Steel shot

[BrownBear]

Just to compound things, a 16ga wad only holds 7/8oz of steel shot, so I'm not expecting much range even with a tight pattern - MAYBE 30-35yds with Fe #2 or #3 for ducks, if I'm lucky AND I can get the patterning at 1300-1330fps. If this does work, I'll still stick with BiSn #4s for for geese.

Joel

I haven't tried the experiment since my ML shotgun went down the road, but I can offer some ballistic comparisons for your 16 gauge loading if they're useful.

I regularly hunt a couple of spots that limit range to around 30 yards in two directions and 40 in the third. I use an O/U 20 gauge with 3" steel shot loads, 1 oz of shot at around that velocity. In my 10 year or so experience doing it this way in this particular spot, I've settled on #3 steel for the best crossover between penetration and pattern density. Anything in the 30 yard or less range is dead when I do my part with the 3s. If I go for it at the extreme of the 40 yard range I'm likely to cripple, so I'm saying range is something short of that whether using #2s or #3s.

All that's with a tight-patterning shotgun. With more open chokes and 1/8-ounce less shot, I'd surely use the #3s rather than #2s and I'd expect problems with consistency past 30 yards.

Guesswork for sure, but I'm pretty sure it's a good guess.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

... All that's with a tight-patterning shotgun. With more open chokes and 1/8-ounce less shot, I'd surely use the #3s rather than #2s and I'd expect problems with consistency past 30 yards.

Guesswork for sure, but I'm pretty sure it's a good guess.

Thank you. Real-world experience is valuable, and I don't have much with steel shot. I was leaning towards #3s as well, but wasn't certain about adequate penetration at these velocities and ranges, and this is all presuming the combination would throw a modified pattern or better. So I may be able to get a less-expensive 25 or possibly 30yd duck load.

Regards,
Joel

 

[texcl]

I have settled on #4 steel and #3 steel with #3 as my favorite, I find that #2 doesn't pattern as well and causes cripples, now my loads are in the 1500fps range, I once got some #4's with a 1/4oz more shot but were only running 1200fps and I got more cripples, I would have been better off with either bigger shot or less shot but faster their seems to be a magic line. I was thinking of using heavy load of #2-bb shot in my fowler and try to get 1100-1200fps, but then it occured to me that modern wads might not be deep enough to hold the amount of shot I want to make up for the larger pellets. The real anwser to me is to use a 10ga. with big steel and a heavy load at close range, a better solution would be to lift the lead ban which is lame. I am lucky I live where I do, I have literally shot ducks and geese in my front yard, and I set up early canada goose spreads about 300 yards south of my house, I have had over 500 ducks come in, in one group while hunting and have had days where we shot most of our limit before we even set up, in the last 2 years there was only one duck hunt that I came home without my limit, I think. This year is set up to be really phenominal, we are just crawling with ducks and have tons of water, I think I like duck hunting even more than deer hunting (that is until deer hunting roles around).I've entertained getting a pedersolli 10ga. double but I just don't like them. I really dig single barrel halfstock flint fowlers. When dunlap's kit comes out I'm going to see how much an extra barrel would cost and if it is not over $300 I will probably get one to experiment with. My biggest fear is scoring of the barrel and because of that I'm not willing to try it on my pinned barreled guns. I have thousands of steel loads through my auto-5 and bennelli m-2 with no scoring so I would think it could be done with modern ml barrels.