How many round to check out Aguila Shorties?

[Rich56]

Thinking of trying Aguila shorty shells for home defense. I heard that some guns have trouble cycling them. How many would you shoot before trusting them for home defense? Gun in question is late 90s 870 express

[Dreadi]

I’d trust it until it failed.


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[ChillyB]

Well now there is the problem. How confident do you want to be? Sort of confident costs maybe 50 rd. Extremely confident costs several hundred rounds. If one is testing for a failure mode that might happen once in 500 rd you need to run a couple thousand rounds to prove that you WON'T experience it.

[Rich56]

I was thinking 100 rnds. 25 loaded magazines times 4 rounds per magazine.
If I ever see them for sale again

[Scorpion8]

I don't think round-count matters, but more the conditions of the test. Load up the mag tube and trying cycling/shooting as fast as possible like you were panicking. Then load it again, put down some pillows or blankets and chuck the gun down like you dropped it, and then pick it up and cycle/shoot a full mag tube again. Be creative, and think of actual situations you might encounter. Fire the weapon and cycle it upside down? Try reloading the mag tube with shorties in a completely blacked out room, no flashlights because your hands/fingers may have muscle memory of standard shotgun shells.

[Rich56]

Scorpion8 I like you’re thinking. If the Shorties work out, if a full mag isnt enough my reload will be with full size shells.. If that’s not enough heaven help me. If the shorties don’t work, somebody is making 2” shells. I’ll try and find them. My max HD distance is about 40 ft. My go to buck sizes for indoor are #s 1 or 4

[ChillyB]

Here's a tedious and inexpensive test. Since the failure modes we're concerned for are related to getting out the empties and getting in the fulls you really only need to fire ONE round so you have an empty hull. Keep chambering that empty then testing the cycling of a fresh round. But like Scorp suggested test a LOT of variables: full tube, last round, somewhere in between. Sidewayze, pointing up, pointing down, while shaking gun vigorously (as if running), free-falling to simulate zero gravity space combat, etc. Not as fun, but should be effective. I dont think many off us question whether they'll go BOOM once they are locked in the breech.

But even this this is not life fire per se, you MUST TREAT IT AS SUCH. DO IT OUTSIDE IN A PLACE WHERE YOU'D ACTUALLY BE OK TO SQUEEZE OFF SOME SHOTS. YOU WILL BE RACKING LIVE SHELLS INTO YOUR CHAMBER.

[billt]

One of the most important features in ANY self defense weapon is reliability. You sacrifice this with these gimmick "shorty" shells. They have no advantage what so ever to standard size rounds, that your shotgun was specifically designed to use. Most of these guns require adapters, or some other contraption in order for them to work properly. Or else have to have changes made to the feeding system to work correctly, or at all.

Do you really want to risk reliability in a self defense shotgun, that you are relying on to possibly save your life, just to be able to shoot some underpowered, gimmick shotshell in it? To me that makes zero sense. Buying them to play with at the range is one thing. Using them in a life threatening situation seems like a real good way to get yourself killed. Do you see the military or law enforcement screwing around with these things? There is a very good reason for that.

[rshooter]

I have a friend that has a Mossberg 590 with a after market shell lifter and it is great. That said I have no confidence of these shells in an 870. I have tried them in three different shotguns and they jammed every time I tried to use them. I gave half a box away because I got tired of clearing them. If you are looking for reliability these shells are not where to look.

[doom720]

I would never trust this ammo with my life.

Almost every box I purchased had at least 1 squib. My most recent purchase over half the box the powder failed to ignite and I was sending slugs about 30 feet downrange on primer energy alone and watched and laughed as they hit the ground and I could walk back out and collect them.

And I have cycled them through 4 or 5 different 870s and was unable to prevent failure to feed on all of them.

I would strongly urge you to use standard 2-3/4" length shells for HD.