All plastic shot shells

[Bullthrower338]

I was thinking of these the other day, we were talking at the clays range about the cost of shells. At the time I believe a box of 1-1/8 oz AA’s were $5, the plastic shells were about $25 a flat and you could reload a box of shells using reclaimed shot for about a buck and a quarter a box! I was ass patting and back slapping that I scored AA’s the other day for $90 a flat shipped. Times have not changed for the better guys!

 

[Bullthrower338]

The Herters shells were all plastic. Hard stuff too. No crimp. The top rim was slightly tapered inward and which held a round shoot away cap that held the load in place. Actually a very attractive shotgun shell. I reloaded a few using paper wad split in half as the cap. Worked fine if kept dry.

I bet the Herter’s catalog claimed that you didn’t actually even need to get out of bed to get your limit of quackers if you had the good sense to use their shells. They also made you lose 10 pounds, grow 2” and made you irresistible to the fairer sex. @tarbe used to work for them and I love the stories.
Recall the claims of the .401 power mag! Ner’ an animal that walked the earth wouldn’t fall over dead at the mention of one!

 

[Paul K]

I was thinking of these the other day, we were talking at the clays range about the cost of shells. At the time I believe a box of 1-1/8 oz AA’s were $5, the plastic shells were about $25 a flat and you could reload a box of shells using reclaimed shot for about a buck and a quarter a box! I was ass patting and back slapping that I scored AA’s the other day for $90 a flat shipped. Times have not changed for the better guys!

I remember when there were 20 boxes to a case of shot shells. Split a ton of shot and 30,000 wads and primers with your buddy. Shoot 8 to 10,000 registered targets a year. Man, I'm getting old. Yea, the good old days.

Paul

 

[503]

The only ones I can think of are Active shells. I have several boxes of steel, I still shoot them at geese sometimes, they work well.

Cheers

503

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I bet the Herter’s catalog claimed that you didn’t actually even need to get out of bed to get your limit of quackers if you had the good sense to use their shells. They also made you lose 10 pounds, grow 2” and made you irresistible to the fairer sex. @tarbe used to work for them and I love the stories.
Recall the claims of the .401 power mag! Ner’ an animal that walked the earth wouldn’t fall over dead at the mention of one!

Yeah, everything they made was "World famous Belgian ..." Their cast iron multi-station shotshell reloader was built to withstand the nuclear holocaust. I saved up my lawn mowing money for the entire summer to buy one and then Jostens showed up at our high school selling class rings. Like an idiot I bought one. Huge thing. Sits in my underwear drawer looking like it was made yesterday instead of 1970. Dumb. But it's 18K gold so probably worth enough today to buy a good used car. Maybe not so dumb?

 

[Doug3006]

Here’s a link with more on Active shells.

About Activ Hulls

I once had a conversation with a Winchester engineer about plastic shells. He said that Winchester tried to market them, but eventually gave up. Guys just wouldn’t buy them because of their assumption that they were weaker and couldn’t be reloaded. They’re are just as strong as shells with metal bases and can be reloaded.

Another interesting marketing story. He also said that high-brass shells are no stronger than low-brass. Either type can be loaded to whatever levels a given gauge can handle. However, nobody would buy low-brass shells for Pheasants or Turkey. They wanted power and range and everybody “knew” that high brass was the way to go.

 

[wvhunt]

Activ was located here in my home state of WV. I've shot a number of them and they always worked fine. They just never seemed to catch on though. I believe Doug3006 made a good point. Around here the good ol boys want high brass shells for maximum "killin", but the fact the brass is high doesn't mean they're necessarily magnum loads.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Yeah, if I reload high brass hulls for skeet, the safety officer has a cow. Provincial safety regs require nothing bigger than 7.5 shot and no more than 3 drams of powder (whatever that translates to in post-19th century terminology). So he sees my old A5 crapping out high base hulls and automatically assumes I'm shooting "magnum" loads. But I don't change a thing - same powder load, same shot load, same wad - and low base hulls load up and crimp just as pretty as high base. No difference in cycling, recoil, or pattern. Does not apply to paper hulls though. They do NOT load up the same as plastic hulls, high base or low base. Paper requires different design wads.

 

[F. Vaccaro]

Still have a few boxes of these Activ Nickel plated loads. Pretty effective loading for turkeys.

Technically, Activ shells are not all plastic as they use steel in a number of critical areas.

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I remember those, but it’s been years since I’ve seen one.

 

[BonUm16]

I remember those, but it’s been years since I’ve seen one.

Those were a new old stock find at a gun shop in York, PA 10 or 15 years ago. Picked a few boxes up more for novelty than need but found they pattern pretty nice out of the tight choked 12 gauges I’ve tried them in.

 

[503]

Yeah, if I reload high brass hulls for skeet, the safety officer has a cow. Provincial safety regs require nothing bigger than 7.5 shot and no more than 3 drams of powder (whatever that translates to in post-19th century terminology). So he sees my old A5 crapping out high base hulls and automatically assumes I'm shooting "magnum" loads. But I don't change a thing - same powder load, same shot load, same wad - and low base hulls load up and crimp just as pretty as high base. No difference in cycling, recoil, or pattern. Does not apply to paper hulls though. They do NOT load up the same as plastic hulls, high base or low base. Paper requires different design wads.

The guys in the red hats drive me nuts. Whenever I see them I go the other way