Remington brings back Peters Paper shotshells

Remington is bringing back a classic, respected ammunition series—but it won't carry the Remington name. Instead, we're seeing the Peters Paper shotshell line rebooted for 2022, focused on sport shooting.

Remington stopped ammunition production in 2020 when the whole company, including subsidiaries like Bushmaster and Marlin, went out of business due to bankruptcy proceedings. No more guns off the production line, and no more ammo. It took months for the fallout to be settled, with Remington's various corporate pieces sold off to new ownership. When it was finished, American mega-corp Vista Outdoors had purchased Remington's ammunition business, and restarted the factory last spring. Now, classic Core-Lokt hunting cartridges and other Remington-branded ammo is back on the market (although your local Canadian gun store probably hasn't had much on the shelves yet).

And now, the Peters line is also coming back. Peters is one of the oldest cartridge brand names in the world, starting in Ohio back in 1855 as the Miami Powder Company, which became the Peters Cartridge Company in 1887. For the next half-century, it cranked out military and sporting ammunition until Remington bought the plant in 1934, and ended production in 1944.

Remington brought the name back in 2018, with the Peters Premier Blue line of non-toxic waterfowl loads, complete with retro-styled boxes that recall the collectible boxes of the original Peters line.

And now, after all the drama of bankruptcy and production rebooting, Peters is once again returning.

The new paper-hull shotshells are currently available in 12 gauge only, with either a 1-oz or 1 1/8-oz payload of high-antimony shot (7.5 or 8). Remington's marketing also makes mention of "clean primers" and "carefully selected powder blends." Sounds like it's marketing these as high-end rounds for clay shooting, not hunting, at a pricey $19.99 a box in the US (we haven't seen a Canadian MSRP yet).

“We’ve talked a lot about Big Green being back. Now we are thrilled to add some blue into the mix," said Remington marketing bigwig Joel Hodgdon. "These Peters shotshells are a true classic that so many shooters know and love. Remington is proud to introduce paper loads back into our lineup, but don’t worry, we are still making millions of plastic Remington rounds, too.”

So, Remington is bringing out a new cartridge line for claybusting, as the US is in a massive ammo shortage? No doubt some buyers would prefer to see Remington focus on 00 buck and hunting cartridges. However, this could end up being a very forward-thinking move. As the world continues to crack down on single-use plastics, we increasingly hear that that's bad news for plastic shotshells. Perhaps Remington's move will help figure out a future where paper hulls are required by law, and not just requested by shooters who want to use them in their fine doubles.