Reloading Aguila Mini Shells

[Tucker 1371]

My KSG feeds mini shells great, but from what I have heard they have discontinued them because more popular shotguns like mossberg and remington don't feed them so well.

Does anyone know if it is possible to reload these and how much powder they use?

I haven't bought any reloading equipment yet but I'm looking at getting a setup when I move out of my apartment and into a house some time this summer.

[skizzums]

i have never reloaded them, but I know you will have to set-up something under the press to get the shells up high enough. and also that they will only take about 1oz of shot. data will be scarce, you'll just have to hunt the interwebs and try to compile some useful data. if you haven't reloaded at all yet, I would think you would probably need to get started on some regular shells before you go tooling around with special loads. that being said, it shouldn't be too difficult, and you would also be able to just get a hull trimmer and trim any 12ga hulls down to the size you needed, you wouldn't have to reload only the mini-shells you can find.

[Tucker 1371]

you would also be able to just get a hull trimmer and trim any 12ga hulls down to the size you needed, you wouldn't have to reload only the mini-shells you can find.

Palm meet forehead... That thought never crossed my mind. Thanks for the tips, I'll definitely start with regular shells first

[BigJimP]

The mini shells are only 1 3/4" long ( fired length ) ....vs the more typical 2 3/4" long....

To reload them, you'd have to make significant changes in a press for the height ...( they would resize and deprime in station 1 ok / but powder is going to drop too soon in station 2, ....and you'd have to find a short wad (the petals of the wad might be fine...but the plastic column in the middle of the wad is way too long ....and then your crimp stations ( crimp start,etc ...would all need adjustment ).

If you cut a hull to shorten it ....you lose the crimp / so that won't work unless you want to seal it with a cardboard card and wax....

All of which leads me to ....its a foolish idea....
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and why would you .....just reload and practice with standard 2 3/4" shells...don't make it more complicated than it needs to be, is my recommendation.

I have 50 yrs of experience reloading shotshells...and I wouldn't attempt it, even if I had a single stage press I just wanted to try it with...( if you don't resize the brass cups on the hull ...you're going to run into all kinds of feeding issues on pumps or semi-autos).
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Powder is not generic ....there are a dozen or more powders designed for shotgun use ...( and the mfg's use powders that are not generally available to us as reloaders). So you need a specific recipe, for a specific powder...Hodgdon Clays, Hodgdon International, Hodgdon Universal, Alliant Unique, etc... they're not even close to being the same....

Primers are not the same....Win 209's are different than Remington 209's, etc..

Wads are not all the same...there are some substitutions allowed from one brand to the other...but they are not universal...

not all presses resize the brass...( but you should do it -- if you want quality shells ).
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But shotshell reloading is easy ...you just need to do some reading, learn more about it...

[Deja vu]

Wow I did not know that these are no longer made. I bought a box about a month ago (I still have it) If I had known I would have bought all they had.

They do not feed well in my 870 or my 1887 lever gun but work fine in my SxS

[Tucker 1371]

I just really like them for my KSG because it feeds them as well as or better than standard shells and my capacity goes from 14+1 to 22+1. They also have very mild recoil and a little less velocity which leads me to believe the might penetrate less through drywall (albeit probably marginally so).

I have 280 rounds of slug and 00 minis so I suppose I will hang into those hulls until I can figure out a way to safely reload them.

[Dreaming100Straight]

Which would you rather have in a real world HD or combat situation; 14 + 1 shells with sufficient penetration to incapacitate a bad guy or 22 +1 with only enough punch to make them angry?

[Tucker 1371]

A 7/8ths oz slug at 1250fps is more than enough to get the job done, .45 ACP doesn't even come close to that level of muzzle energy. 00 buck is overkill in the vast majority of HD ranges so downloading it a bit actually appeals to me since I live in an apartment with roommates. The best option seems to be #1 Buck but it is impossible to find.

[AKexpat]

When I was a kid (late 60's) I worked at a trap/skeet shooting range and picked up all manner of once-fired empty hulls for reloading.

My Dad had a Winchester Model 12 12 ga and always wanted to increase the mag capacity to "just one more shell".

Winchester AA/Federal field load (paper) hulls were low base height and Remington Shur Shot hulls were high base height.

We used a one-piece wad column for the Rem hull with a trimmed Win AA/Federal hull and came up with a shell that was about (IIRC) 3/8" shorter using 1 1/8 oz. loads.

It functioned well in both pump and semi-auto guns.

[skizzums]

they mini-shells have plenty of power to use for SD, don't let the small size fool you. has 7 pellets of #4 at 1230FPS, a very effective round. obviously using less shot than a standard size round, but the velocity is on par with the big boys. its a much hgher pressure round than a standard 12ga

[Tucker 1371]

After doing some research It is 7 #4 pellets and 4 #1 pellets I believe. I really like this round for HD now.