I did the same for the Y2K stock up. I have shot 8 of them in the past 20 years. I just gave 2 boxes to a buddy who couldn't find any locally and wanted his collage age son to have his 20" Mossberg 500 for home defense but didn't have anything but #10 birdshot.

I still have some buckshot I bought in the early 90's, back then I thought it was "fun" to shoot 3" magnums, with 15 pellets of plated and buffered 00 buck.

Are any larger shotshells loaded with #10? I think the only use for #10 (and there used to be a #12) shot was for snake or bird loads in .22 RF. I know #12 shot is about like sugar or salt.

Anyone every try the 'shorty' shells? They are about an inch shorter than a standard shell, with reduced payload and velocity. Supposedly at short self-defense range they are effective and allow you to load more shells into the magazine. But I guess they don't feed reliability in some shotguns and probably won't cycle a gas system.

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Common sense isn't so common.

I tried the Aguila minishells in my 870s on a lark. They're the #4 buck version- no luck. They'd end up backwards on the lifter if you ran the pump as normal. (vigorously) I have at least twenty sitting around waiting for the day I find an inexpensive 12 gauge SXS or O/U. Or a Savage model 24.

My 870 with a Vang-comp barrel produces the best results with Federal's 00 Flitecontrol loadings. My other 870 with a smooth barrel and rifle sights seems to like Winchester Super-X 00.

I'd stay away from the minishells unless you get the specific adapter that's made for the Mossbergs and such. I've not tried them, but your mileage may indeed vary.

It's true that you will get more "short shells" in a gun but if you multiply the number of shells by the number of shot in "short" shells in your gun and the number of shells by the number of shot in "regular" shells in your gun which one puts the highest number of lead balls in the air. If I remember correctly my gun holds 1 less 3 in. shell than 2 3/4 but the total number of balls is more with the 3 in. Plus 1 less shot is faster and my reason for a shotgun is too put lead in the air in a hurry. Larry

I read so many reviews about feeding problems in my Remington 870 I never tried the 1.75 inch shells. But I did try a few of the 2.25 inch shells NobelSport makes and they worked fine in my very limited experience with them. They split the difference between a standard 2.75 inch shell the really short ones.

But they only increased the magazine capacity from 6 to 7. The risk of a misfeed is not worth the advantage of one extra shot. So I am going to keep using the 2.75 inch shells my shotgun was designed for.

I do use reduced recoil ammo though. I always heard 00 has more penetration than needed so the low recoil version should still have enough power and penetration even if it does leave the muzzle a couple of hundred fps slower than the full power stuff. And it does not beat you up at the range the way firing full power buck from a fairly light shotgun will.