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- Thread starter Larry (Omaha)
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There are a lot of mights and maybes involved. That's why I was hoping for some solid scientific test results. The problem with shot cups is finding the right size and dealing with the plastic fouling. My thinking is that the gun is not going to blow up and kill me if I use steel shot and if it somehow otherwise wrecks the barrel I'll just rebarrel the gun.
EDIT: I just had a brilliant idea! Let's let the Black Powder Maniac do the tests!
EDIT: I just had a brilliant idea! Let's let the Black Powder Maniac do the tests!
I don’t remember all the details from when I was experimenting with the bb’s a few years back.
But some did as ord Sgt said, they slugged at 20 yards.
I was shooting them from my 16 gauge cylinder bore (.653) smoothbore, using brown paper bag as a shot cup. Folded on the ends, with no adhesive.
The shot column was at least 3”” long in the bore, bye standers could hear the trailing shot as they hit the backstop/ target.
It did produce a decent pattern with 30 bb’s in a 8 x11 sheet of printer paper at 20 or 25 yards & 8 penetrating the tuna can target I was shooting at..
Note…. The burnt paper shot cup in the pic..
Some would smolder, others completely disintegrated …
I probably shot less than 20 of these type loads and didn’t see any damage too the bore as a result..
I did scour the bore with steel wool wrapped brass wool wire brush with Bore Shine, just too clean any additional crud out Incase there was any..
Or
But some did as ord Sgt said, they slugged at 20 yards.
I was shooting them from my 16 gauge cylinder bore (.653) smoothbore, using brown paper bag as a shot cup. Folded on the ends, with no adhesive.
The shot column was at least 3”” long in the bore, bye standers could hear the trailing shot as they hit the backstop/ target.
It did produce a decent pattern with 30 bb’s in a 8 x11 sheet of printer paper at 20 or 25 yards & 8 penetrating the tuna can target I was shooting at..
Note…. The burnt paper shot cup in the pic..
Some would smolder, others completely disintegrated …
I probably shot less than 20 of these type loads and didn’t see any damage too the bore as a result..
I did scour the bore with steel wool wrapped brass wool wire brush with Bore Shine, just too clean any additional crud out Incase there was any..
Or
I shot a couple of steel loads in my faux trade gun with a card wrap.
No damage done.
No damage done.
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With a cylinder or I cylinder you should have no problems other than possible scoring of the barrel. Ballistic Products make wads for all of their shot including tungsten that will protect the barrel from these type of hard shot. I have an old Mag 10 and using it since steel became law in the early 80s you can see where it has been scored deep enough it will not polish out. That was when I started loading my own and never had that issue again. I use the same wads wraps and such in my New Englander, Tree Hawk and Pedersoli 12 dbl. You will always have a chance of scoring but using some buffer powder and multiple overshot cards greatly reduce the chance
When a gun is fired the steel pellets have no give and what happens is a pellet or two will bounce forward getting ahead of the wad and once the wad catch up the pellet rides the outside of the shot cup right up against the barrel
I’ve lately only been using bismuth shot for my nontoxics but still use the BPI wad, they load easily in my fixed choke New Englander with its cylinder bore and Pedersoli Dbl with its fixed mod and I cylinder bores. The Tree Hawk has screw in chokes and I use that for turkey but do have to remove the full choke to load that wad. Hope this helps and I would just get some bismuth bbs from BPI or Rotometals and not take a chance on having to redo your barrel. Rotometals sells sample size packs and I was getting about 9 shots in bb size and 10 shots in 2 size. Hope this helps as all my findings are from years of having to deal with the imposing laws of using steel and then the development of the other nontoxics instead of lead. I guess it really sucks to be a waterfowler! PS the funds it would take to redo your barrel you could buy a RedRyder and use those Daisy bbs!
When a gun is fired the steel pellets have no give and what happens is a pellet or two will bounce forward getting ahead of the wad and once the wad catch up the pellet rides the outside of the shot cup right up against the barrel
I’ve lately only been using bismuth shot for my nontoxics but still use the BPI wad, they load easily in my fixed choke New Englander with its cylinder bore and Pedersoli Dbl with its fixed mod and I cylinder bores. The Tree Hawk has screw in chokes and I use that for turkey but do have to remove the full choke to load that wad. Hope this helps and I would just get some bismuth bbs from BPI or Rotometals and not take a chance on having to redo your barrel. Rotometals sells sample size packs and I was getting about 9 shots in bb size and 10 shots in 2 size. Hope this helps as all my findings are from years of having to deal with the imposing laws of using steel and then the development of the other nontoxics instead of lead. I guess it really sucks to be a waterfowler! PS the funds it would take to redo your barrel you could buy a RedRyder and use those Daisy bbs!
Air rifle shot is much harder than ‘regular’ steel shot, which is really iron. I wouldn’t putz with it. Maybe at black powder pressures and straight cylinder bores you might get by for a spell
I've used them in my new englander 12 and my renegade .56. Mixed in with other shot. So far I've noticed no barrel damage. I haven't done it many times, as I don't shoot the scatter guns much, but they make a strong pattern. And are cheap.
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