doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Where to buy the best quality hard shot today?

I have read that much of the plated shot available today is softer than some non-plated Magnum shot. My question is who makes and where can one buy the best hard lead shot in sizes 5-7 1/2?

Rem and WW shot have been very good, Lawerance is not in the same league. For targets I use Argentine 5% antimony shot. It has been super.

Bill

I used good scientific method gathering this empirical data. Problem is, it's not representative of anything but the tiny samples I tested. Sorta like, I can absolutely swear that one blade of grass in my lawn is 3" long and one is 4" long. However, from that data, I can't surmise whether your lawn needs to be mowed.

It was fun to do and it's one of those things that make me say hmmmmm.

#7.5 shot / Relative Hardness

Lawrence Magnum =100
Eagle Magnum =97
Federal Premium Flyer= 95
B&P F2 Mach = 92
Remington Nitro 27's =91
Federal Gold Medal Paper =91
West Coast Magnum = 91
Lawrence Magnum Copper =87
Winchester SuperSport =84
Federal Premium Field Copper =77
Fiocchi Nickel Little Rhino =74
Remington Nitro Express =73
Winchester Black Diamond Nickel =70
Gamebore White Gold Nickel =68
Remington Game Load 16ga =68
Fiocchi (Italy) HV Field =68

Sorry, when I said Lawerance is not in the same league, my primany reference was uniformity of size and roundness. As far as hardness goes I can only judge by antimony content. Argentine = 5%

bill

Mike, I remember reading a good quantitative piece in Shooting Sportsman that was similar to your findings (in the places that I remember). The similarity implies that there is some valiue in generalizing from your chart.

I've been using Lawrence Copper Plated 6's because I shoot muzzle loaders, and I can tell the copper 6's from the lead 7.5's without my glasses. But, it is a little discouraging that they are softer, as it costs considerably more!

A number of years ago I checked Remington against West Coast (now owned by Lawrence) and the West Coast was hands down the most uniform in size and roundness. Cabala's stocks West Coast in all sizes except #7. Living in Kansas when you never know if a pheasant, covey of quail or prairie chicken is going to come up in front of your dogs nose I prefer #7s for my first shot on upland game. Its not too large for quail, not optimal but adequate for pointed pheasant and just right for prairie grouse.

My hunting load in Eastern Kansas has been 7 1/2 with some #8 spreader loads. I carry a pair of 6's in case, but given I have only had one pheasant shot amidst hundreds of quail in the last few years, it does not make since to stay loaded for pheasant. In Western Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota I go 6's in the right and 5's in the left.

I have a had a good supply of some lawrence copper fives (from 1988) that will soon run out and I have been using up some old BPI Nickel silver from 1990. The new stuff I got from BPI last fall is definitely not as good quality. My only regret is back in the 1980's I had seen this coming and hoarded more shot.

I only go through one to two boxes of 6's and one or less of 5's a season and several boxes of 7 1/2 on wild birds. On preserve birds I am not as picky but try to stay stay with current BPI nickel 8's and 7 1/2. I shoot the nickel as it has less feather draw into the wounds.

I used to 7's but in recent years I have not, I still have a bottle and a bag of it.

I guess what I am hearing is that Lawrence magnum is my best bet for hardness.

Mike,
How did you do the hardness testing and what are the numbers representative of?

Chuck,

The short version is that I did a drop test and compared the degree of deformation by measuring the discs. Lawrence magnum deformed the least so I assigned it a value of 100 and normalized the data.



The boring details involve how I carefully measured 50-100 pellets of each sample to make sure I started with 20 pellets that measured exactly 0.093", regardless of the size distribution within the sample. Wanted to compare apples to apples and control all variables that I could except for hardness. Coincidentally, I did get a feel for roundness, uniformity of size and how true to nominal 0.095" each lot was.

More or less annually ( to insure a new lot), I test a new sample of Lawrence and Eagle magnums (the only 2 routinely available to me) and their relative positions have not changed in the 5 years I've been checking.

Some of the tings that have made me say "hmmmm" :

West Coast magnum is hands down the most uniformly round and true-to-size shot I've seen.

Eagle shot, while second only to Lawrence for hardness, is the shot most likely to be non-uniform in size and often smaller than nominal.

Bagged shot is harder than any shot I've ever found in "premium" target ammo.

Plated/washed shot is often on the soft side.

If I were still in industry, I would have called in some favors had them all analyzed for antimony content, but I'm not interested in paying for myself.

I am impressed and appreciate your diligence. I wish I had the energy and the time to do likewise. Short that I will accept the information fruit of your labors.