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Good trip to Dunham's yesterday
badchris
Member Posts: 1,670 ✭✭✭
I've been wanting to try out some of those mini 12ga shot shells, so I started calling around to a couple shops to see if any were in stock. No luck except Dunham's, they only had 1 box of the #8 shot but had my heart set on the #4 buckshot loads. Figured something was better than nothing so I drive out and buy them. When I get home, I open up the box and to my great surprise, they are all stamped "4B"!! Ran back out and bought a powerball ticket 😀
Enemies of armed self-defense focus on the gun. They ignore the person protected with that gun.
Comments
I have looked at those from time to time. Will they feed without some type of adapter in a Pump shotgun ??
@William81 yes they will, or they did in at least the three or four different ones I've tried. Good way to up your mag capacity without adding an extension. Bob
Do they still work upside down?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
From what I've read the mini shells are hit & miss for cycling in a pump/semi auto shotgun unless an adaptor is used (OPSol mini clip). I bought these shells for a break action so I'm not worried about that (but I will try them in my pump guns when I get to the range).
Why yes, yes they will !!!! ,,,,, 🤣
Ugh, now I'm getting the joke. Thanks for flipping it!
Finally got some free time to hit the range yesterday and play with the mini shells. Called up a friend to help test them out in a few different platforms. We had a Mossberg shockwave, 500 pump, 590 pump, (had a 930 semi auto too but ran out of shells), and a break action Stevens 301. The Federal Shorty Shells were #4 and #8 loads.
As expected, the single shot loved them, but cycling in the pump actions created some issues. The shell has room to flip backwards inside the receiver on the elevator and try to load the brass end first. Another issue is the shell will want to dangle through the elevator with the crimp end hanging out. I might try to post up a photo or two if I can get them correct 😑. My friend had one of those mini shell adaptors and when installed the minis ran through the shotguns just like regular length so I'd say that device is worth the $$ if you plan to use them in anything other than a break action.
Recoil wise, the #8 mini comparred to a 2.75" #8 was maybe a 30% reduction felt in the shoulder. Where they really shined for recoil mitigation was in the shockwave. We started shooting 2.75" slugs, which was quite uncomfortable by the way haha, snapped in the adapter plug, and switched to the minis. Capacity went up to 10+1 if I remember correctly and I can't remember what he said standard capacity is in the gun. It really took the recoil out of that little thing. Something else I noticed that is worth mentioning, neither one of us could really feel a recoil difference between the #4 & #8 shells and both were about the same noise level (which is noticably reduced comparred to 2.75").
Was a bit on the windy side so didn't get much of a chance to compare patterning, so I just set up a bunch of bowling pins at 20-30 yard distances and we were knocking them over with minis just as easy as the standard length shells. I did set up a couple pieces of cardboard and tried the minis at 10-15 feet and all I can say is that I would not hesitate at all to use them for self defense.
Thank for the update.... I will look into one of those adapters and some Mini's to try them out myself !