Hi Bruce,

Though trivia, it is technical. Kinda-sorta. This info is from Remington’s ammo plant, and Olin Corp. in East Alton, IL:

Remington “Gun Club Loads,” while nicely hulled . . . are chilled shot.

The Winchester “Xpert” loads, while touted as “same as AA’s” by almost every gun shop I’ve visited – – – could hardly be more different. The shot is 3% antimony. The wad is the same as the AA, but that’s it.

Yet, different powder, brass-coated metal vs. brass base, obviously different hull, and different shot. Other than that, identical!

Remington and Olin claim 6% antimony content for their STS and AA Loads, respectively.

Cheers,

Randy

Dear Randy,

The antimony numbers that I got from Lawrence a number of years ago concerning their black bag “Magnum” shot were that the extra hard #8 and #7-1/2s were 8%, the #9s and #6s were 6% and most of the rest was 4%.

I haven’t experimented with the Winchester Xperts, but I did run full tests on the Remington Gun Club loads and found them to pattern mathematically equal to my reloads. My reloads with that disgusting dead-soft Peruvian shot, that is! The Gun Club loads were a joke. In #7-1/2, using my Beretta Full choke (.035″), the Gun Clubs averaged 255 pellets in a 30″ circle, while the Remington STS 3 dram #7-1/2s averaged 283. That is over a 10% difference, about the same as switching from Full down to Modified choke. In this case, you get what you pay for.

In other cases, you can get a deal. A number of years ago I loaded up on the Wal-Mart Federal “All Purpose” 3 dram 1-1/8 oz #7-1/2 loads. In my guns they patterned identically to the Federal Gold Medal target loads. On my shot crusher, the shot measured the same hardness. Promo loads can undergo change faster than a lady’s hair color, so I don’t know what the current batch of Federal Wal-Marts is like, though in our area of the NorthEast the price has crept up towards $4/box which gives you a lot of other options.

Best regards,

Bruce Buck
Shotgun Report’s Technoid
(Often in error, never in doubt.)