The first copy of the compression formed AA was the Peters Blue Magic. They didn't get it quite right, those blue shells were known for burn through and separation in the chamber area after a few reloads. The AA served very well for decades until WW in their infinite wisdom discontinued it and started putting a 2-piece hull in the AA boxes with a snazzy new 'high strength' moniker as if the old hull was somehow inferior. Pure corporate bullshit.
The early AA HS got a bad reputation for basewad separation when loaded in some reloading machines that did not support the inside of the shell when repriming. It was blamed for several barrel bursts fairly or not. Winchester did fix that and I'm not aware of any recent safety problems with the AA HS. It does have less interior volume than the old AA in spite of the reloading manuals that claim the 2 cases can be loaded with the same data. Winchester was too lazy and cheap to reshoot all the data and simply claim 'close enough'. The pressures can't possibly be identical. The AA HS is a pain in the ass to load because they are all different lengths depending on when and where they were made.
As far as wads, Jimmy has it right except that the AA HS takes a taper hull wad. The reloading books have all kinds of recipes that are anywhere from impractical, impossible to load due to stack height, or just plain silly. You will find the manuals ignore the bit about taper or straight wall to a large extent and encourage you to use the wrong wads. They are wrong because of powder migration issues and case bulging when seating. As an example, the 12S0 is inappropriate for the AA HS but loads are published so it must be OK right? Just because you can get five shells assembled in the lab to run through a pressure gun does not make a load usable to a shooter.
My basic rule is use a taper hull wad (AA or clone, Remington STS or clone) in the AA and Remington hulls. Use a Federal style wad in the Federal hulls or euro hulls or the US made promo load hulls. Note the stupid new Federal High Overall is simply a rebadged STS. See how easy this is to keep track of?
FYI: A 'Reifenhauser' tube is just another name for a straight wall hull. It's named after the guy who figured out how to work harden plastic thus making plastic shotshells possible.
Last edited by Shotgunjones; 05/17/24 09:01 AM. Reason: historical accuracy
