Best Shell for Skeet

doomed28g said:
Not sure about top gun/federal hulls for 28g but challenger hulls last for many reloads. I would guess the same is true for 12/20. I wouldn't reload federal top guns, they are super thin and super voluminous. As far as I can tell (unless it's changed) challenger actually used brass and top guns used steel. Cheaper quality, cheaper price. Depending where you buy too... often local stores have had challenger cheaper.
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I've never seen a brass based Challenger hull even back in the 80's including the shells they manufactured for Canadian Tire under the Mastercraft name back then too. The only brass based hulls today that I am aware of are Winchester AA's, Federal HOA/Gold Medals and Remington STS/Nitros. Anything else I've come across can be picked up off the ground with a magnet.
 
I would agree with you BB but this year I tried some of there 1 1/8 12 g 3" they were better than anything that they have had in the past imho.and worked well on geese. Perhaps they are improving their product ,now that's a novel idea in these times.:)
 
the spank said:
The only brass based hulls today that I am aware of are Winchester AA's, Federal HOA/Gold Medals and Remington STS/Nitros. Anything else I've come across can be picked up off the ground with a magnet.
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We use magnetic sticks to pick up hulls at our range. They will still pick up those hulls you mentioned but not as well as they only have the little bit of steel in the primer to hold. Pretty sure they are rare earth magnets as I doubt that a regular magnet would pick up a hull just by the primer.
 
brybenn said:
Rio makes a good shell. Score ammo has proven to be the dirtiest and least consistent shell I've ever used. Only consistent aspect of score ammo is poor patterns. Doesn't matter if its steel waterfowl loads for trap loads or feild loads.
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I don't know what you are using for their ammo but the stuff I get is the complete opposite of what you are having. My barrels are clean as a whistle. There is little build up of unburned powder in the trigger assembly from blowback during cycling and the stuff hits hard and patterns great.
 
the spank said:
I don't know what you are using for their ammo but the stuff I get is the complete opposite of what you are having. My barrels are clean as a whistle. There is little build up of unburned powder in the trigger assembly from blowback during cycling and the stuff hits hard and patterns great.
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I can live with dirty powder but the patterns at 21 yards had 8" holes with ic chokes in 2 of my berettas with ochp barrels. Worse with my beretta 303 mod choked barrel and completely shape shifting with all of the doubles i patterned with. My skeet scores dropped because of that ammo and their waterfowl steel loads were worse. Huge swings in velocity as well

Maybe they've changed in the last 2 years but ill pay more for better ammo
 
brybenn said:
Rio makes a good shell. Score ammo has proven to be the dirtiest and least consistent shell I've ever used. Only consistent aspect of score ammo is poor patterns. Doesn't matter if its steel waterfowl loads for trap loads or feild loads.
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Defiantly not my experience with score ammo, we shot 3 pallet's of score target loads bought through the SATA last year and never heard anyone complaining about them being dirty or having poor patterns. In fact the guy from Moose Jaw that won the handicap at the grand in sparta last summer shoots score ammo all the time, I shoot with him all summer.
 
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reddog said:
We have been discussing this at our club. Since Sellier and Bellot bought them out in 2021 there has been a definite shift in production and distribution. We have been told that the Rio shells we are getting in Canada are from Europe and the ones from Texas are exclusively for the US market. I cannot verify any of this but it makes for great conversation. Could be a Tariff thing or US shipping policies or nothing. I have found the 1250 Rio to be a great shell and would put it up against Winchester AA or clever T2 my .02
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The flats of Rio Star team training 24 grams #9 I bought from 2022 to 2024 have the case imprinted with product of Spain.
While the flats of 20 ga 7/8 oz targets loads were marked loaded in Marshall Tx.
It might depend of the shell type makes sense that the Euro 24 & 28 Gram shells would be loaded in Spain
 
By my understanding Rio is a subsidiary of the Spanish co Maxam, Rio prodives all the raw materials to a factory in Marshall Texas which loads the ammo, I have shot lots of the 1oz Rio shells and find nothing wrong with them, the 1 1/8 oz @ 1200 or 1250 are to thumpy for me, I'm an old wooss and don't shoot much over 1 oz loads anymore, if I do they are 1 1/8 oz @ 1145 a couple years ago there were some good deals on Rio here in Canada and we bought 50 flats but the last couple years they have been $20+ / flat higher than Top Guns or Super Targets.
 
Further to the Rio story we are getting the shells from Spain and the plant is ISO 9000 compliant which means they have to pass some rigorous performance test during manufacture. I cannot find fault with these at all except yes they are a bit bumpy but no more than any 1250 fps handicap shell. I'm sure with the nonsense going on in the sands of the Middle east we will be scrambling to find shells again.:(
 
Truthfully, if using a 12 gauge, it would take a pretty crappy shotshell to have holes in the pattern large enough to fit a clay target through at skeet ranges. A couple of our club members make some of their own shot, and let's just say, the quality is not at all close to where factory shot is, yet those loads seem to break targets just fine. Now if you are shooting a 410, better quality loads are definitely an advantage. Even then, I shot many clean rounds with Estate 410 factory loads, which are definitely not high end loads.
 
Our club bought a bulk purchase from MDCharlton last year. Two different loads. One a 24gr and the other the 1250 1 1/8oz. Only complaint was “We should have bought more” I bought fifty cases and should have bought more. I love the 24gram training load. I think we bought $35k or around there.
 
Shot skeet for decades, everyone loaded their own shells in those years. Components were cheap and plentiful in those days, Winchester AA compression formed hulls gave the best milage and everyone used #9 shot, no one but no one used 7.5. You want every pellet you can, if extra hard #9 ( more antimony ) was available we saved that for club or registered shoots.
Haven’t shot much skeet since sporting clays hit Ontario, before that a few of us from the Orillia Club would travel every few weeks down to the Rochester Brooks club south of Rochester NY by Henrietta to shoot sporting clays. We all loaded #8’s for clays.
I only shoot clays casually now, buy my shells by the flats. Score, Challenger, Federal, Remington, what ever I can get cheap. Reloading components are not cheap and hard to get, gave that up years ago.
RECÀP…… #9’s for skeet….. #8 or # 7.5. For clays depending on presentation….. #7.5’s for trap
 
We have a supplier trying to sell us Clever target loads for $125/flat which is about $2-3 less than any other load a available locally. None of us are familiar with Clever, so I am not sure how many of us will be placing an order.
 
You guys out west have it tough Remington Gun Gun and Federal Top Gun in 12 and 20 gauge can be had retail for $124.95 in southern Ontario
 
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Nothing wrong with Clevers. The place that I buy my shells used to sell a ton of them. The distributor jumped the price over to what Challengers and Gun Clubs were selling for, so the store owner told the distributor to go fly a kite.
 
stubblejumper said:
Everything here is $150/flat or more, unless you find a sale.
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That along with the price of targets that use to cost $10 a box now $40 the game has taken real kick in the butt. I give you guys credit for hanging in there and keeping the sport alive not a easy task nowdays,
 
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stubblejumper said:
We have a supplier trying to sell us Clever target loads for $125/flat which is about $2-3 less than any other load a available locally. None of us are familiar with Clever, so I am not sure how many of us will be placing an order.
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We have shot a lot of clever's the group from Kindersley that I shoot with bought 100 flats last year, can't really say they are better or worse than top gun or super target but the one thing I did notice is that they tend to smoke when fired, when you get a full squad shooting them on a calm day it hangs in the air and the burned powder stinks, but they do break targets.
 
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