Winchester AA Light Target 12ga 8 Shot 1-1/8 oz – Superb 100 Round Can

Description

Winchester AA Light Target 12ga 8 shot is the shell most clay shooters in America grew up on, packaged in a hundred round reusable ammo can rather than four separate boxes. The 2 3/4 inch hull carries 1 1/8 ounces of antimony hardened lead at 1145 fps, driven by the AA wad in a high strength brass headed hull. Winchester has been building the AA line since 1965.

• Why AA Has Lasted Sixty Years
• Winchester AA Light Target 12ga 8 Shot Specifications
• Honest Notes on AA Target Loads

Why AA Has Lasted Sixty Years

The AA hull is the reason. Winchester built it as a one piece high strength plastic case with a compression formed base rather than a separate base wad, and that construction made it the reloading standard for a generation. Shooters saved AA hulls the way rifle shooters save Lapua brass, and a lot of them still do. If you reload, a hundred round can of these is a hundred hulls as much as a hundred shells.

The AA wad is the second piece. It cushions the shot column at ignition and releases cleanly, and combined with antimony hardened lead it keeps pellets round through the forcing cone and choke. Round pellets fly straighter and land inside the pattern, which is the entire game in target shooting. These AA target shotshells consistently pattern more evenly than promotional loads costing half as much.

At 1145 fps this is the light target version, and light is the point. Recoil is modest for a 1 1/8 ounce charge, which matters enormously over a hundred targets. Number 8 shot gives high pellet count for skeet, close sporting presentations and sixteen yard trap. Nobody needs a fast shell to break a target that is thirty yards away.

Winchester AA Light Target 12ga 8 Shot Specifications

The hundred round ammo can is a genuinely useful piece of kit rather than packaging. It is a hard sided reusable plastic box with a handle and a latching lid, and it will outlast the ammunition by decades. Plenty of shooters keep using them for hulls, tools and range gear long after the shells are gone.

• Manufacturer part number: AA128AC
• Gauge: 12 gauge
• Shell length: 2 3/4 inches
• Payload: 1 1/8 ounces of antimony hardened lead shot
• Shot size: number 8
• Muzzle velocity: 1145 fps
• Dram equivalent: 2 3/4
• Hull: Winchester AA one piece with brass head
• Packaging: 100 rounds in a reusable plastic ammo can
• UPC: 020892028296

Honest Notes on AA Target Loads

Number 8 is a skeet and close target size. For sixteen yard trap it works, for handicap trap it does not, and no amount of pellet count makes up for a number 8 pellet that has run out of energy at forty five yards. If you shoot handicap, buy the Super Handicap load in number 7.5 instead and keep Winchester AA Light Target 12ga 8 shot for skeet and practice.

Save the hulls, but know their limits. AA hulls reload beautifully and many shooters get six to ten firings out of them, but they are not immortal. Check the crimp and the base for splits each time, and retire them when the crimp stops holding. Mixing worn hulls into a competition batch is how you end up with an inconsistent string on the one day it matters.

Lead restrictions are becoming more common on public ranges. Private trap and skeet clubs almost universally permit lead and reclaim the shot, but a growing number of ranges on public land now require non toxic. Confirm before travelling to a new club with a can.

On value, the hundred round can is usually priced close to four boxes and occasionally slightly above. Compare before you buy, because the convenience of the can is real but it is not always the cheaper way to buy the same shells.

For handicap yardage we stock the AA Super Handicap 7.5 in the same hundred round can, and the Federal All American 1145 fps number 8 is a direct alternative. Full product data is on the Winchester AA product page.

Winchester AA Light Target 12ga 8 shot suits skeet shooters, sporting clays regulars, sixteen yard trap and anyone who reloads and wants the hulls. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Cans ship where state and local law allows.