Shortly after the requirement became mandatory that hunters use steel shot waterfowl loads for duck/goose shooting, and given that I was determined to use only vintage side x sides for all my hunting; I conducted my own experiment with steel shot using a vintage Fox gun. The gun was a 1907 vintage A Grade with a set of medium heavy 30" barrels that were not in pristine condition; those barrels were not pitted, but eroded to a "wavy" appearance in a portion of both tubes. So thinking I had nothing to lose, both chambers were opened to 3" (cause even 3" steel shells are light loaded when compared to 3" lead loads); and the chokes were opened to improved cylinder/modified. I fully expected to see longs gouges plowed into the walls of both tubes once the gun was fired; but I never found any evidence that the repeated shooting of steel shot thru those barrels caused any further damage to barrel tubes whatsoever. I certainly wouldn't recommend someone do the same with his gun, and I certainly wouldn't choose that route with a high grade gun or gun having great barrels; but my personal experience with steel shot and this old A Grade A.H. Fox gun was nothing but positive.
