so I was trolling around cabelas and I found these shells hidden back nearly in the knife section.






they seem to be a six pellet load of 00 buck, no shot cup, no buffer, and what looks like a plastic nitrocard over the shot.
they don't double capacity like aguila minishells, but I do get an additional shell in the magazine over 2 3/4th shells
pattern updates tomorrow

  I have some of Herters double ball rounds.  Two .65 roundballs in a 2.75" hull.

  I was actually impressed.  Out to 40 yards both balls stayed within inches of each other, well within the vitals of a deer.

Come to think of it I should get more and go out and test it a bit more.

A 2.25" roll crimp hull would only sacrifice .25" of loaded internal stack height over a 2.75" loaded fold crimp hull of the same design. What this means is the OAL loaded lenght difference is only .25"

By the same token a 2.5" roll crimp hull would have the same loaded internal capacity as a 2.75" folded crimp hull. The same load would fit perfectly in either a 2.5" roll crimp shell or a 2.75" fold crimp hull.

Taking this a bit further, a 2.75 roll crimped cartridge has the same load capacity as a 3" fold crimp hull of the exact same construction.  That leads to some interesting load possiblities for the shotshell handloader. 

Isn't that the standard European size?   A little smaller than regular shells, but still larger than the Aguila Minshells.   

Not quite. 

Some European shotshells are 67mm, (roughly 2.63 inches), athough most are now 70mm or 2.75"

7 yards (Conversational distance)




12 yards (the furthest shot in my house)




35 yards (what I consider to be max range of non-flight control buckshot.)



each target was shot with two shells, aimed center mass.
I was mildly impressed. even at 35 it wasn't dropping pellets off an FBI torso. recoil was very light, about like a no.8 shot target shell. maybe a smidge lighter even. (keep in mind this only has 2/3rd ounces of shot) I would have felt better with a shorter wad, a proper shotcup and a full 9 pellets, they could have done it.
the extra round is nice, as is the cheap price. but I don't consider this to be a spectacular load. I get much better performance out of my chosen federal shells. but if they offered these with a light 7/8th ounce slug with an M/V around 1350-1400 they would be my main slug load. as it stands, I'm keeping them in the tube for now. they passed my lower limit test and I got 40 rounds of them.
the super light recoil means that if you have a smaller wife, or a recoil sensitive one (or maybe you're the recoil sensitive one. you daisy.) these would make an excellent choice. and at $0.50 a shot, you can afford to buy a lot for live fire practice as well.

 I might grab some of the double ball loads next time i'm through as well. just to play with. I think I saw a minishell version. and I very much like having the extra shot.

Good review. That's actually a tighter pattern than I'd have suspected. Were you using open cylinder?

Roper1911:

Excellent performance review and analysis of deployment considerations.