have always shot fine as factory ammo for me.

No issues for me with Estates either. Hopefully it was just a single bum lot that got out.

Estates are either made in France by Cheddite (white box with red letters) or in MN by Federal (yellow/goldish and red box). Some folks have had issues with one but not the other. A lot of the issues seem to stem from the use of steel for the base. Taking a dowel in a cordless drill and wrapping 0000 steel wool, while using some oil, seems to polish out any tiny burrs that might be causing the issues.

It's about all I use shooting clays. Mainly because they're pretty cheap, but I don't think I've ever had a FTF or malfunction. I shoot a double, so I couldn't say about feeding issues.

I've shot 100s of them and no problems. What kind of gun? I shoot Benelli, Remington 870, and an old restored model 17....estate shells shoo fine in all of them.

Sounds like a shotgun issue not an Estate issue.

with my turkey shoot rem 1100 every once in a while I and others using auto,s get a fire ball out of the ejection port when the shell is ejected(I think its caused by unburnt grains of powder) at the shots, the shells are estates 1-1/8=#7.5,s. the club that runs the shoots used to get Remington shells (no fire ball), but last year they couldn,t get the amount they needed(over 1500 rounds a shoot for10 weeks) and went to estates. there were a few jams but I,m sure some were caused by shotguns not being cleaned properly. eastbank.

I mostly shoot Estate and Federal shot shells through my Browning BPS (whatever birdshot load is cheapest that day). Never had a single problem.

gun club sells Estate at the range
Works as well as any other shells.

my experience is, it seems to be dirty, and smells bad

i get them at wal mart, they are about 50-1.00 less than the federal and winchester game loads. i have not had any trouble putting them through my maverick 88.

Just about every pump and semi-auto has a brand of shell it doesn’t like. As an example I use Rio for dove in my SX3’s, Maxus, Affinity’s and SA-08’s. My FABARM L4S hates Rio though.

ive shot alot of estate from my mossberg 500, Rem 870, and Browning Citori. Havent had a problem yet, and they kill as well as any cheap game load i know of.
They skeet guys here seem to like them as there are always a bunch in the trash, from what ive been told the hulls dont reload well tho so they dont keep them.