I've used Rio shells for sporting clays for years. Just noticed that CAC has Aguilla ammo that's several dollars cheaper. Anyone have experience with Aguilla, good or bad? Thank you

I've shot lots of Aguila 12-gauge 24g 1350. No FTF thus far and good performance on target. They are my preferred factory shell for sporting. My experience with Rio is limited to their 12-gauge 28g 1280. I found recoil with those shells to be snappier than I liked.

I've shot quite a bit of both Rio's and Aguila shells.

I like the Aguila shells from the stand point of operational performance. However, the Aguila's are quite possibly the dirtiest shells I have ever used. That said, they do break targets well, they do function well, and they are sold at a reasonable cost.

The Rios operated quite a bit cleaner for me; also broke targets and were sold at a reasonable cost.

With the lower price, something has to give. If the price is right shoot the Aguilas for a while and see if the dirtiness bugs you. If it does, move on, if not stick with them; they are a good albeit dirty shell.

I've shot multi flats of both (Aguila HDCP and Rio 1 oz. game load @ 1280 fps.)

For practice, Rio, if you can find them now since the Marshall, Texas plant was closed for manufacturing. They should not be this good for a game load, but they are.

Aguila HDCP, 1 1/8 oz, @ 1250 fps. is very close in performance to the comparable AA HDCP and I shoot the Aguila in registered shoots. The perceived recoil for Aguila seems less than the AA and it's not just my opinion but also my squadmates.

There was an extensive test done by a member of TS.com recently comparing some of the top HDCP shells both from pattern testing and hardness testing along with antimony content. The Aguila was at the top.

Presently, Derrick Mein and Cory Kruse shoot the Aguila.

And one would order a flat from where/whom?

https://cacassociatesinc.com/collections/aguila-ammo

I’ve got both. I think I would give a slight edge to Rio because they are so clean ([email protected]). However , the last time I bought shells, Aguila was $3 a flat cheaper. I didn’t hesitate. I remember when all shells seemed a bit dirty. The Aguila’s are dirtier than a lot of shells, but the [email protected] aren’t that bad. I’ll gladly shoot either.

"Presently, Derrick Mein and Cory Kruse shoot the Aguila."

Would that be because Aguila sponsors them ?

Thank you for the responses. Think I'll order a few flats on this order and see.

I will only add that trapshooter timb99 over at trapshooters.com has tested Aguila shot in a relative hardness test and found it to be hard shot. If I recall correctly just slightly softer than STS and AA. CAC has a pretty good deal on both, if you can either pick them up like I do or order enough for shipping to make sense.

I have shot at least 1,000 each of Rios and Aguila this year. I feel the breaks were slightly better with Aguila. That is unscientific opinion and worth very few grains of salt.

Probably has a lot to do with it. At least we know Aguila hasn't held them back. Even with their extreme talent they are still shooting against Digweed, Faulds, Kiebaum, Matarese and many, many other extremely talented shooters so there is at least some indication of quality.

ABSOLUTELY! However, they still seem to win major tournaments with them but YMMV.

I have experience with both shell companies. The Rios were my go to shell when I was first starting out, as they were what my local club sold. Never had a problem with them. Overall, I really liked them, especially the Rio Elites. They were also really affordable to shoot.

As far as Aguilas, they are my new favorite shells. Very low recoil, exceptional reliability (I have yet to have one not go off), and they seem to pattern very uniform throughout. I would say they break the targets just as hard as the AAs, and are almost half the price of them at $55 a flat. They pretty much feel like a Remington Nitro, just manufactured from Mexico. This makes sense as to the rumors I have heard that Remington originally built their factory in Mexico and had their engineers there before they realized it was not as economical for them and decided to sell it to the company we now know as Aguila.

At the end of the day, different shooters have different opinions and experiences with these shells. So might be worth a shot to try them side by side and then use whatever one you have the most confidence with.

And they both would probably drop the sponsor in a quick minute if they thought the shells were costing them one bird in a thousand. Just IMHO.