Greetings My Dear Coffin & Abilene -
Coffin - one must needs ensure (love the archaic phrase-ology) that the tiny aguilas cylce correctly in a pump!
If somehow they work , there is some strange magic in the Mossy's lifter design, when using this thing
then one is golden.
Otherwise, they can literally flip around backwords during the loading cycle and trying to cram them base first into
the chamber really gums up the works...
So let us see what sort of results the interweb peoples have to offer. After all, it's on the Interweb, so it Must Be True!
AAaaaaaannnnnnd Look!
Federal is getting ionto the short shell game
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/federal-shorty-12gauge-ammo-evaluation/374496and someone called Challenger.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/shotgun-mini-shells-a-shotgunner-on-their-advantages-disadvantages-and-best-uses/Hmm also seems to spread out rapidly, want to use them at ~ 15-20 yards or less.
If growing your own (as I plan) one can always add better shotcups.
It seems that some of the older shotguns cycle the short shells nicely, at least according to Aguila and some interweb comments.
Good Grief, Coffin you actually wrote this one in 2016:
"Some years back, I ran the Aguila Minis in my '97. Ran like wet grain thru a goose. "
Consensus says
- They work great in Winchester 1300 shotguns,
- work well in Win 1897
- work well in Mossberger 500 series once the rubber block thingy is applied
- WILL JAM real good in 870's
- Seem to jam in an Ithaca
so, I will have to make some dummies and try cycling them in Grampa's old Marlin 1898 "so-called widowmaker"
built in 1923 that I am restoring and for which I making a 2 barrel cased set ("Somebody" tried to carve
a flying duck on one side of the buttstock and a pirate skull on the other ... but they look more like a
flying blob and a blobby "X" )
from aguila's page: (Aguila's minishell page (
http://www.aguilaammo.com/minishells.htm) )
snip------------------------------------------------------
Modification of Shotguns to Fire
"Aguila" Minishells
First of all, any SAAMI/CIP approved 12ga shotgun may fire minishells, be it side-by-side, over-and-under or pump action; however, the latter type will not cycle them flawlessly. The out-of-the-box shotgun that we have tested cycling minishells very well, is the Winchester M1300 18" Defender. Winchesters 1897 seems to like the shorter rounds, however not as much as the Winchester 1300. We still have to test the Winchester 1887.
MOSSBERGS 500/590s will cycle minishells pretty well once the shooter acquires a "feeling" as to how to pump the action; however, this will not prevent the occasional jam. To further solve the problem, we have lengthened and widened the little short metal bar (shell elevator), which catches the round to be subsequently fed to the ramp and chamber. This modification will not prevent you from firing regular size shot shells. The other modification that would decisively help in the proper cycling, would be to install the ejector in a more forward position to catch the spent shorter shell and eject it, before it may flip and cause jams. However, we DO NOT recommend you to do this, because you will most likely no longer be able to fire regular size shells.
Any competent gunsmith should be able to perform the modification to the elevator described above.
REMINGTONS 870s seem to require a more involved modification, which we have never attempted. We have received calls from clients stating that they have tried our minishells in their 870s with excellent results, and that they did not understand why we have always mentioned the potential cycling problems. To this, we would like to state once more that minishells will not cycle flawlessly in regular pump action shotguns, no matter how well some customers are able to cycle them. Again, the Winchester 1300 Defender would seem to be the one cycling minishells best.
We do not know of any semi-automatic shotguns functioning with minishells.
As a final note, we would like to mention that we will very soon be selling our "POSEIDON" Micro-shotgun, which will only fire minishells.
endsnip------------------------------------------------------
Here is the rubber blocky thing for Mossbergers
OPSol Mini-Clip 2.0
https://www.opsolmini-clip.com/product/opsol-mini-clip-2-0-flex/Unfortunately, the OPSol folks have not been able to make the things work with anything but Mossy's
here is their FAQ page
https://www.opsolmini-clip.com/faqs/of course, as always, YMMV
prf mumbles