Choice of steel

[TIDES EDGE]

I paid £180 for 1000 32gm 5s last year so that must make them cheaper all ready

[Reabrook]

When all these super steel cartridges become as cheap as lead cartridges, will people choose to use them for pigeons, pheasants, rabbits and hares etc.?

They already are and people do

[rjimmer]

They already are and people do

By choice or because they have to?

[anser2]

By choice. Once I leard how to use steel properly I found I was shooting better with it than lead as its so much faster than lead game loads.

[Reabrook]

By choice or because they have to?

I'd say by choice. I choose not to shoot game etc with steel because it doesn't suit my game gun. That doesn't make steel bad or expensive.

[IEH]

I'd say by choice.

 

Spot on, I shot quite a few pigeons with Gamebore Supersteel 4's last year. I found these perfectly capable of doing everything a good lead load would do and they were actually cheaper than my normal lead loads.

 

I'd be very happy to stick with these through my steel-proofed gun but like you won't use them through my game gun.

Edited August 6, 2013 by IEH

[Doriboy]

Gamebore super steel 32g 4s or 3s for duck and homeload for geese

3" case 34 grains maxam CSBO b&p 35g wad and 34g steel BBs

[rjimmer]

Time for PigeonWatch put up a poll for it's member's to vote on, on the home page.

[rjimmer]

By choice. Once I leard how to use steel properly

Enlighten us.

[motty]

Time for PigeonWatch put up a poll for it's member's to vote on, on the home page.

Voting on what?

[anser2]

Rjimmer , what I meant was steel is a very balanced load with say no 3 the pattern opens out as the same distance as the veloicity drops off - about 45 yards , perhaps a little more with full choke.

 

Use pellets at least at least twice and for long range shooting three times the size you would usualy use in lead. As steel holds a much tighter pattern than lead you can use these large pellet sizes without much loss of pattern espically if you up the load to 40 gr or more. A Remmington 3.5 inch load in no 2s will kill long range duck as well as well as magmun lead used to. Also few people think much about choke. In a normal gun you cant use steel in any choke over 1\2. Thats not enough choke for geese at long range. But with a afterchoke regulated for the correct size of pellet its possible to have a very good pattern out to 50 yards with big pellets such as BBB. But with such a load do not fire at geese any closer than 30 yards , it will blow them in half. Finaly steel is quite fast compared with most game loads of lead. It takes a little getting used to and can be a problem if after a long period of using steel at 1400-1550 fps ( some steel I use is 1700 fps ) when you return to lead shell only doing 1000 fps. You start missing behind with the lead.

 

Warning do not use steel in any choke more than 1\2 unless you have a screw in choke made for lead. You can then go up to .700 a fraction under full normal choke for lead.

Edited August 7, 2013 by anser2

[Terry P]

I happily use steel, it works simple as really. rjimmer what is your problem with it, very very few fowlers I speak to have issues with it, I think most of the moaners have very little experience with it and just want to believe the poor rumours banded about.

You have a 10b unless its barrels are Damascus I can see no need to be as cautious as you are, you may aswell sell it and by a modern 3.5" semi auto, you can the use the same shells as you are now but with far less weight to carry on the marsh.

Time to move on, go to the next WFC and see how attitudes have changed.

[anser2]

Correction "

Warning do not use steel in any choke more than 1\2 unless you have a screw in choke made for lead. That should read steel not lead.

[nic]

Both will kill cleanly providing you shoot within a) the guns capabilities, ie pattern b ) your ability to aim c) the ability of your cartridge to carry energy ie range

 

People bringing up old arguments using old data just gives fuel for anti's. This is an open forum and taken out of context some of these comments could be quoted and look very bad. We are already under attack due to the non use of non toxic on birds that end up in game dealers ( yes I know thats mainly from the pheasant brigade), but why give further possible ammo away.

 

Steel has moved on, even in the States.

Edited August 9, 2013 by nic

[ayano3]

Correction "

Warning do not use steel in any choke more than 1\2 unless you have a screw in choke made for lead. That should read steel not lead.

 

So if someone has a 3.5" magnum with Invector Plus chokes system which are made for steel shot they would be fine using over half choke ??

[dodeer]

Found the best steel loads are :-

 

RC 32g 4's

Bornaghi 36g 4's

Gamebore 36g 1's

[muncher]

Well I use full and extra full brielys in my 425 with bbb and have done for many years

[anser2]

Graham , I use American Turkey Chokes ( Undertaker choke by HLS ). Its made for steel and throughs very good patterns ( 70% at 50 yards ) and the choke is .007. A shade under normal full choke. When used with Winchester or Remmington 1 9\16s oz load of steel BBB its does the job on geese very well. I find this combination when use in my 3.5 inch Browning Gold will put at least 1 in every three foreshore geese I shoot at in the bag and often the ratio is a bit higher.

Edited August 10, 2013 by anser2

[rjimmer]

Voting on what?

Would you choose steel or lead shot cartidges for non-wildfowl shooting if they were the same price?

[ayano3]

Are the chokes mentioned available in UK ??

[Terry P]

Are the chokes mentioned available in UK ??

I hear they have stopped making the undertakers, but kickoff and Patternmaster do various steel chokes pal, and they are quite easy to get hold of.

[Reabrook]

Would you choose steel or lead shot cartidges for non-wildfowl shooting if they were the same price?

Which would prove what exactly? Most people would say lead especially those with older guns. Many steel cartridges are already cheaper than lead and as already stated many of us are having excellent results Wildfowling with modern loads and chokes. Try it you may be suprised.

[andrewluke]

Which would prove what exactly? Most people would say lead especially those with older guns. Many steel cartridges are already cheaper than lead and as already stated many of us are having excellent results Wildfowling with modern loads and chokes. Try it you may be suprised.

 

most shooters probably would be surprised how well steel performs these days but it's still not as good as lead(in my opinion),

 

 

andrew

[ayano3]

I still have some of my old Eley Alphamax 2 2/3 in 4's and Eley 3" Magnums complete with rust. I wonder if we will ever use them on the marsh again ?? I will keep them just for the memories I suppose. I have found I can miss just as easy with steel like I did with the lead so they obviously compare equally !!

[rjimmer]

I still have some of my old Eley Alphamax 2 2/3 in 4's and Eley 3" Magnums complete with rust. I wonder if we will ever use them on the marsh again ?? I will keep them just for the memories I suppose. I have found I can miss just as easy with steel like I did with the lead so they obviously compare equally !!

And how many of our steel loads go back and forth to the salty environment. There was a picture of a burst action on here some time back and one of the possible explanations, put forward by an established poster, was that the steel shot may have rusted together. How much to DryLock cartridges cost?