Richard Atkins was impressed with Rio’s 28 and 21g shells, but will the 24g prove to be the perfect compromise?
Richard Atkins has decades of experience testing guns, cartridges and accessories, and is our expert on all aspects of ballistics, shotgun performance and technical analysis
ON TEST: RIO TARGET LOAD 24 GRAM 7.5
Rio is one of the longer established names in cartridge manufacture, founded in 1896, and has established a long and successful history. Rio has become a part of the much larger Maxam parent company in recent years and joins several other companies such as Melior, GB and SAGA. Maxam also bought the oldest UK cartridge brand, Eley, a few years back.
Naturally, when a cartridge company becomes part of such a huge parent company, with the capacity to manufacture all of its own components, these will be the primary components used by all the companies within the Maxam family group.
Maxam was originally a supplier of explosive materials for industry, military and other specialist applications. Propellant powders for shotgun cartridges have become a significant part of this and the volumes Maxam can manufacture has led to their products being highly competitive in the world of propellant supply.
A brief look through a recent Maxam brochure shows 16 different powder grades for various shotgun applications; mostly 12 gauge of course but with some catering for 16, 20, 28 and .410. Maxam is a serious propellant producer.
This month’s test shells
As with the Rio cartridges previously reviewed, the Target Load range is packaged in sturdy, very smart, predominantly blue cartons and they use a bright blue 70mm parallel plastic tube Maxam case.
This can be recognised by the slightly more prominent raised ribbing on the external surface than most other big brand cases. These are strong cases, which is easy to tell by squeezing fired cases between finger and thumb, as well as by their strong ‘crimp memory’.
Some of the more budget end cartridges have cases that use slightly softer HDPE plastics in their Reifenhauser extruded cases, and this is revealed by less resistance to squeezing, as well as some crimp folds being much less distinct after firing.
This is a plus point for the test cartridges – they use the same quality cases as are used in the more expensive Rio range. Better grade cases allow best consistency to be achieved.
Being 70mm long has the advantage of suiting a wide range of semi-automatic shotguns,
