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ACTIV Industries All Plastic Shells

12K views 40 replies 21 participants last post by  Burnt Powder 
#1 ·
Just wondering if anyone knows who bought them out and some way of contacting them or any info about the original owners and or inventors.
 
#2 ·
Kent bought them out, or bought the factory/equipment. I would suggest getting ahold of them, surely some old salt is still around that knows the beginning.

I know I see some of the same names on the exec listings that were with Activ.

They were a fine shell, new or reloaded, I shot them many years without issue.

TT
 
#3 ·
I have never seen one of these hulls before, but have heard of them. Perhaps they never made it to the Canadian market..

It would be nice to have one for my hull collection! :)

I have one odd one called PLASTIK with Sellier-Bellot printed on it. I have never found any info on these, as to where they come from etc.. Any one ever heard of them?
 
#4 ·
12GA guy said:
I have never seen one of these hulls before, but have heard of them. Perhaps they never made it to the Canadian market..

It would be nice to have one for my hull collection! :)

I have one odd one called PLASTIK with Sellier-Bellot printed on it. I have never found any info on these, as to where they come from etc.. Any one ever heard of them?



PM me your address and I'll send you one of mine. (Can I mail this to Canada from the US with a live primer?)
 
#5 ·
I think it would be easier if I send him one.

Send me an e-mail with the pertinant info and I'll get it to you..

Yes they did make the Canadian market, I have about 90 new, unfired hulls and a box of 3" 12ga slugs.

RePete.
 
#6 ·
That is a very different looking hull! :shock: Plastic base.hmm I wonder why the other manufacturers didn't pick up on this? You would think the cost would be less to make, and there would be less steps in the production. Can you actually reload these hulls? How do they go through the sizing die?

Thanks for the picture Alf, and the offer of one for my collection! :D I imagine that an empty de-primed hull would not be a problem to mail, but it would probably be easier for RePete to mail one, with him being in Canada and all.

That would be great RePete, I'll email you! :D
 
#7 ·
That is a very different looking hull! :shock: Plastic base.hmm I wonder why the other manufacturers didn't pick up on this? You would think the cost would be less to make, and there would be less steps in the production. Can you actually reload these hulls? How do they go through the sizing die?

Thanks for the picture Alf, and the offer of one for my collection! :D I imagine that an empty de-primed hull would not be a problem to mail, but it would probably be easier for RePete to mail one, with him being in Canada and all.

That would be great RePete, I'll email you! :D
 
#8 ·
That is a very different looking hull! :shock: Plastic base.hmm I wonder why the other manufacturers didn't pick up on this? You would think the cost would be less to make, and there would be less steps in the production. Can you actually reload these hulls? How do they go through the sizing die?

Thanks for the picture Alf, and the offer of one for my collection! :D I imagine that an empty de-primed hull would not be a problem to mail, but it would probably be easier for RePete to mail one, with him being in Canada and all.

That would be great RePete, I'll email you! :D

Well it said repete! :D

I am darned if I can figure out how to delete multiple posts like this. Anyone?
 
#9 ·
12GA guy said:
That is a very different looking hull! :shock: Plastic base.hmm I wonder why the other manufacturers didn't pick up on this? You would think the cost would be less to make, and there would be less steps in the production. Can you actually reload these hulls? How do they go through the sizing die?

Thanks for the picture Alf, and the offer of one for my collection! :D I imagine that an empty de-primed hull would not be a problem to mail, but it would probably be easier for RePete to mail one, with him being in Canada and all.

That would be great RePete, I'll email you! :D
Yes, I ran them through a MEC 9000G with no problem. I could get 6-8 reloads out of them. They worked great for make big loads for trap games like protections or annie-oakleys.

The biggest problem with these is that when they finally wore out the hull would seperate from the bottom about 1/2" from the base end (see the transition where the hull appears to be a little bigger?) I always shot them through a O/U so when it broke, the extractor would just pop the base end off and I'd be left with the hull stuck in the barrel. And of course you couldn't just pluck it out with your fingers. I finally found a socket that was just under the size of the barrel and I could send it down from the muzzle end to force it out. A real PITA when i was on the trap line.
 
#13 ·
and also a few of the Actives that have a BRASS head.
The very last few of the Activs we got used a metal base, if I was to guess I would say this happened when Kent had actually bought the plant, but was using up the remaining tube stock and we didn't know it.. At that time I was thinking it was a last ditch effort by Activ to gain acceptance by the public.

TT
 
#14 ·
The Activ hulls with the metal base are just Cheddite hulls. I have several hundred brand new primed ones in 20 ga. I have a very few 12 ga ones too, not sure if they are Cheddite or not, they look similar.

BP
 
#15 ·
Dear 12 Ga. guy,

The Activ's you are looking at on here are not really all plastic. They have a thin steel washer embedded in the rim.

The original Activ shell when introduced really was all plastic but resulted in many complaints about failure to extract and eject especially in automatics and pumps. A portion of the plastic rim would just tear right off. Activ went back to the drawing board and after a long delay came back out with the internally reinforced embedded steel washer rim. This design was much more user friendly and sucessful.

Cost wise, injection molding is not as cheap as extruding a tube and assembling into a 3 piece hull.
 
#17 ·
I have a sack of 12ga activs in my garage that I tinker with from time to time. I'm not sure how many loads they've been through but I've never had one seperate on me. I've got some used ones with over ten loads on them that are still going.
 
#21 ·
Possibly is a Wanda, made in Houston (may have been imported into Houston?) in the late '60's and/or early '70's...not sure though...the eclipse part I don't remember, but I used to have some Wanda all plastic, green, transparent hulls, and I can't seem to remember what the headstamp was??? Maybe someone else could refute or corroborate.
-Slim
 
#22 ·
Thanks for the reply Panhandle Slim,Wanda was my first thought too.I know that several other companies including Herter's experimented with all plastic cases in the late sixties and early seventies.After searching the internet I found that Eclipse Cartridge Co. made plastic and all brass shotshells in Venezuala from 1980 to 1985.The company was bought by CAVIM in 1985 which as far as i know still produces brass and ammo for the military.Thanks again for the input.
 
#26 ·
Two weekends ago I threw away maybe a hundred or so 16ga Activ hulls.
I never liked them, or I should say, my guns never liked them. I loaded some in a Browning Citori, and it hated them, my 16's didn't like them either. Not sure why.

I liked the hull, re-loaded nicely, crimped ok etc, just my guns never patterened them well.
 
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