Mixed Shot

[musketman]

Ever shoot mixed shot?

I have collected (over the years) a large jar of unknown shot sizes mixed together, mostly #6, #7 1/2 and #9...

So, to keep from sorting them into known sizes, I was wondering if I should just load them in the ol' Bess and have a field day...

Wonder what kind of patterns I would get with a shot mixture?

Anyone ever try this before?

 

[wulf]

I have not tried mixed shot in my Brown Queen but it does sound interesting...and,, we are a group of experimenters, arent we?

 

i shoot mixed in my fowler when hunting turkey . #7 1/2 and 4
makes a great pattern :results: great new smilies by the way

 

[B.Habermehl]

I see no reason that your mixed shot won't do fine especially for informal shooting. I believe for my self for hunting I would use unmixed shot for more predictable results on game BJH

 

I remember when the major ammo companies introduced MIXED shot in turkey loads, like Remingtons 2X4, 4X6 and so on. I laughed me arse off. :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
At reasonable birdshot ranges the turkey won't have a clue it was killed by four # 6 pellets and three # 4 pellets.
They do just about the SAME job. The differtence in striking energy bewteen a #2 and #6 shot is mesurable, but hardly noticable! That 2X6 mixed turkey load stuff was a lot of hype to make an extra buck on ammo.
Much like the hype in in-line performance data published by in-line, bullet, sabot, and powder makers.
(oh, oh, there goes my job as in-line moderator! :cry
The only reason I'm selective in shot size is how many holes do I want in my supper! I've killed mallards at 50 yards with the old Federal, and Winchester std. trap load of 1 1/8 ounce # 7 1/2 shot! Not to mention hundreds of wood ducks, rabbits, squirrels, doves , woodcock, even phesants with the std. trap load.
Once my Dad got a deal on a CASE of the NEW Remington plastic case 12 ga. ammo in a trade on a pig and used black and white t-v set. The load was 1 ounce #4 shot.
Pretty light hey. I took just as many ducks, rabbits, squirrels, etc., etc., with that load as the trap loads, only the game had fewer holes and lead bb's to pick out. :hmm: :hmm:
I have patterned a TON of shot combinations. Shot about every kind of handload, buffered, shot, copper plated, mixed, yadda, yadda, yadda. If you hit'em you got'em.
I don't like a lot of shot in me game meat, so now I shoot in the 12 bore about 1 to 1.25 ounce of 4's, 5's, or 6's,
Mix'em up it don't matter.
Shoot up that mixed shot, the target won't know the difference.
Then they made us use that stinking STEEL shot and the whole game changed! :cry: :cry:

 

[tg]

I have not had had a great deal of experience in recent times mixing shot but do recall many years ago mixing a shot of Bacardi a shot of JD and a shot of Smirnoffs throughout the evening and I was told the results was not pleasant at all.

 

all i know is if its not broke dont fix it . 71/2 and 4 mix has worked great so i stay with it

 

tg.
Funnnnnny. But it's always funny after the fact! :results:

 

For small game and grouse its ok ,but for turkey loads and a tighter pattern the bigger shot needs to be in front of the smaller shot. Or the bigger pellets will knock the little ones out to a bigger pattern. For turkey in a duplex load in a 12bore 1oz. 7.5 and 3/8 oz. of 4 on top. Deadly in most fowlers and a good center core for the turkey vitals ,brain-spine nerve center out to 25yds or close to that. Harder pellets pattern better than the chilled shot. Such as Hard magnum shot and the copper and nickel shot.

 

Yes- I've shot mixed loads, primarily 3's, 4's, & 6's, for use on Rabbits. I don't know if Bliemeister still makes shot, but it was the hardest, highest antimony content shot out there. Although unplated, it out patterned ALL common makes of plated lead shot today, brass, nickle, or Extra Hard lead, all of it, :results (NOT!!!) )the Bliemeister outpatterned it and yet some of the pellets weren't even round - anyway, they made #3's and it was exceptional for long-range goose shooting. The count with #3's was higher than #2's and the killing power wasn't wasted as badly, having killing power well in excess of it's paterning range, as with #2's. :yakyak:

 

[Hoyt]

I use a duplex load for spring gobblers..95grs. ffg, 2 T/C Natural Wads over powder, 1-1/2oz of nickel plated 4 & 6's..did this osceola gobbler in last yr...http://www.hunt101.com/img/127591.jpg

 

Awe horse biscuits! Mixed shot, buffered, this'n that, shot cups, peanut butters wads, it's ALL hooey! :imo:
For 90 plus % of the small game scattergunning almost ANYTHING within reason will take small game. It just depends upon how many holes you want in 'yer supper. :results:
Of COURSE you want bigger pellets for geese at longer ranges, 40 to 50 yards.
But in the old lead shot days we'd jump the odd goose off the wood duck streams and killed 'em dead with 7.5 shot! Well we didn't know that 7.5 shot would bounce right off the gooses body armor so went on our merry way dumping mallards, woodies, the odd pintail and goose with the standard trap load.
The turkey kilt with mixed shot will NEVER know the fact that a couple 6's and 4's killed it.
THERE that orta stir some kinda thoughtful, insightful comments. :what: :says: :RO: :thumbsup: :blah:
Ain't it great I don't have any strong opinions about anything? :crackup: :crackup:

 

[musketman]

The turkey kilt with mixed shot will NEVER know the fact that a couple 6's and 4's killed it.

Could we get away with shooting a mixed load with a few split shot sinkers in it as well, then the pellets (split shots) would open on impact like little hollow-points...

 

Mixed sizes would be fine on turkey and game that's not moving too quickly but it would lengthen your shot string when wingshooting. Some manufacturers used to make square shot, which would be fun to mix in with round and see how that patterned.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Some manufacturers used to make square shot, which would be fun to mix in with round and see how that patterned.

There's at least one company still producing it. We have an "Orvis" outlet & chic sporting goods shop nearby that has all kinds of exotic spreader loads & pattern tightening loads for shotgunners. Little plastic "X" inserts, little "T" inserts, tubes to hold the column together longer, etc. No idea if they all work, but they ain't cheap, some of 'em. Fiocchi makes a spreader load that "opens" a modified barrel to imp. cylinder for those occasions when grouse are holding tighter, giving a IC/M double the patterns of a IC/IC if you stuff one up the modified barrel. I bought a box of 25 of these 10 years ago for my 20 ga.SxS and still have 20 left. I guess they work (it patterened wider and with no "bald-spots"), but who knows how the "next" grouse will behave? As I remember, these were made with the shot column divided by two cards added to seperate it into three layers.

I have a pair of butt-ugly, plain powder & shot horns passed down through the family. The shot horn has everything from #6 to BB sized, all mixed together. I have no idea if that's the way it was used.

 

Stumpy: In the early days of making bird shot sizing the stuff was not real effeicient. In fact early "dropped" shot often came out tear drop shaped.
Even today in a bag of 25# of shot you will find some pellets larger and smaller than whats written on the bag.
I well remember as a young teen reloading my paper 12 ga. shells with a Lee hand loader. We used milk carton waxed cardboard to make X compartments for out spreader loads. Another trick we used was to load a layer of shot, a thin over shot wad, a layer of shot and so on, sort of a cardboard/lead parfait. These would spread real well in our mod. and full single barrels or bolt action shotguns. They were all we could afford. At least we had guns, the really POOR kids were chasing down rabbits with sticks!
There is no reason a muzzle loading shogun can't be loaded the same way today.
Loading correctly makes the fixed choke shotgun a very versitile tool indeed.
Indeed as we gew up , read, and learned more about shotgunning we searched for NON magnum hardened shot! We actually WANTED the softer lead shot. Why? Because the softer shot did NOT hold good patterns. We needed open choke, open patterns for 90% of our shooting in dense brush and weeds where the average shot on a rabbit even over hounds was about 15 yards at best.
That's when we learned how good 1 ounce of # 4, 5, or 6 shot was. Less lead in the rabbit supper and a just as dead rabbit.
I don't load much if at all for shotgunning today. I prefer the T/C New Englander. What little modern loads I buy are the "promo" loads from Wal-Mart IF you can find 1 ounce of 6's. They usually sell # 8 and #7.5 shot. All the promo loads use the cheaper soft lead shot and that's perfectly fine for most hunting situation.
Now I'm not talking taking geese at 60 yards, you gotta use non lead shot nowadays, but for general small game hunting an ounce of 6's will do fine.
One of the very best duck guns I owned in the lead shot legal days ( even after the lead shot illegal days :what
was a Remington Wingmaster in 28 ga. vent rib, full choke, with the old paper Winchester 1 ounce so called a MAGNUM 28 ga. load. talk about an oxymoron, kinda like a "magunm .410". but anyway out to 35 yards or so that little gun sure dumped a truck load of woodies and the odd mallard.
That's the gun I was using the day I shot sraight up the trunk of a huge oak at a fox squirrel and THREE fell dead! :shocking:
A forth ran out a limb of the same tree and I nailed that one for my limit of 4 in about 5 seconds flat!
:results:

 

[Stumpkiller]

My first shotgun was a Baker side-by-side, chambered full/full with 32" barrels. Weighed a ton. I learned early on that, even though it had two triggers, you only used one finger at a time. Otherwise, firing one barrel would often cause the other barrel to fire. Didn't take me long to realize that this wasted ammo (and hurt like h*ll). I think this would have made a 60 yard goose gun. I used to have to count to "five" before pulling the trigger or I'd either miss completely or totally shred the critter. New nothing about spreader loads.

I remember my shotshell supply didn't have three shells at any one time of the same loading, or even make. I got the odd remnants of my Uncle & Grandpa's charity, and whatever I could beg. Dad was not a hunter :boohoo:

Happiest day in my life was when I finally got my very own .22LR It was a long time before I got back into shotgunning. :shake: I've sold a lot of guns I wish I'd kept, but not that old Baker. Probably worth a Honda today.

 

Right-on- those were the days, I also used to go the route of spreaders, etc, for woodcock in the 20 bore, as well as in the .12.
: After reading one particular article on small shot sizes and head shots, I started loading 2 ounces of 8 1/2's in the 10 bore, some standard Imp/Cyl choke patterns wingshooting, and full choke loads for ground (water) slousing crips & shooting Mallards, Widgeon, Pintail, Gadwall and Teal, called in, over decoys - worked perfectly out to 35yds or even 40. It only took a different wad column to achieve the different pattern results needed & lots of time on the pattern board, and counting pellets. I only got to use the tight patterning 8 1/2's for ground slousing my buddies cripples - mine came down dead- every time- no crips with the fine shot and no pellets in the bodies, except only a couple in the teal when struck under a wing, generally never in the breast meat, though. I had spent a lot of time on that 10 bore double's chokes, grinding and patterning, :results: & getting it to shoot 94% and 96% with #2's for geese, yet did my best work with #6's over deeks with spreader loads & going for head shots. Ya know, the head on a Greater Canada Goose is almost the same size as a Teal's body.
: Anything tighter than imp. cyl. and 7/8 ounce was too much for the timberdoodles with the 20 bore - THAT was fast and furious shooting & would be epecially difficult with a flint gun, for certain. My hat's OFF to anyone :master: who is successful at that game.

 

Nickel 3 shot at www.[url] ballisticproducts.com[/url]. Nice shot have used it in 5.5 shot and 3 shot,7.5 shot ,nice shot!

 

Primer on turkey loads on Caywoods website under FAQ turkey loads.