BB's ????

I came across loads of .177 bbs at a garage sale. No rust, bright and shiny. anyone used them for muzzloading?

In a bag they make a dandy rest for benchrest shooting. That's the closest I'd let them get to a bore.

HAW HAW HAW !!!!! :rotf: Can always count on Brown bear for the straight dirt ! thats what I thought.

Unless these steel BBs are the softer variety used in modern suppository guns for shooting Migratory Waterfowl, AND the barrel of your shotgun is made of steels that are rated safe to use with these "non-toxic " steel shot loads, I would not use such a bag of shot for anything OTHER THAN a rest for my rifle at the bench.

You might be able to use these If you make a Shot cup using 2 strips of Mattress ticking, oiled, and laid cross-wise on the muzzle, to give you a double layer of protection, keeping those pellets from rubbing against the bore. Each strip should be wide enough to cover half the circumference of the bore with a bit of overlap, so that NO pellet can rub against the bore. Use a small Gauge wad inside the cup to maintain the shape, and help "release" the column of shot at the same time, after the "leaves" open up on the fabric cup. Tighter patterns Might also be obtain by inserting a Card Stock collar inside the fabric cup, before the shot is loaded, with the length of the collar being enough to encircle the shot column complete with some overlap, and the width of the collar being "tall " enough to provide a protecting barrier between the entire height of the shot column and the fabric cup. The Collar will separate from the pellets After the leaves of the fabric open, delaying the separation of the load of shot for a few milliseconds, and allowing the column of shot to travel a bit further down range before the shot begins to open up into a pattern.

Shot collars made of early plastics were used before we had One-piece, molded Shot cups for suppository shotguns. Since Plastic is Not traditional, and really has no place in shooting a MLer shotgun(IMHO), tough fabrics, and paper collars can be substituted for the plastic.

The nice thing about fabric cups is that they can be made to fit barrels with muzzle chokes, either fixed, or screw-in types. Given choked barrels, these cups can produce even tighter patterns at ranges out to 35 yds, and possibly beyond.

Most of the .177 BBs are and Were designed to be used in spring loaded, and Air "BB" guns, Not in Shotguns. :hmm: :surrender:

The BBs Steel "shot" made for shotguns are a true .18" in diameter, and cannot be used in the BB guns without damaging and ruining those brass tubed barrels. ( They don't do a lot of nice things to the few steel barrels found on high-end BB guns, either! :shocked2: ) IN both cases, if you can even get a .18" diameter steel BB into that air gun, it will most likely be stuck in the barrel, and the barrel will be ruined trying to remove it. This comes from two different dealers in air guns who have had dozens of such guns brought back in for repairs, and had to order new barrels for the guns. :surrender:

I don't use steel shot - but then I don't hunt migratory birds. If your m/l can accept steel shot have at it.

Stumpkiller said:

I don't use steel shot - but then I don't hunt migratory birds. If your m/l can accept steel shot have at it.

Click to expand...

It's common knowledge among steel shot users that air gun BBs are disastrous to bores, even those made for steel waterfowl shot. Anyone with even brushing familiarity with shotshell reloading and steel shot knows that. The airgun BBs are much harder, and single firings through modern shotgun barrels have ruined them. Anyone tempted to try airgun BB's should place an order for a replacement barrel before they fire the first shot.

There you go. Listen to Mr. Bear.

As I said, I'm a lead-head. I do a lot of shotgun relaoading . . . one at a time as I'm standing beside the muzzleloader.

Never reloaded a shotshell or used steel shot. :idunno:

looks like I got the makings for a fine bench rest bag.................. :grin:

It'll be a whole lot lighter than a bag of lead!

I think it's a great trade item, or you could donate them to a Cub Scout camp, where they will be flung downrange with glee, and you could take a tax credit in addition to bringing grins to Cub's faces.

Back in the later 60's (the mind is a little foggy about them days)I tried them in a barrel I made from seaml;ess tubing (Yea I know what some of you are thinking ) with a screw on choke made of 12l14 steel. Just one shot left the choke piece with "little grooves " in it! :nono: :nono:

I was thinking of steel shot too. I got 200- 1 1/8 oz. 12 ga. shot cups I remembered that I had from what Paul wrote above. I tried one in my bore and they fit perfect. There the Remington collapsing columb type. I have a couple of big boxes of steel BB's. I filled up a shot cup and weighed them on the scale. 280 grains.

trent/OH said:

It'll be a whole lot lighter than a bag of lead!

I think it's a great trade item, or you could donate them to a Cub Scout camp, where they will be flung downrange with glee, and you could take a tax credit in addition to bringing grins to Cub's faces.

Click to expand...

What a fantastic idea !!! I will do just that. Thanks Trent.