Tungsten Polimer matrix and heavy shot are two different products.. There is also tungiron made by federal. The only tungsten ive found for sale in bulk is heavy shot.. Heavy shot will scratch your barrel seriously doing damage without a shotcup, matrix polymer will not.. Loaded matrix is sold by kent.. matrix has similar properties to lead, and can be quite expensive and is not taking off very well, as only the rich can afford. it.. Heavy shot is accepted ok, and then there is a third product going by differnet names that im not familiar with...... one name is super shot.. super shot come in size 5 to 8 and number five is used for geese, and is lethal at modern balistics in modern guns, and the densist of all the shotgun shot type products........... The problem your going to have is that all this stuff, bismuth, heavy shot and even steel will work fine for ducks..
When you get into the big geese such as greater canadas etc, steel wont come close, bb bismuth just wont do a good job, unless your close, and i mean quite close.. the best will be proven to be b heavy shot of all that is made at this time.. The upside is that with heavy shot b in modern gun i can get easily over 90 percent patterns at 40 yards, and 98 and 100 percent arnt uncommon.. It is very ugly stuff to look at..and just cost me 180 dollars for 10 pounds from bucks run................... a great Black powder velocity that are consistent loads run in the 1100 feet per second range with a decent load of shot.. As calibers get bigger its tougher getting a good seal due to the mechanics of a shotgun. Big loads work best in big bores in my opinion.. So velocities suffer, and remember the shot is not made for the lower velocities and big geese at lets say 40-45 yards.. you can get a pattern that will suffice at 45 yards with heavy shot and bp im guessing, but it may not have sufficent pennetration on big geese at 1050 fps.. It just might do it, i dont know at this time.. I would prefert to learn its pennetrations on a patern board and chrono, and phone books rather than trial runs at large geese.. If you use a shotcup your going to be at the pattern board quite abit, getting safe protection for your barrel, best velocity, and a good seal with repeatable shots and fouling problems in the field, dry weather etc........ Im not into shot cups but i feel you will need to incorporate a nitro card, lube and shot cup together for maximum results.. If you get a pellet outside the cup with heavy shot your going to probably get a scratch in the bore.. Felt wads are used under and over the shot in the plastic cup to contain it more safely and mylar is available from balistic products to further protect the bore.. some heavy shot has a big and tiny pellet affixed to each other making it possible for it to protrude thru the plastic.. Last night i used a nippers to cut off a tiny piece of shot on a big tungsten bb and no go. It would have ruined the nippers, as its much tougher than good steel.. .. I use 4 bismuth for ducks with great success out to 40 yards with 16 guage cylinder bore... I may start using heavy shot b for geese with flintlock if i want to risk fooling around with it with my favorite gun.. I dont think a full jug choke is a great idea with heavy shot.. The best thing to come along for bp and tungsten is going to be matrix, as it can be shot in any nitro proofed gun with any standard choke.. The final problem with that, is going to be that it will be made for the modern gunner in mind that shoots it at 1400 feet per second and greater.. This will limit the upper sizes of shot like bismuth was.. The bigest shot available for bismuth was bb and it was simply not big enough for big geese at 40 yards and consitent kills with bp... The biggust matix ive seen is number one, and you can probably get good deals on it in loaded kent shot..It is not selling well around here, and is on sale at this time. Ive bought 10 boxes of number one at 17,50 per box.. It would work great over decoys and up to 30 yards on big geese with a proper load in my way of thinking..Mtrix will not need shotcups. Its hardness tests seem to show its pretty soft, and i dont know if that is a problem or not. but i think from pliers test it is softer than lead.. We must take into acount of your own personal geese size in these conversations.. GREater canadas can get up to 20 pounds here but i dont weigh them.. Im gusssing alot of people have great luck with smaller geese, such as blues, snows,and the smaller canadas.. MOst arguments in this usually come up with game size differences, and some who will wound many geese for a kill......... Ive never liked shotcups and may need to get into using them........... Some tips ive learned here and elswear over the last 10 pluss years.. Fold the petals back before loading so they open properly, this may correct the biggest problem you will have with shotcups, is proper opening on a tough cup designed for 1300-1500 pluss fps.. You will need a nitro card to give seal and scrape the bore fouling on the way down, and solid lube to stop hard fouling problems that will rough up the edges of the shot cup and generally destroy a good seal.. wether you use felt with lube in it or put it under the cup(over thenitro card, or what ever will depend on your tests.. All this is my opinion only and all heavy shot loading data ive seen comes with barrel scratching and buldging warnings,.. One more thing, one of the main reasons for barrel scratching is the shot coming out of the cup at initial firing and then reentering the cup as it catches up down bore called bounce.. if it gets outside the cup it can cause the scratching.. I dont know if this will end up being a bp problem or not.. It will depend on your load and bp troubles that im not aware of with heavy shot.. The modern balistic book i have for heavy shot shows felt wads over and under the shot inside the shot cup to help eliminate bounce.. slower ignition rates of bp may not make this a problem.. Lots of guys have been using shot cups for years and they will eventually figure this thing out. I personally would choose a beater flintlock for this purpose which i dont have.. Ive talked to guys who have shot swans with steel so we will get lots of comments in the future on this,. Please dont belive it all, and do your own pennetration tests and pattern tests.. This is when a chrono will come in, telling you if you getting good consistent seals on your loads when ground breaking this science.. .. Good luck and post your succeses along with your troubles so we can all learn........ NOTE pennetration tests is done with phone book (books in some cases stacked) at distance you wish to shoot, and compared to modern proven loads for the game your after.. all this is my opinion only..
dave..
