Using steel shot?

[Gettysburg63]

Was wondering if I could use steel shot for duck hunting with my flint lock Indian Trade Musket?

 

[ohio ramrod]

steel shot works O.K. in cylinder bore, but it will "grove" choked barrels. How do I know? Been there done that! :hmm: :hmm:

 

[Black Hand]

I've read of people shooting steel shot BUT they were using an appropriate shot-cup. As far as I know, very few/no traditional smoothbore muzzleloader barrels are rated for steel shot (without an appropriate shot-cup).

Some have recommended the shot-cups from Ballistic Products.

 

[Billnpatti]

Yep, you can do that but only if you use a shot cup. Very few smoothbore muzzleloading guns are made to handle steel shot. If you do not use a shot cup, you will damage your bore. A shot cup will effectively protect your bore from damage.

 

[Gettysburg63]

Ok What is a shot cup? Also how do they work and where can I buy them. What do they look like?

Thank you

 

[MSW]

some time ago, a fellow had a shot cup sort of gadget made from pillow ticking.

would that protect the bore?

 

[BrownBear]

I'm the guilty one. And in no way would I expect it to stand up to steel shot squeezing it against a steel bore. My go-to plastic wad for lead when I was using them was the WAA12R. I wouldn't use it for steel, rather I'd go to Ballistic Products for one of theirs. Just don't forget to put a lubed felt/fiber wad under the plastic cup to help limit or eliminate plastic fouling in the bore.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Ok What is a shot cup? Also how do they work and where can I buy them. What do they look like?

We're referring to the plastic sleeve with a slit side and reinforced bottom normally used to load modern shotgun shells. They are available from a number of reloading sources and come in the regular modern bore sizes...therein lies the problem. You need a smoothbore that has a bore close enough to modern bore specs so that the shotcups aren't too large or small. To counter this problem, many flint or cap shooters make their own from paper or even cloth. If your bore is close enough, you can use any of the paper coin sleeves available from the bank. Otherwise, sand or scrape a wooden dowel to slightly under bore size and wrap with paper and glue into a tube. You can also glue a wad in the middle and make a paper cartridge with powder and shot both inside. Some prefer to make holders for shot only and load them above powder, cards and wad or whatever your choice in a shotgun load set-up is preferred. The problem also mentioned is that most of these other methods don't work well with steel shot which almost always requires plastic shot cups. Hope this helps.

 

[Billnpatti]

You can use the plastic ones that shot shell reloaders use. They are available wherever shot shell reloading supplies are available. As an alternative, you can make your own shotcups from heavy paper such as grocery sacks. To do this, you draw a cross on the paper such that the legs of cross are about 1/16 to 1/32 wider than 1/4 the circumfrence of your bore. You will need to cut several of these so make a pattern of something like the cardboard on the back of a notepad. With a pattern, you can lay out a bunch of shotcups at one time by drawing around your pattern on your grocery sack. You will need a dowel that is slightly smaller than the diameter of your bore. To use the cup, pour your powder charge down your bore and start your OP wad only about a couple inches down the bore. (This is important because it is going to support the weight of the shot and keep it from carrying your partially filled cup down the bore before you are finished filling it. If that happens, additional shot poured down the bore will collapse the legs of the cross and the shot will be sitting on top of the cup rather than in it and you will not get the protection from the steel shot that you need). Then sit the paper cup on your muzzle so that the center of the cross is directly centered on the muzzle. Use your dowel to push the cup into your bore. The legs will fold up around the dowel to form the cup that will hold the shot. Press the cup into the bore until the legs are even with the muzzle. Now remove the dowel and pour in the shot charge into the cup. A small funnel will be quite helpful at this task. You will notice that if you have the cup properly centered, the legs each fold up and very slightly overlap to line the bore. Cut the excess leg length off so that the legs are even with the top of the shot. This is important because when the shot cup leaves the bore, you want it to open up and fall away from the shot string without disturbing the shot string. Once the shot is in place and the legs of the shot cup are trimmed, place your OS card(s) on top and seat everything on top of your powder charge. You are now loaded and ready to kill beasties.

Note: Once you know the proper leg length of your cup that you need for your shot charge, you can adjust your shot cup pattern accordingly and then each cup will be the proper length when you cut it out and not need any trimming at the muzzle.

 

[54ball]

Is it 12 gauge? Do you plan to hunt in very close? If it's a smaller gauge you may want to keep your shots to a distance measured in feet, rather than yards, with BP steel.

Steel looses its punch a lot quicker than lead, this is magnified with lower pressure BP.

Some old gooses hunters told of the first season of steel shot, they remarked how sad it was. Where a year before the heavy lead goose shot would reach up and make kill shots on a passing V, the steel would just wound. They said there would be a puff of feathers and the Goose would drop out of the V, struggle and finally spiral crashing at times a mile away. One could not help but to be reminded of B-17s and B-24s over Europe.

So consider a heavy lead substitute for BP and keep your shots very close. Especially with steel. Swamp hunting Woodies where they light amongst you can be very fun but just keep your shots close.

 

[dbutch]

These are shot cups...

The pink one on the left I use with # 6 hevi-shot for turkeys.bp12
The white one one the right is a Multi-meatl shot cup I use with # 2 hevi-shot and #2 Nice shot both non-toxic for waterfowl.
The Multi-metal cup has been modified to fit a 10 ga. Pedersoli dbl.
The cards and wads seal the bore between the wad and powder.
You can find both at Ballistic products Inc.
Both wads are used to protect the bore--
Hevi-shot is harder than the barrels and will score the bore if shot unprotected.Period!

They work!

Here's the components for the patched shot cup....
Remember this was built to keep the lead fowling down on the barrel walls for a tight choked turkey choked barrel...Using lead shot only.
The pink wad bp12 was used as a shot measure only..it was not part of the shot column in the bore.

This is what the recovered patches looked like

This is the very tight pattern the barrel and load threw.
8.5 X 11" target

Needed to add a rear sight due to tight pattern.

 

[dbutch]

Was wondering if I could use steel shot for duck hunting with my flint lock Indian Trade Musket?

Yes you can...protect your bore..
In My 10 ga. Pedersoli dbl I have screw in choke tubes(a pain).
I use the cyl choke tubes with no loading issues.I do not need to remove the tubes to load...Bonus!
To gain a better pattern with non-toxic shot the stiffer the wad used the better the pattern at a longer distance...This has been my boots on the ground experience."Your mileage my vary".
I shoot the heaviest non-toxic shot available push it as fast as I dare and call the birds in close.
Think dove hunting and head shots!
Remember your velocities shooting black powder hover around 900-1100 fps.
These are NOT 1550 fps cf loads.
Keep your bore spotless between shots "I mean spotless!"
Doing pattern testing its amazing the pattern degradation of a fowled bore using no shot cup using lead or other soft non-toxic shot.
Besides its a good thing to smell like a blackpowder shooter when hunting!

 

[Roguedog]

As others have said, it can be done provided you protect your bore with a shotcup. However, I really dislike steel shot. It is a major handicap for me. I have absolutely hammered ducks with steel shot only to have them be wounded and get away. As a result, I have turned to the use of non-toxic lead substitutes. The downside to these is that they are expensive. It is up to you to weight how important a factor the cost is. For me, I only to get to hunt ducks a few times a year. Because of this I want to use a shot type that will remind me of what it was like to use lead. When I put a good shot on a bird, I want it to go down. Just my two cents.

Jeff