I was doing a routine periodic firing with my Stoeger 12-gauge double barrel coach shotgun at the indoor range, when 3 of 5 Aguila 1 3/4-inch Minishells (seven No. 4 Buckshot and four No. 1 Buckshot) failed to fire in the left barrel while all 5 fired in the right barrel.
I should have tried refiring the misfires from the right barrel, but didn't think of it at the time. The firing pin impacts on the misfires appeared not quite as deep as those Minishells that fired okay from the right barrel.
I fired another 10 or so assorted American brand 2 3/4-inch shells (No. 8 birdshot, No. 1 Buckshot, 00 Buckshot) from both barrels and none of them misfired, nor have any other of the 200 or so total shells I've fired from this gun.
Unless any of you recommend otherwise, I'll keep the Stoeger in its usual home defense role where it would use No. 1 Buckshot, which has never failed to fire in practice rounds.
Aguila Minishells will load only in breech loader shotguns and maybe the Winchester 1300 pump from what I've read. I've only shot them indoors at paper targets, but until I see some kind of test about their lethality, I'm assuming they are primarily an interesting novelty unsuitable for home defense.
Aguila Minishells emit more black smoke than U.S. shells I've shot, and certainly crud up the breech end of the barrel because of their short length, the way .38 shells crud up .357 cylinders in revolvers. Takes a lot of scourering to get those barrels clean.
Do any of you have any experience or thoughts about misfires like this and/or Aguila Minishells?