active was unique in its day. I still don't know why they went away. in light of all the complaints about steel base hulls, im surprised mfg'rs haven't reconsidered the all plastic design. your thoughts?
I shot Active shells for years. Probably the best loading hull ever with Federal recipes. I have several thousand once fired actives. I started shooting some bunker last year, and loaded the actives with hot 1 ounce loads. They look like new factory shells.
I shot a lot of them. Found that reloads would sometimes separate and part of hull would stick in barrel. Checked gun after every shot. Would never shoot in a auto or pump gun.
The plant in WV, closed decades ago. I used to live a few miles from it. Not far from the Dupont plant.
Made in Argentina I believe, somebody bought the original manufacturing equipment and moved it there. I remember reading an article some years back about the fabulous dove hunting in Argentina, a few paragraphs mentioned the Active shells that were provided, and the fact the equipment was moved there
i use actives for reloading black powder they work great. eclipse[sp] made an all plastic shell in the 1960's no marking, green was light 8, orange was heavy 8, red was heavy 71/2,and brown was a 1oz load. they took a special wad and didnt' last long for re-loading.
There were a couple of other all plastic shells before Actives. One was all Green, as I recall they were made in Saugas California which is just north of Los Angeles. The other one I remember was the Wanda - it was really unique after it was shot a half dozen times or so you could unscrew the top worn part of the shell and just screw a new top on - I've got a couple of those hiding out somewhere in the shop. Here's a sad story. The first year that Active was introduced my son who at 15 was AA, 27 AA and was shooting on a high power squad at the Spring Grand America at the Old Phoenix Trap and Skeet club (52 traps) at the time it was one of the biggest shoots in the country 1200 / 1400 hundred shooters.. Anyway Active sends this hot shot shooter out west to shoot their new shotgun shells and throw the fired hulls all around the trap fields to get the attention of the other shooters. Can't remember who this shooter was but he was a killer at singles - think he was from Kentucky or Tennessee ( not sure) but I'm sure the plan was to have this Active sponsored shooter run the singles in the main event and end up under the lights shooting against a young Leo Harrison, Dan Orlick, Dan Bonillas, Nora Martin and other great shooters of that era. What great publicity to have your new red all plastic shells thrown all around trap field in the champion singles event with hundreds of shooters watching ! Okay, the Phoenix club is long gone.. However at the time the club had 8 or 10 overlay skeet fields - so this AA squad with the Active sponsored shooter were shooting at the first trap after the last skeet field - let's just say trap field number 11 if there were 10 skeet fields the skeet high house is now adjacent to the right of trap number 11 this squad was on the last flight - so they are finishing their last 25 x 200 ( it was always hard for me to watch the kid especially when I knew he was in the mix) but I was watching him and the Active guy my son was on post 4 the Active guy was on post 5 ( refraining from calling the sponsored shooter the Active shooter) at this point the Active shooter was straight and the squad on field 10 (or whatever) on the other side of the skeet high house had just finished - these were the days of the old Winchester hand set machines - anyway the kid setting the targets in the trap on the skeet field to the right had a black lap in the hole with him (they are now finished) the kid and his black lab hop out of his trap house the lab being a retriever see targets flying and makes a bee line out into the field the Active sponsored guy is on post number 5 and of course gets a hard right right over the lab and misses his 200th target ! Need I say more. Joescout - Joescout
