utectok Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 (edited) Ok I bought a slab of steel shot for ducks and as the field I was shooting on yesterday was stubble to be ploughed in I thought I would try them on pigeon and hope the plas wads got buried by the plough. They seemed ok but tended mince close birds and PR*cked far ones. Only really effective 25 to 35 yrds. Also alot of pigeons droped but did not die instantly it looked like the steel passed through them and they lay on the ground suffering. Once I'd realised I checked my fallen birds as I shot them to check it was all over for them. Anyway went back to lead and the birds died in the air. I shot 60 birds about half with steel and half with lead (75 steel carts and 100 lead ones fired poor I know!!!) anyone else noticed the steel passing through the bird not killing it quickly? Atb will Edited September 2, 2010 by utectok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Fudd Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 i used steel 5's and they were fine out to about 30ish yards, over that they were pricking the birds, but i usually keep it down to 30 yards or so when decoying. didnt notice them mincing them up too bad at close range though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 Surely you are both wrong, after all we have had so many Ex Spurts on here telling us how good steel 7.5s are for pigeons so how can you be pricking so many birds with 4's and 5's? I would have said that 32gr 4's in steel were an ideal cartridge if you need to use steel, I have had ducks in the past with holes straight though them. Although it must be hard to shoot clean through a bird and not hit a vital organ. I once had a goose that I shot with a 3 1/2" no. 2 cartridge and it had one hole in the under side and out the top that you could have pushed a pencil through. That was dead in the air. The only thing I notice with steel is the birds tend to bleed more, and when plucking them you seem to find more blood clotting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cookoff013 Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 4s are a really big shotsize. even for pigeon. maybe you should try some other shotsizes? cook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 4s are a really big shotsize. even for pigeon. maybe you should try some other shotsizes?cook. exactly logic dictates the shot at close range will go straight through and if it is in a dense part of the pattern you won't have much worth eating, I've left holes in pigeons while using up some alfamax bb's except they left holes at about 60 yards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anser2 Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 Quote "Ok I bought a slab of steel shot for ducks and as the field I was shooting on yesterday was stubble to be ploughed in I thought I would try them on pigeon and hope the plas wads got buried by the plough. They seemed ok but tended mince close birds and PR*cked far ones. Only really effective 25 to 35 yrds. Also alot of pigeons droped but did not die instantly it looked like the steel passed through them and they lay on the ground suffering. Once I'd realised I checked my fallen birds as I shot them to check it was all over for them. Anyway went back to lead and the birds died in the air. I shot 60 birds about half with steel and half with lead (75 steel carts and 100 lead ones fired poor I know!!!) anyone else noticed the steel passing through the bird not killing it quickly? Atb will" Well from your statement you seem to have killed a higher percentage with steel than lead. To get the best out of steel you need to use a good quality shell. Express are pretty usless despite their claims there is another post on the Wildfowling forum this week that its very slow 950 fps when tested. I use gamebore 32 gr at times in 4s and 3s with no problems to 40 yards. You are realy pushing the range with steel beyond that with 4s. I do not seen to wound any more or less with steel as long as I keep range in mind. I also do not seem to hit the birds badly , but i do use i\c choke most of the time ( but at the moment my game gun is playing up , sometimes firing both barrels at once so having to use the other game gun which is unsuitable for steel- to much choke ) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKPoacher Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 I used some Gamebore #4 steel 32g for pigeon last month. No issues at all. If anything they killed cleaner than lead #6's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utectok Posted September 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 Not sure if I killed more with lead than with steel as I never counted.... Perhaps I was off my game when I started with steel (gambore super steel) and only started shooting straight when I switched to lead? MMMmmm dunno I'll have another go with them. Was a lot of blood though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vampire Posted September 2, 2010 Report Share Posted September 2, 2010 Compared some of my 28g 71/2 steel with my 30g 6 lead and the steel had a lot more shot in it,is this normal ,so far out of the two cartridges i have shot more birds with the steel,is it faster than lead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cookoff013 Posted September 3, 2010 Report Share Posted September 3, 2010 steel gamebore 1400fps. "normal" cartridge 1200fps. extreme pigeons up to 1500fps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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