Different shot size

[escortmagnum999]

Myself and a mate went for a wander tonight to shoot some rabbits. When we got back we had a cuppa and I cut some cartridges open just out of curiosity more than anything. The pellets are of different sizes (in the same cartridge) which shocked me to be honest. Is this normal? if it says 5s surely it should contain only 5s? The cartridges are eley vip 20 bore 28 grm. Anybody else found this? are we trusting cartridges makers too much?

[Will Poon]

How much in size diffrence were they , I've opened up some cheddite 7.5 and 8 they were all ok to me

[sitsinhedges]

I thought they could be half a size either way and still be called whatever is on the cartridge.

[Underdog]

I wudna worry about it.

I use to reload different sizes all mixed anyway and they were brilliant.

 

U.

[Guest cookoff013]

i usually select an appropriate shotsize, or larger.

 

alot of guys use 6s for everything, but it can be advantge to shoot a mixture. i`ve used 36g 2s and 4s on rabbits, 32g on rabbits, 30g 7s on pheseant, 36g #4s on goose, 28g 7.5s on pigeon.

 

for ground game those 36g #4s and 2s did a great job. but i can see why limiting to #6 is done, shot fallout.

[fabarm gamma boy]

iv had loads of carts opened and not yet found mixtures but heard a few that have!

[Floating Chamber]

The ORVIS 'DuoShot' 12 gauge shell contained 32gram of 8s and 9s. These were dispensed by two separate feeds on the loading machine. Exported to USA and very popular with the Skeet Shooters there.

I still have a couple in my collection.

[escortmagnum999]

thanks for the replies, its more common than I thought.

[aister]

I opened a shell once and found a mixture of 4's 3's and BB's it was meant to be no 3's.

[casts_by_fly]

you have to keep in mind how they make and sort shot. The easiest wy to visualize it (though not 100% accurate) is that they start from molten lead in a shot tower and pour it out. It drops 100' and in that time different sized pellets form. When it hits the ground it is all solid, but different sized. It then goes through a series of mesh where the biggest shot are sieved out first and the finest last. In theory you should be able to sort the shot to the exact shot size. In reality, the mesh wears out, there are spillages, etc and it gets mixed. The tighter the tollerance you impose, the higher the cost of the cartridge. The same goes for sphericity. The more perfectly round you need the shot to be, the more pellets you are rejecting in the sorting process and the higher the costs are.

 

thanks,

rick

[Underdog]

I made some terrible shot once from soft lead, it was full of voids and all shapes.

I saved it just incase etc.

 

Last summer I used it in my muzzleloader on woodies that were no more than 25yds and it worked fine.

 

I don't get to hung up on shot shape anymore, I just adjust my shooting distance to suit the load!

 

 

U.

[sitsinhedges]

yep, that is pretty ****

[Underdog]

yep, that is pretty ****

Yeah I know,,,,I keep waiting for a kind gent to offer me some

 

U.