A few weeks ago I bought a slab of these in 7.5 in order to have a play on practice rounds, they weren't particularly cheap so I was hoping for good things but first impressions weren't brilliant as the crimps seemed to be irregular from shell to shell. I have got used to seeing crisp well struck crimps on almost everything these days including some cheaper end fodder; personally I put this down to the manufacturers using the exact same machinery for their cheap as well as top end stuff so they tend to all be well made. The difference is almost always in the shot quality (even wads tend to be identical) and these are listed as containing 2% antimony lead.
Unbelievably as per many other manufacturers they are listed as only available in 7.5 and 9's :mellow: , I think not offering 8's is an odd omission as you could at least keep the numbers on a par with 1oz of 7.5's that way.
The packaging is nice enough and the 8mm steel/brass is plenty good enough for ejection purposes, I'm not sure about the HV denomination though as being listed as 1400 fps on their site they are some way from being considered a fast clay load.
In order to get a good feel for them I have now shot two Tuesday 100 birders shortly after the Sunday Comp layout; this is quite a useful way I think of being able to judge breaks etc. Last weeks score was 4 birds short of the 28g score but todays was much worse because unfortunately we had very very windy weather to contend with, between 4 people only a single stand was straighted but these can't really be blamed on the InterComps. They are fantastically comfortable to shoot but this is mainly due to the reduced load and the fact they certainly don't feel fast. I just could not get the sort of breaks I'm used to with my usual ammo, the only exception being last week where a lazy peak battue looper was made to disappear time and again. They break good birds but that's about it, no real satisfying plume of smoke or even pulverised stuff anywhere.
Do I feel they cost me birds? Absolutely, I know there are people around who shoot 24g loads better than 95% of us can shoot heavier loads but I'm not one of them. I'm aware there is a school of thought that believes no clay is ever missed because of the shell but I think there are times that I break birds with 28g shells that perhaps I ought not to have broken if that makes sense. In other words when I'm off the absolute centre, the extra pellets count, for me.
I'm still on the lookout for a good 24g load that's fastish, available in 8's and maybe even loaded with harder shot so the search goes on.
Unbelievably as per many other manufacturers they are listed as only available in 7.5 and 9's :mellow: , I think not offering 8's is an odd omission as you could at least keep the numbers on a par with 1oz of 7.5's that way.
The packaging is nice enough and the 8mm steel/brass is plenty good enough for ejection purposes, I'm not sure about the HV denomination though as being listed as 1400 fps on their site they are some way from being considered a fast clay load.
In order to get a good feel for them I have now shot two Tuesday 100 birders shortly after the Sunday Comp layout; this is quite a useful way I think of being able to judge breaks etc. Last weeks score was 4 birds short of the 28g score but todays was much worse because unfortunately we had very very windy weather to contend with, between 4 people only a single stand was straighted
but these can't really be blamed on the InterComps. They are fantastically comfortable to shoot but this is mainly due to the reduced load and the fact they certainly don't feel fast. I just could not get the sort of breaks I'm used to with my usual ammo, the only exception being last week where a lazy peak battue looper was made to disappear time and again. They break good birds but that's about it, no real satisfying plume of smoke or even pulverised stuff anywhere.Do I feel they cost me birds? Absolutely, I know there are people around who shoot 24g loads better than 95% of us can shoot heavier loads but I'm not one of them. I'm aware there is a school of thought that believes no clay is ever missed because of the shell but I think there are times that I break birds with 28g shells that perhaps I ought not to have broken if that makes sense. In other words when I'm off the absolute centre, the extra pellets count, for me.
I'm still on the lookout for a good 24g load that's fastish, available in 8's and maybe even loaded with harder shot so the search goes on.
