I've been picking up some of the snazzy looking new Winchester AA shotgun shells, but reloading them hasn't been too good. It seems that there's a ridge in the bottom of the case, and half of the time the wad catches it and distorts the hull. I'm using the AA "clone" wads, and heard something about using a different wad. Anyone have any experience with this?
Regards, George

The new hulls do not load like the old ones. They may even have a new wad for them. You might look over on shotgunsports.com for further info. I'm not sure where I read it, but there was quite a discussion about the new vs. old hulls. Loading press adjustments on the crimp station were also required. The web page about reloading on the Winchester components web site used to have info as well.

Actually, you might ask this question a little lower down on the shotgun forum as well. Just took a look through the topics, and came across one mentioning how the new hulls are offering problems compared to the old ones.

The new AA hulls do require a different wad.

I don't know why Winchester changed the hulls. In my opinion, the older ones were better.

If you can get them, the new Remington STS hulls are, in my opinion, better than either the old or new Winchester AA hulls. In 12 gauge, the Remington hulls can be loaded quite well using the AA wad clones, such as the Claybuster wads. In the smaller gauges, you will get much better results -- at least I did -- using the Remington wad that is designed for that gauge.

The new AA's in 12 and 20 don't need a new wad, only the 28's and the 410's, IIRC.

The trick with them in 12 ga. is to increase the wad pressure and lower your crimp starter until it leaves an opening smaller than a standard pencil.

You should be warned that the new AA's are two piece hulls, and there have been documented reports of the basewad coming out of the hull (creating the potential of an obstruction in the barrel). This seems to be most prevalent with loaders that seat primers by grabbing the rim -- the mec primers shove the wad back down during priming.

I've had some loose wads, and I am very, very careful when loading the AA. It really is my least preferred hull these days. HTH, Dutch.