I know this topic has been beat to death in the past, but I just recently got my hands on some of these shells. They are expensive, on par with 28 gauge and 410 bore shells. But I was interested in seeing if I could break clays with them.

I shot 5-stand with them in an O/U. At this particular 5 stand I use IC and LM chokes. I stayed with the same choke set up. I was amazed at a couple things.

One was the absence of recoil. These would be great shells (except for the cost) for training new shooters, or for youngsters. The difference between these and the Remington Nitro 27 shells I was using was much more than I expected.

Second, I was able to break all of the target presentations with these shells, and the breaks were surprisingly strong.

I then loaded singles in my Benelli Montefeltro Sport just to see what they would do. They definitely would not cycle. They would work the action part way, but would not eject the shell. I haven't had a chance to try them in a pump yet, but I doubt they cycle there, either.

But just for something to play around with, and maybe for backyard clays, they are rather fun to shoot.

I'm pretty sure that if they don't cycle in a pump, that's on you and not the shell.

I’ve had good results using Aguila Competition shells....

I shot some of them a local shoot for fun, though my O/U of course. They are basically a 1-¾" long 1200 FPS 5/8oz (18gm) load, so more a a "light" 28 equivalent than a full 28. Their main purpose is to give more shots to a fixed-magazine pump... Regardless, they still broke clays with authority, but I would not (meaning never) shoot them in a main event tournament.

5/8 oz. An eighth less than a 28 and an eighth more than a .410. As stated, good for stacking slugs in a HD pump gun or as a youth training round if a 12 gauge is all that's available.

Nope. It's the gun. There are multi videos of people running these mini shells in pump guns and having issues with cycling them. They're just not designed to handle mini-shells.

I'll try and find a couple, but I'm not spending a lot of time looking.

The one time I tried the Aguila minis it took me five minutes to clear the stacked up shells out of my Affinity 3. I don't need the capacity and I reload so I can make what I want as log as it cycles the gun.

tp

They might make an interesting alternative for Cowboy Action Shooting in the SxS shotgun.

Look down the bore of your gun after you shoot one,,,,extremely dirty\fouled

Very true!

tp

Agree, I like the Competition version and priced right from the Gander store near me.
I get the mini-shells for increasing capacity in a HD shotgun but they make no sense for target shooting, okay perhaps less recoil but also less shot and cost more than typical 1oz target loads..... no thanks.

Are Nitro 27s a handicap load ? They are 1 1/8oz, so that alone will make a BIG difference in recoil. I shoot 3/4oz loads in my 12ga guns all the time and recoil is very nice. Just get some CBer 3/4oz wads and load some up for yourself or for training reasons.