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shooting with steel damages barrels


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Guest cookoff013

everyone knows i`ve used steel.

 

if you look at the cip regulations they are there to help the public. did you know that there is pressure and speed limits for steel cartridges? did you know there is a maximum ammount of recoil too?

 

the cip have limits to stop damage to older guns. so i say, just dont use steel in them. as for the normal benellis and the like, shoot whatever. now i have a sxs thats not steel proofed. i`d like to keep it in one piece.

 

for modern guns i`ll be using whatever.

 

cook

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i went to a gunshop saturday and being a newbie was enquiring on chokes etc i was told if i was shooting with steel shot to leave the gun open on full choke as lead flexes during the choke process and steel does not so therefore will eventually distort the end of the gun if chokes are set smaller is that so ? the shooting ground i shoot from only allows steel and i dont want to buy a gold e and ****** it up

:hmm::hmm::hmm::hmm:

 

If you're only shooting clay loads through a Beretta Gold E you won't have a problem. They're not proofed for HP loads though.

 

Just out of interest, what ground do you use? Never heard of one only allowing steel shot.

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I was talking to a gunsmith (a proper one ) a couple of weeks ago and he was of the opinion that steel shot can damage any shot gun barrel ,steel proofed or not, immaterial of what choke is used . His advice was not to shoot steel shot at all .But if you have to, make sure you use plastic wads and not fibre wads . He said that he sees lots of barrels with deep scrapes down the length of the tubes . Some can be lapped out ,some cannot . Guns can be proofed to shoot steel shot but not proofed against damage of the steel shot scraping the inside of the tubes .

 

Harnser .

Edited by Harnser
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Over the past 5 years i have shot several thousand steel shells in all sizes from 32 gr , 36 gr and the American 1 9\16s loads in 3.5 inch chambered guns with shot sizes from 5s to BBBs. I match the right cartridge size to the right chamber and have not had any trouble with them. In my Browning gold I even use a full choke after choke which is .700 the same as lead full choke.

 

When shooting pigeons i use 32 gr loads of steel in no 4 or 3 in a Kestrel or Aya no 3 game gun. The only slight problem I have had is that if you fire several hundred in a day they become a bit punchy , but no more than some lead shells. The chokes are i\c.

 

When wildfowling i use 3 inch and 3.5 inch loads in a gun made to handle shch big loads and again with no problems. Some of the faster homeload magnum shells are just as effective as the old lead shells and even when using the 32 gr loads out to 40 yards they do a very good job.

 

The golden rules when using steel is make sure you use a gun suited for ther load , always go up at least two and sometimes 3 times the size of pellet than you would have used in lead and do not chance you arm at birds that are on the very fringe or just beyond effective range. Steel is less forgiving than lead and it will not work at fluky 60 yard shots.

O and one other thing , use a good quality shell. There some rubbish ones on the market but you will not go far wrong with the American or Gamebore shells and I have just heard that Express 32 gr loads have improved vastly , but I have not used the new stuff myself.

Edited by anser2
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Guest cookoff013

I was talking to a gunsmith (a proper one ) a couple of weeks ago and he was of the opinion that steel shot can damage any shot gun barrel ,steel proofed or not, immaterial of what choke is used . His advice was not to shoot steel shot at all .But if you have to, make sure you use plastic wads and not fibre wads . He said that he sees lots of barrels with deep scrapes down the length of the tubes . Some can be lapped out ,some cannot . Guns can be proofed to shoot steel shot but not proofed against damage of the steel shot scraping the inside of the tubes .

 

Harnser .

 

harnser,

i`ve got a few issues here. sure steel shot can damage the shotgun, but more and more reports are the forcing cones and the end of the chamber takes a beating. that is well before the choke. it is illegal for any manufacturer to sell cartridges that dont conform to the cip. the rules are very strict. the wad must protect the barrel. the shot must not come in to contact with the barrel. also the words steel shot must be present on the outside of the cartridge.

i`ve seen a few mistakes too, on the outside of a gamebore box says these are ok to use in a 2.5" gun. but the shells are 70mm. also someone online advised another guy to use the 70mm steel cartridges in a damascus gun !

just because the box said the chamber was right.

 

what you are discussing in a way is cartridge selection, some are good some are awful. homeloading is the only way to get a safe and decent load. homeloaders wads are sometimes better than comercial ones.

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harnser,

i`ve got a few issues here. sure steel shot can damage the shotgun, but more and more reports are the forcing cones and the end of the chamber takes a beating. that is well before the choke. it is illegal for any manufacturer to sell cartridges that dont conform to the cip. the rules are very strict. the wad must protect the barrel. the shot must not come in to contact with the barrel. also the words steel shot must be present on the outside of the cartridge.

i`ve seen a few mistakes too, on the outside of a gamebore box says these are ok to use in a 2.5" gun. but the shells are 70mm. also someone online advised another guy to use the 70mm steel cartridges in a damascus gun !

just because the box said the chamber was right.

 

what you are discussing in a way is cartridge selection, some are good some are awful. homeloading is the only way to get a safe and decent load. homeloaders wads are sometimes better than comercial ones.

 

As far as the pressure of the cartridge is concerned I dont think it matters greatly, as any steel shot forced down the barrel of a shot gun in contact with the barrel walls is going to cause scrape damage . My friend was telling me that he has worked on lots of guns with damage from steel shot as I said before some guns could be repaired and some couldnt .He said that he would never put steel through any of his guns .

 

Harnser .

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Guest cookoff013

As far as the pressure of the cartridge is concerned I dont think it matters greatly, as any steel shot forced down the barrel of a shot gun in contact with the barrel walls is going to cause scrape damage . My friend was telling me that he has worked on lots of guns with damage from steel shot as I said before some guns could be repaired and some couldnt .He said that he would never put steel through any of his guns .

Harnser .

 

if i recolect there was a steel shot review done by an independent body that shot bare steel shot through a shotgun and acertained the damage. to get the loads to do that they had to be made specificly to do so. there isnt any load data to support bare steel /barrel contact. so they essentially went out to wreck a gun.

 

but on the otherhand, i`ve heard tungsten doing much worse, and that was fully protected.

 

but we arnt hearing about it. hevishot is twice the maximum hardness of steel. we dont really hear about that either.

 

and another misconception, chromium barrels and steel shot. mention steel shot, and its the first thing said. i`ve chrome barrels cant shoot steel.

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