What might be considered a 'premium' shell?
Function might be considered. Shells that have rims that cause headspace related failures to fire and failures to extract as reported by Stan might be not actually be 'premium shells'.
The following chart has been going around for years:
https://www.trapshooters.com/threads/whe...-shells.476649/How is a shell with 3% Sb content a premium shell?
What about steel heads? Can a steel head shell be a 'premium shell'?
If you think back, some of the first cut rate modern era shells that saw common use in the US were the Activ and the Fiocchi. Fiocchi was at one time an inexpensive shell. They haven't changed them, but it's now in the 'premium' category? What is now premium is the price. Activ which was starting to get quite a following as a target shell and delivered good reloading life was snapped up by Federal Cartridge in one of those beneficial merger deals. Acitv as a brand is long gone of course because Federal needed the production capacity for stuff the volume shooters buy and to protect their own 'premium' line from competition from (drum roll) themselves.
The only real 'premium' target shell left is the STS. It constantly wins Mr. Winston's tests. Guess who owns Remington Ammunition now? That would be Vista Outdoor aka Federal Cartridge. Does anybody believe this will be good for the consumer?
Stan is demanding for some reason that I opine an 'answer' for these competition squashing business deals as if I'm some kind of anti-trust regulator or politician. How am I accountable to Stan or anybody else for 'answers' to such rhetorical questions?
My sole point here is that fewer vendors in the marketplace leads to higher prices for the consumer and fewer choices as the greedy corporate bastards put themselves first and their customers second.
My favored shell by the way buzz is a handload in an STS case with West Coast or Lawrence shot. That's a 'premium' shell for the price of a promo load. I do burn lots of promo loads because they perform adequately for the vast majority of the shooting I do. I'm limited by economics to only about 8,000 targets a year and see no point in paying entry fees to registered shoots to feed my ego and trophy case. I got over that long ago. I'd rather shoot lots of affordable targets than a few expensive ones. As far as my skill level, I do OK. My strong suit is a reasonable skill level with a variety of guns and configurations. If I had to shoot the same gun every week, I'd just give this up.
I own no custom guns or stocks but constantly strive to shoot what I do choose to own well enough to please myself which when you get to a certain point in life becomes the only worthwhile goal.
What you choose to shoot is your business and I don't really care. I hope the shells you prefer and demand can still be obtained in the future.
