bismuth woes

[Britsmoothy]

Very well said paul, can not fault you. I know of people who use lead over here reguardless as the law is an ass in this matter. On one shoot I know they switch when flighting the duck and go back to lead for the pheasant after but are only a couple of hundred yards from the pools-whats the point? There are thousands of canadas over here now, we shot some last week and interestingly we both fell ill after...! Give them what they deserve-a decent death, so use whats best!

 

[jbullard1]

:surrender: I didnt mean to start a fire
I was hoping bismuth was what Hevi-Shot was made from. I was wanting some Hevi-Shot for Turkey Hunting with the 12 guage double barrel :v

 

[biliff]

I have not been a waterfowler in many years (used to be) and confess complete ignorance here, but maybe others are in same boat. Query: what alternatives exist to bismuth, if any? Can steel still be used? What is dsownside to steel as a substitute, for muzzleloaders? (I assume, damage to barrels,etc.) Thanks for a lesson, Ron in FL

Steel (iron) is still the primary lead shot alternative. Its major problem is it has to be driven very fast. I've found you need 1450fps at the muzzle for steel to be effective at 40+ yards. That and you have to go up in shot size. In order to get enough pellets in the load to fill out a pattern you needed a hull with a lot of volume. Shot charge weights weren't particularly high (1 1/4 or 1 1/2oz) but that much steel takes up a lot of space. When steel was the only alternative I used a 3 1/2" 10 ga. with 1 1/4 oz of #2 steel. This was just to get enough velocity and pellet count to take birds at 45 -50 yards.

Now there are numerous other alternatives that use some mixture of iron, tungsten, nickel and/or polymers. They are able to produce pellets that are actually heavier than lead. Hevi-shot and its spin offs are probably the most prevalent. I'm now duck hunting with a 2 3/4" 20 ga loaded with #6 hevi-shot at 1200fps. Its a 45 yard mallard load.

Steel in muzzleloaders has two problems. 1) you can't drive it fast enough to be effective beyond short range. 2) You need to use steel shot cups to protect the bore

Hevi-shot and its like eliminates problem #1. Its heavy enough that it works well at BP velocities. It still requires the special shotcups. It is also expensive.

 

[ronrryan]

Got it. Thanks a lot, ron in FL

 

[ffffg]

I just got off the phone with the tecknition at balistic products this morning.. He did not feel that busmuth shot would get up and running again.. that doesn not mean that it will or will not, but not much is happening even in the rumer department that is positive.. I personally think tungsten polymer will take over the market of bismuth.But that and $2.50 will get you a cup of coffee.. Bismuth should be cheap as its a by- product of very little use.. So its strange what his going on.. Maybe its difficult to make, dont know. I emailed the people who are supposed to have a bismuth shotmaker, and round pelets but iv gotten no answere from them either.... no-one knows what the future will bring, and this makes markets fluctuate, rumers fly and etc, etc.. The stuff is brittle and some pellets do shatter in the bore, and some shatter when they hit hard bone.. so its not the best stuff out there anyway.. I did get enough number 4 for a couple 2-4 years buying 10 gauge 3 1/2 inch 1 7/8 oz loaded shells for a decent price.. 120 pellets per ounce..but i have to cut it out.. to get buffer sepparated, open a slit and tap it out before you empty the shot,... alot easier than trying to sepperate it in a cup.. :grin: I started cutting it out of shells in the beginning for bp loading,and now 15 years later im back doing it again.. Ive just counted the containers i have of bb, 2, 4 and 5 shot bismuth.. Over the years ive purchased 56 pounds of bismuth shot.. :shocked2: dave