AA Hulls

[bottomc]

What is the difference between the red and gray hulls?

[stingerjg]

correct me if im wrong, the older red hulls had a different capacity than the new ones do. Other than that, i dont have a clue. I load them the same. The red ones do seem to load a bit better than the gray, but i think the grey ones look better.

[Tom Freeman]

There is no difference between the grey and red.

Winchester just colors them different so the different games can keep them sorted out.

Someone told me the AA International hulls are the best for reloading. I was never able to tell any difference.

As far as looks go, I liked the old silver ones and the Gold Remington nitros.

[EricW]

What is the difference between the red and gray hulls?

Not a thing. I've used both interchangably for years and years now.

[bpowe]

The silver hulls were introduced by Winchester for their Silver Anniversary. They were origionally loaded with extra hard shot for use at longer Trap Handicap distances. (They quickly were nicknamed "Rhino Rollers" because they were loaded with a slightly different powder to about 1250 fps (even though they were rated as 3 dram equivalent and therefore legal for Trap).

Current production Silver Bullets are the same as the red Winchester Trap loads.

[sargenv]

There was also for a short time a Black AA 12 gauge hull. I saw these before I saw the Silver anniversary hulls. I wish I still had some, they were cool looking.

I think those heavy ones were loaded for International Bunker, a much faster clay target game. The target leaves the house randomly from any of I think three or five traps and can throw them in any direction at 70 mph. You got 2 shots to try to neutralize the target. The one time I tried that specific game, I barely had time to get the first shot off. A second shot? uh.. ok...

Vince

[Bret Heidkamp]

The new style AA hulls have been reported to separate - although I've reloaded these a bunch, and they usually split earlier on me vs. Rem STS - I've not had one separate. I have switched to STS for all my clays shooting

The problem is supposedly the plastic powder cup can move forward in the hull, thus reducing capacity and resulting in an overpressure reload. I'm not sure how this would go unnoticed, personally, I would have shot scattered everywhere on my reloader - or a crumpled hull.

This problem was not reported with the old AA hulls as far as I know.

Do a Google search for "winchester AA hull separation" and you will see several boards discussing this -

Just thought everyone should know, sorry about the thread drift.

[sargenv]

No, the original AA never seperated like this because the base and the sides were all one piece of injection molded plastic. I figure the new method is cheaper to manufacture for Olin. Reloadability is probably not on their radar since if they were manufacturing a hull specifically for reloading, I wonder if some lawyer said something like "You know, that's a liability, do things this way". For years they had the best hull to reload bar none. Federal tried for years to make a hull that handloaders liked and they changed designs multiple times over the years. Remington changed many times as well and finally have a great hull in the STS. Now Winchester makes this stupid multi-piece hull? Seems strange.

Vince

[ranger]

Sporting Clays magazine has an article re. the old vs. new AA hull issue. The article stated that the original AA (one oiece hull) tooling wore out and WInchester chose not to replace it. They are using the two piece hull design now for AAs.

Thread drift: An interesting article note in that magazine was that shotgun shell reloading is dropping in popularity. The rising cost of components plus the availability of inexpensive factory shells had lured the shotgun crowd to buying new versus reloading. There are numerous European target loads that can be bought in the $3-4 range per box if you buy in moderate amounts. This is easily accomplished with a small (3 - 4 shooter) group buy.

I figure its costs me a best $2.50 box for reload and probably closer to $2.75. This assumes I pick up AA or STS hulls "free".

I quit reloading and I have been shooting the WALMART Winchester 1 oz loads in 8 or 7.5 for $2.98/box for practice. I shoot FIOCHHI White Rhinos ($4.20/box) in tournaments.

[sargenv]

Ok, well, then that makes sense. I hadn't heard why they changed, only that they did change hull types. I prefer to reload because I can tune my loads to what I'm doing. The fact that a lot of people are buying cheapie shells doesn't surprise me. I like to make loads that are still unavailable. Load availability is much better than it used to be with all the different foreign and domestic brands for sale now. If you buy AA's you will still get the 5-6% antimony shot they have always loaded. You just get the new fangled AA hull that doesn't reload all that well. If you put soft shot through a tighter choke you will still get an ok pattern that is being used to knock down steel anyway.

I guess I just like to reload shotshells since this was where I started reloading in the first place (metallic didn't come till I was a few years older). I also load my own steel shot for hunting even though you can buy it for cheaper than I can load it. I like to tweak it to fit my gun, and I shoot fewer shells since I know my load and at what range I can stretch my shots to if neccesary.

Thanks for the info on the AA's.

Vince