To those that USE 12ga Mini Shells

[Uzi2]

the whole point of a shotgun is to unload a bunch of energy in a single shot

minishells pattern like shit compared to 8 pellet federal low recoil FC wad with a mod choke.

why anyone would want to put 3 or 4 pellets on a man sized spread at 10 yards vs putting all 8 in a golf ball sized pattern at the same range really blows my mind

like going from 10mm to .40

The best use of the mini shells is for recoil sensitivity (women with weak wrists) and firing pistol grip only shotguns for defensive, inside the home use.
I would never engage a long-distance target with them....that's not what they were made for.

 

[Retired-LEO]

I look at minishells in a pump gun and I think about the Colt Lightning. A great design. And it almost "came back from the dead." About 20 years ago, several companies decided to reintroduce it. Cowboy action was hot at the time. I know one guy that, instead of a lever action rifle and pump shotgun used a Lightning (pump rifle) and a Win 87 (lever 12ga)

Anyhow, my issue is - everyone wanted a Lightning in 45Colt. The problem is that the mechanism was great for 38's and 44-40's, but a 45Colt was too topheavy and got hung up.

I think about the same thing with mini-shells. I worry that the shells are more inclined to feed poorly due to just geometry. Maybe they work. I've shot them in my 97 and they were fine. But I'm not sure I'd rest my family's life on the reliability to gain some mag capacity.

Mini-shells run flawlessly in Mossberg's and Mavericks with an easily available adapter.