Personal Notes On Activ Shotshells - Coffee Chat

Amazing that these shells, produced over a 20 year run, totally disappeared from the American shotgun terrain to virtual obscurity today. For those who might run into these interesting shells, here is this video...Grab some coffee, and let's go..!!

[@fourkingjackace7889]

Thank you Mister Fortune Cookie for this video. I had used Active cases for loading my waterfowl loads, starting back in the late 90's and was always wondering about the reason they no longer existed. Those loads, made with components and recipes from BPI, were devastatingly effective, faster than any steel loads available, even today. One shot, one duck/goose. I miss those days.

[@regororav]

They were my favorite for reloading. For some reason they dropped right out of the sizer every time. Took no effort at all . I also have some Herters and Wanda all plastic shells in my collection. No steel in the base. Only really good in single shots and double barrels. Autos tended to rip some of the rim off under the extractor.

[@bobmcgrewjr778]

I shot Activs back in the mid to late 90s. Just a few weeks ago I bought 100 once fired Atives. I've started collecting rare and weird shotshells (leagally blind so shotguns are the best option for me lol). I also bought something I've never seen but have heard of Wanda plastic shells. Bought a unopened box of 100 20 gauge shells. I say the box was unopend but just barely so curiosity got the best of me and I opened them. They are made of all clear plastic. Never shot any of these they stopped making them way before my time but they're a nice addition to the collection.

[@314299]

I used to reload Active hulls until one day one failed right at the case head, when I opened the gun up a disk of the case head/rim/primer fell out leaving the tube in the chamber. Quite a blast of gas escaped between the barrel and breach face.

[@Able-Man]

Wow = I'm 64× years old and NEVER heard of those, before!

[@crazymike4894]

Yeah, you gotta get with the program. They got new stuff coming out now. Unreal.😳😉

[@richardbrown5135]

I used these in number 4shot back in the seventies. Iv,e got one one shell left and I wish I still had the box. It makes a nice conversation piece.

[@dennismarsh7190]

The 70s shells didnt have the hornet on them . I'm looking at a box of them right now.

[@ishnifusmeadle]

I remember a few fellows with these. Been building various caliber dioramas and I got excited to finally find one of these empties to add to it. Unfortunately when I picked it up it was completely busted. So I guess I'll have to add it to the "need to find" list with artillery shells 😉. I've always thought they were an interesting concept but never got to shoot with em. Also remember a similar product, think from winchester where they had a white base.

[@robbieandbeckie]

I remember these being even cheaper than the promo dove and qauil loads at Kmart. My hunting buddy bought these for the 20 gauge. I would always gripe because they did not have Activ for my 16 gauge.

[@greylocke100]

Activ also used to make bird bombs. I used those a LOT on my uncle's farm through the old H&R Topper.

[@greglaroche1753]

I shot a lot of those in the eighties. I wasn’t reloading them but the price was right, even for on time use. For some reason I remember some of them being another color. Maybe brown? Did different colors designate different loads? I got away from shooting shotguns years ago. I am very surprised they are no longer produced. I used to think that they were the future of shot shells. Thanks for your videos. I always enjoy them.

[@FortuneCookie45LC]

Greg - Yes, the brown ones were available unprimed from BPI back in the day. You have some interesting hulls there. When you are ready to load them, be sure to do the squash test on one - if the plastic splits instead of squashing, it will mean that the plastic has lost the plasticizer and has become brittle - you won't be able to safely shoot them - depends on how they were stored as well. I suspect they will be OK. They reload just like any one piece injection molded tapered hull - not straight wall hull. Good reloadin' to ya, Steve

[@headglitch7003]

@@FortuneCookie45LC I remember the brown being 6 point for heavy field and the red was 8 point for target. 6 points are harder to open and helps the slow burning field powders light off in cold weather and the 8 point opens easier for the faster powders and is better for target patterns.

[@sevenarchers5953]

I remember those from the eighties and early nineties. My wife and I were poor college kids and newlyweds and so were living on a tight budget. I could pick up a box fairly cheap and they cycled beautifully in my old auto-5. They were great. I believed I saved a couple of 5 gallon buckets full of them somewhere.

[@yukon4545]

I left a comment on Reloaders Network. Good job.

[@TomRiddle-ww5on]

This shell (20 ga) was my first box of shells in early 90s. Bought at the western auto near my cabin in wv. Had a h&r single. Good memories!!

[@brianedward2986]

I loved the active shot shell. Shot trap and birds with them in the 80’ s. Also reloaded them with my mec jr. I got a lot of life from the casings. A store in my area called TG&Y sold them for 2.00$ a 25. On sale they were 1.25 a box. Never a misfire or a separation.

[@brianedward2986]

This TG&Y was in California. Central Valley. It was my favorite store they had everything. I would get all my ammo and my Easton game getters there. The good ole days.

[@bigboresledder]

I reloaded many back in the day, they are great hulls and I still have many left over.

[@JohnDoeEagle1]

BTW....I just picked up another new shotgun on Friday. A local shop was running a sale on new current production Remington 870 Home Defense Model R25559 with the wood stock. Remington is BACK guys and gals after the Freedom Group fallout. It's a quality shotgun once again and well worth the $449.99 price tag. I also have my old H&R 28" single shot 12G, Stevens 311A stagecoach double barrel 12G, 1994 Mossberg 590 A1 Military/Police 12G, Benelli M3 select fire 12G, 1998 pre Freedom Group Remington 11-87 Premier 12G and a Mossberg 590 Shockwave 12G. I always wanted a Remington 870 of my own and never got around to buying one. My Dad once owned a 870 Wingmaster 12 Gauge many decades ago but sold it to a local gunsmith at the time who lived down the road. Dad always claimed it was "too nice" to carry it around and didn't want to tear it up. The gunsmith made him a offer he couldn't refuse so it went away down the road. After the fact my Dad said he always regretted selling it and wished he hadn't.

[@stevesuder916]

I have just picked up 500 Activ hulls for reloading. Reloading them now. Best hull to reloading

[@independentthinker8930]

I liked those, still have a few. I don't see them anymore here

[@sweetdrahthaar7951]

I bought a few boxes of those things when they first came out. I was shooting high end over/under‘s and a Benelli semi auto. Lots of them were hard to extract didn’t cycle well in the Benelli. That was it for me. Never tried them again.

[@williamgaines9784]

I have some Herters shells that appear to be some sort of polycarbonate. Instead of a crimp, they have little discs that snap into the top of the shell. I have never shot them, as they were handloaded by a person who was deceased several years prior to my acquisition of them. They also had, now I have, a lot of brass shells with paper wad shot covers and primers that are not 209 type.

[@JohnDoeEagle1]

I still have a few boxes of those stored away with my factory ammo supply. They were originally purchased for a old Stevens 311A stagecoach double barrel 12 gauge. That's been a minute or two if you know anything about that shotgun and it's history. We were primarily a Winchester AA shooter because I reloaded the empties on my then MEC 600 Jr single stage press. I have and use both a MEC 9000GN and a MEC 600 Jr. now. We purchased these at a gun show we attended back in the 1980s. Not sure why we didn't shoot them all up over the years other than simply packing them away and forgetting about them. I'm sure the reason we ended up with them is Dad and I got a "gooda - deal" on them when we bought them at the gun show.

[@foghorn13]

I still have box of 5 Active 12 gauge 2 3/4 inch slugs. I used them until they disappeared. I shot them out of an H&H Ultra slug shotgun. They were very accurate. I killed several deer with them. I never knew why they disappeared until know.

[@paulmartin6895]

I still use them for reloading. Easy to load and use. I have not out of all the years I use them. I have not had the problems that was stated and got theses shells new and loaded when they were on the market. Was wondering what happened to the company. Thanks

[@gruntspy44]

Love the Cosby sweater

[@HobbiesHobo]

Really missed these coffee chats, didn't realize it until now!🙂

[@1997LT1Camaro]

I bet with today’s advances in polymer, these could be made again. I have seen the plastic rifle shells in cabellas

[@michaelbarrett2346]

Great information.

[@jacobwilbert1018]

Very interesting, love content like this

[@wdtaut5650]

Herters (the original) had all plastic shells, no metal at all. They used a sort of modified roll/taper crimp that was a pain to reload. I reloaded them many times anyway, because I had them. They never failed, lasted a loooong time, finally had some small splits at the mouth of the shell. I still have plenty but I don't try reloading them anymore. I'm pretty sure they also sold loaded shells that were all plastic and had a star crimp.

[@certaindeaf8315]

To get up to the rifle range in Livermore you'd have to drive right in front of the live trap range.

[@mudbutton2]

I have some very similar, original factory loads branded "Scorpio." They'd be mid 80's vintage.

[@6mm250]

I had quite a few of those Activ hulls back in the 1980's. They were a joy to reload on my Lyman EZ press. I always wondered what happened to that company. Did hull separations actually happen or was that a rumor ?

[@jkbichsel]

I remember calling them Eclipse - Great memories

[@gonzogriff]

Saw a huge pile of these recently, wish I picked them up after watching this

[@jeffgrossman6835]

I've been reloading active hulls for year.

[@rifleshooterchannel208]

Very strangely built shells. I have a few crates of the hulls I got at auction for $2. I have had luck using literally any wad I’ve ever used with them. They seem to perform equally well with tapered and non-tapered hull wads and their powder capacity is probably better than any 2 3/4 hull I’ve come across.

[@jamesmaxwell4139]

FOCUS!! Ahh thats better.

[@jeffshootsstuff]

LOL I was like... did I forget to put on my glasses?

[@corbettmizzell915]

Man those shells were really good you could reload them a lot.

[@bravofighter]

There are people using 3D printers to produce shotshell hulls now, but more importantly, 37mm flare shells. They can be reloaded again and again, and one can even print the launcher.

[@samt5716]

The 3D printed shotgun hulls aren’t all there yet and like to come apart or harmonica out after firing right now. I’m sure they’ll get em a lot more reliable in the future though

[@johnanderson186]

Taofledermaus actually had some 3D printed shot shells tested on a video. They didn’t hold up or work very well at all. Maybe with some different polymer or whatever they’d do better. But the ones that were sent to them, basically shattered upon firing. Too brittle and not flexible enough I guess.

[@bobborlog1677]

now we need the 40mm setup grenades and launcher

[@comodice905]

Nah bub 😮😮can't expand to seal chambah...pues Como que en El Dia en que LA conoci ist dein Auf Das licht is

[@Tookarooks]

Here in Australia my brother and myself loved loading these shells which were marketed as Scorpio brand but would only accept Winchester 209 oversize primer for reloading and could be used x5 times over before throwing out.

[@chrisyoder3694]

There was also the Eclipse brand shell. Very similar.

[@headglitch7003]

I used to buy Activ whenever I could find them. You could load some real heavy loads because of the internal volume. Never used 12s but 16s and 20s. As mentioned in the video, my cousin who reloaded also, had some case heads separate (you knew because you could hear the tube whistle through the air) but I never did, however I had the crimp ends split at the folds after 8 or 10 reloads. I still have a factory 20 box case of 16's hoarded back because you can load 1 1/4 oz lead shot to 1300 fps. Also, because they had no metal head there was no resizing and never jammed in anything. at

[@mightyjimbo7681]

I loved the Activ 3" Turkey loads, they really can knock down the bird. I still have a few left, but will have to pattern another load soon. Some of the factory crimps didn't hold up very well.

[@callawayken650]

I think I have a box of 5 of these shells in my old 12ga ammo. Seems to me it was a promo box that was sent to me from an ad I responded to once. I never shot them.

[@bigtrev761]

🇦🇺😎👍Nice🍻

[@will7its]

The Activ 2 3/4 #6 threw a mean tight pattern in my old Ithaca 37

[@ggwoutdoors2a]

I just ran across a bag that had 9 or 10 Active empty hulls in it. Have them in the collection now. Too bad they're gone...

[@GrumpyGenXGramps]

Was the rumor even true? Is that why Active never responded to it? Did a one off or even untrue rumor kill the company?

[@scottcrawford3745]

Clever Winchester Marketing ploy to gain back or secure their market-share ? Never put it past companies to use dirty tricks that cost almost nothing to kill-off the competition, or a threat to market share...

[@GrumpyGenXGramps]

@@scottcrawford3745 that was what I was wondering.

[@JG7019]

From what I read the first run of brown colored shells had a problem only load them once and toss, the red shells are good for 10 +.

[@SlingsAxes]

I have an unopened bag of these.

[@Brewster65141]

I still have some activ 12 gauge and 20 gauge slugs. Killed my first buck with them.

[@davidfw190]

I got 500 12ga Activ in brown

[@willbyrd3445]

I use to use them a lot and still have some 3" factory bb loads

[@nickackerman8295]

I have a couple hundred new hulls I'm waiting to start reloading with. I really like these hulls and have loaded several thus far. My problem is I somehow have a couple hundred T-28 wads which I find are near impossible to find any load data for. If anyone has any data, let me know! haha.

[@danielmccoy8875]

Their slug loads were decent too

[@kimberlymartinez6805]

i was wondering what these were. i found two on the ground in the desert unfired. cheers from hungtington beach

[@mohammedcohen]

...my coffee maker died today...waiting on a replacement...

[@crazymike4894]

So that stuff disappeared⁉️

[@nickrosenberg8364]

Would anyone be willing to share some reloading data for these hulls? I recently came into about 1000 of them and I picked them up for steel loads from the rsi manual. I’d love to have a heavy pheasant load using available components.

[@headglitch7003]

If you can find one of the old small size yellowish Hodgdon manuals from the 80's they have some real shoulder crushers in them. I can remember some 1 1/2 oz loads at I think 1300 with HS-7.

[@samwilliams1142]

I have some 3" that are loaded with 2 ounces of 00 buckshot

[@chrischiampo7647]

So Instead of a Bruce Lee Loading IE Green Hornet They We’re Chuck Norris Loads IE Red Hornet 😮😲😲😮😀 FC Steve

[@jordangouveia1863]

:)

[@tomsmith4907]

At a fleamarket i found a few dozen active 12 ga slugs as well as a cool little 5 pack of exploding slugs...no name on the exploding slugs..they just had four stars on the rim