doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Today's Find

Shot one round of Skeet at the club this morning and then there were no other skeet shooters around. So, thought I'd drive down and get my 2014-15 hunting license. Of course while they had the Big Game pamphlet the Upland Game and Waterfowl pamphlet hasn't been distributed yet. Likewise no Federal Duck Stamps!!

But in perusing the rest of the store my eyes fell upon two flats and three boxes of Remington STS .410-bore Skeet Loads!! First time in about four years I've seen any STS loads in anything but 12-gauge!! The only .410s I've been able to buy lately have been AA HSs or Fiochi. Is Remington ammunition beginning to flow again?

It's not hard to find here (LA) but the cost is at least $1/box higher and reload life is very short. Same story on 28 &20, the STS 12 is great to reload but like the others at least a dollar higher.

bill

I picked up several. Always try the Post 1st.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

I get great reloads from both the 12- and 20-gauge Remington Priemier STS hulls and great case life.

The .410-bore Remington Premier STS hull is the only .410-bore hull I've ever been able to get a full half ounce of shot into. Sure could never do that in the compression formed AA hull, which I'm sure is why all the half ounce bars throw light as they come from the manufacturers!! Granted case life is not great.

Nobody I know can get a good reload out of the 28-gauge Remington Premier STS hull. Most of my supply of compression formed AA hulls are between five and nine reloads.

I've seen reloaded STS 28ga hulls suffer hull separation: you end up with the brass, while the plastic hull either goes out the barrel, or occasionally gets stuck in the barrel. Never had that happen with either Win or Fed Gold Medal 28's, although I've also seen it happen with Estate 28's. The STS 28ga hulls also have a pretty short case life, not a lot of reloads. The mouth seems to split sooner than either AAHS or Fed GM. That being said, I've also seen some AAHS recently, where either the brass or the plastic splits on the first shot. Have also seen some where the brass head is split coming right out of a new box.

For less expensive shells, the Rem Gun Clubs reload extremely well in both 12 and 20.

I bought 2 flats of Winchester AA 28Ga. shells a couple years ago. There were several shells whose brass was split. Buddies said "take them back," but I didn't. I would guess there was about 1 in each box of 25.
They wouldn't go into my Parker repro is how I noticed them.

Now I am in the process of trying to get a PW reloader in 28Ga to work. Grrr!
Sam Ogle

In four and a half decades of skeet shooting I've seen the brass heads pull off a lot of both 28-gauge and .410-bore compression formed AAs. A lot more then off Remington hulls, but the compression formed AA was around a lot longer. It seems early on there were base wad problems with the AA HS. If my Wife would only hit the lottery, I'd order pallets of .410-bore and 28-gauge STSs and never reload.

What I find...

Winchester 410 AAHS is the best 410 hull ever made, which isn't saying all that much since compared to 12 and 20 gauge, 410 hulls are lousy as far as reload life. I don't see head splits on new 410 AAHS shells, but then I'm only one data point.

I use a hot load in 410 since speed kills in that gauge. I use 2400 (and bought a goodly supply last time I found it) at 1250 fps, a claybuster wad, and a full 1/2 ounce of hard #9. It fits fine.

The load works great, crimps are factory like the first load, and reload life is not all that bad at perhaps 6 cycles before case mouth splits render the case useless. They aren't pretty after two cycles, but they work. Forget a 410 automatic after the first reload.

STS 12 & 20 gauge are way, way better than anything else for reloading - the Gun Club hulls second. Gun Clubs (and the Sport Load and Black Beauties which are the same) are preferable to even AA hulls in 12 and 20. Winchester blew it when they ditched the compression formed AA for an 'improvement' (read here to cut costs).

I don't have any 28 gauge equipment, so I can't comment on that except for what I've seen on the skeet fields. Yes the 28 gauge as a whole seems to suffer many case burn throughs, like the old Peters 'Blue Magic' did. This might be mostly since people push the 28 gauge empties beyond maximum life because they cost an arm and a leg for no good reason.

I do agree on the performance of new small gauge STS shells. It's beautiful ammunition, almost too pretty to shoot, but the fired cases are mostly just trash.

I load 17 grains of HS6 in AA compression formed and STS 28. I am loading 13 grains of Alliant 410 (to much) in 410 HS for 1300 fps. The 410 load is HOT but shoots a great pattern out of my Briley ultimate ultralights with .002 choke. The patterns are exceptional for 410 skeet.

bill