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#584717 11/20/20 03:05 PM
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Sidelock
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Anyone ever pattern steel shot loads through various chokes? My impression, using Kent Fasteel loads, is that steel doesn't disperse like lead or bismuth.

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That's been well known from the beginning of steel.

Bismuth is similar. My Benelli threw the same patterns IC,M,F.

Tungsten matrix does respond to choke. Some.

There are other non-tox wonder pellets but I quit duck hunting a long time ago and never used any.



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Curious; I hunt geese and ducks in a place that also has ptarmigan. I don't hunt them at the same time, but have given thought to using the same gun. I use Mod and Mod chokes in my O/U Beretta for waterfowl. These pattern F/F. Don't want to shoot little birds with this setup. So, I wonder if using cylinder and skeet tubes would teach the steel shot anything?

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Likely not much.

Wonder why nobody sells cubical steel shot for just this application.

Or maybe somebody does and I'm just behind the times.

But, man, I gotta believe non-round steel is going to slow down in one big hurry and be kind of useless beyond 25 yards or so...


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Has anybody tried any kind of 'spreader' steel loads?

Inquiring minds are mildly interested....


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Winchester blind side steel shells are cubes. They are neatly stacked inside the hull. I have no idea how it patterns but I did use it once on a goose at 40 yards. It worked well.


So many guns, so little time!
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In one word blind side “sucks”. My 391 duck gun hates them. IC and mod huge holes in the pattern. I have been using Kent 4s and 5s with great success.

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I use my Beretta 686 O/U and a 3091 semi for hunting Canada's in MD and ducks in LA. The goose hunting is from a pit, I use I/C and skeet in the 686 and either skeet or I/C in the 3091. I use Kent Fast Steel in both guns, the 686 with #1 steel the I/C and #2's in the skeet tube. In the swamps and marshes of LA I use the 3091 with the steel, usually Winchester #3's but adjust the shot size to the game. For teal, 6's or 7's. I find that my guns with Beretta chokes pattern at least 1 choke size tighter than lead. In fact, they pattern pretty well to the choke size Beretta lists on the choke tube list for steel.

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Originally Posted By: Little Creek
My impression, using Kent Fasteel loads, is that steel doesn't disperse like lead or bismuth.


It patterns tighter because there is no shot deformation from setback or bore scrubbing. Those steel pellets leave the muzzle as round as they were when loaded. No deformation means drastically reduced flyers, which means more pellets stay in the center of the pattern.

Roundness matters!

SRH


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A number of years ago, concerned that some day we might need to shoot nontox at relatively small and fragile birds at close range, I patterned both steel and lead target loads at 15 yards (not overly close for grouse and woodcock, especially early in the season) through a 20 and a 12 with open barrels both choked IC (.005 in the 20ga; .007 in the 12ga). 1 oz loads of Win Expert steel 7's vs Rem Gun Club 8's in the 12. Results were slightly more spread with the lead load, but not by all that much. Using Kent Fasteel 7's and STS lead 8's in the 20ga (both 7/8 oz) I found that I got more spread from the steel load, which really surprised me--but convinced me that I would not be disadvantaged by overly tight steel loads if I had to shoot nontox at woods birds.

I don't intend to shoot steel (or other nontox loads) unless I'm required to do so. For pheasants, unless there are more restrictions on lead in the next few years, I probably have what for me amounts to a lifetime supply of Kent Tungsten Matrix 5's and 6's. 2 1/2" 12ga. I'd likely repeat my short range/open choke test with guns I now own and through which I'd shoot steel just to verify what I observed previously with steel and lead target loads, should--for example--the feds put in place a requirement to use nontox on woodcock. (Which, since they're migratory, the feds have the authority to impose.)

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