The Aguila Minishell: The Little Shotshell That Could

   08.03.eighteen

The Aguila Minishell: The Little Shotshell That Could

Who says great things can't come in small packages?

I've been itching to try the newly-reintroduced Aguila Minishells for quite some time, so after getting the lowdown on them at the 2015 National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers convention, I arranged for a trial of ii dissimilar Minishell loads: slugs and buckshot.

The "mini" role of Minishell is the key hither. These shotshells are just 1-3/4 inches tall. That'south a full inch shorter than a standard 12-gauge shotshell. Why brand a tiny shotshell? There are ii chief reasons.

Beginning, I don't know about you, but I don't particularly enjoy shooting lots of 12-guess slug and buckshot loads. They pack a wallop when it comes to recoil, noticeably more than most birdshot or clay target loads. As recoil is in direct human relationship to the weight of whatever projectile(due south) are expelled out the muzzle, a smaller and lighter load will inflict a lot less hurting on the shooter's shoulder.

How about shotgun slugs that aren't painful to shoot?
How about shotgun slugs that aren't painful to shoot?

2d, the small-scale size allows you to pack more in your gun and acquit more in reserve.

The Aguila Minishells are a full inch shorter than standard 2 3/4-inch 12-gauge shells.
The Aguila Minishells are a total inch shorter than standard 2-3/iv-inch 12-gauge shells.

Those are two pretty good reasons, provided these shells perform well enough to do the job. So what is the chore? To evaluate that question, let's take a look at the ballistics of the two loads.

The Minishell slug load packs a 7/viii-ounce lead projectile. That translates to about 383 grains, more than three times the weight of a standard 9x19mm bullet. The Minishell launches its 383-grain lead slug at one,250 anxiety per second, generating 1,328 foot-pounds of kinetic energy. That's more than energy than a standard 55-grain 5.56mm NATO rifle cartridge has at the muzzle. To compare to a full-sized slug load, the Winchester Super-X launches a i-ounce (437.five-grain) pb slug at 1,600 feet per 2nd, generating two,487 human foot-pounds of energy.

The size of the slug is still nothing to sneeze at.
The size of the slug is still nothing to sneeze at.

The Minishell buckshot load packs 5/viii-ounces of buckshot pellets and moves them at 1,250 feet per second. That translates to 273.4 grains of pb going downrange, generating 948 foot-pounds of energy. That's nonetheless more projectile weight than ii 9x19mm bullets or a single, fat .45 ACP projectile, and the energy level easily exceeds double the corporeality of most standard handgun cartridges.

Aguila crams 11 pellets into one of these tiny buckshot loads.
Aguila crams 11 pellets into one of these tiny buckshot loads.

So what can you practice with these Minishells? Certainly the slug load has enough oomph for hunting, provided you keep to shorter ranges. At its slower 1,250 fps speed, the slug will drop pretty speedily and bleed off energy rapidly, and so go on to closer targets. Personally, I call up both slug and buckshot loads would make great home-defence force options. The ballistics are very favorable when compared to handgun rounds, but the real do good is the ease of aim with a long gun and the exceptionally lite recoil. Firing these from a standard shotgun is actually pleasurable. Out of habit, I braced myself for the offset slug shot, but every bit it turned out, that was completely unnecessary. Recoil was closer to that of a .22 LR rifle than whatever shotshell load I've e'er fired.

I tried these in a Beretta 1301 Tactical semi-automatic shotgun. As expected, the small shells wouldn't feed, but then again, they're not supposed to.
I tried these in a Beretta 1301 Tactical semiautomatic shotgun. Every bit expected, the small shells wouldn't feed, simply and then once more, they're not supposed to.

It's important to note what the Minishells won't exercise. Given their depression projectile weight and lower velocity levels, they're not designed to role in semiautomatic shotguns. Instead, they're designed for break-open and pump designs. While you can fire unmarried shots from a semiautomatic, there'due south not enough free energy to bicycle the action.  That's the price of higher magazine capacity and exceptionally low recoil.

Merely for kicks, I tried them in a Beretta 1301 Tactical semiautomatic shotgun and constitute the unmarried-shot limitation to be truthful. There simply wasn't plenty juice to drive the commodities all the way back to eject the empty shell and shove a new one into place. I've heard reports of them working in some semiautos, but be aware that's non how they're intended to work. Who knows? You might simply get lucky, so it's worth a try. If you lot're going to run these in a pump gun, purchase a box for trial earlier ordering a pallet load just to brand sure they cycle happily in your detail gun.

I desire to come up back to the buckshot loads because they're particularly interesting. Rather than jam a pocket-size number of large 00 pellets into the tiny shell, Aguila includes a mixture of shot pellet sizes. The buckshot shells comprise seven smaller 4B pellets and four larger 1B pellets. As I was cutting a shell open, it appeared that the larger pellets were packed on top of the 7 smaller ones.

Curious as to how this combination would pattern, I set upward a 14-inch square target at a distance of 10 yards. I fired iii shells at the eye of the target to go a semi-scientific idea of average grouping performance. With 3 shots, a total of 33 pellets were fired consisting of 12 1Bs and 21 4Bs. When I retrieved the target, I counted 25 holes within the xiv-inch square, merely several were overlapped and then there may have been more than on the paper. If you lot plan to effort these for abode-defense use, simply be aware of the wide patterning. That can certainly be a do good at short indoor distances, just know that the shot pellets will spread out quickly.

A target peppered with three buckshot Minishells at 10-yards range.
A target peppered with three buckshot Minishells at 10 yards.

All in all, these are some pretty nifty shells. You tin can get much of the do good of shotgun slugs and buckshot without the penalisation of total-size and full-ability loads.

Tom McHale is the author of theInsanely Practical Guides volume series that guides new and experienced shooters alike in a fun, outgoing, and practical mode. His books are available in print and eBook format on Amazon.

Avatar Author ID 361 - 288413806

Tom McHale

Tom is the primary writer of the Insanely Applied Guides serial of how-to books. He believes that shooting can be prophylactic and fun, and works hard to brand the shooting world easy to understand. If you want to learn about the world of guns, shooting and the American way, bank check out some of his books. Accept a express joy or ii. Life is also brusk for wearisome "how to" books. You tin can find impress and ebook versions at Amazon. For more than information, check out InsanelyPracticalGuides.com Feel gratis to visit Tom at his website, MyGunCulture.com. It's a one-half-cocked but right on target look at the world of shooting and all things related. If you want to learn with a laugh about guns, shooting products, personal defence, competition, industry news and the occasional 2d Subpoena effect, visit him at that place.