Bismuth

[Drayman1965]

Hi all

What size bismuth cartridges does everyone use for duck

Cheers

[JJsDad]

4s

[London Best]

I have both 4’s and 5’s in Bismuth and can’t say I can tell any difference.

[Drayman1965]

Cheers 👍

[B725]

1 hour ago, London Best said:

I have both 4’s and 5’s in Bismuth and can’t say I can tell any difference.

Niether can the duck. 

[Scully]

Bismuth! Didn’t even know it was still made! I still have some I bought over twenty years ago; I recall the face of the lady in the iron mongers lighting up when I asked for a couple of boxes.

How much is a box nowadays?

[London Best]

17 minutes ago, Scully said:

Bismuth! Didn’t even know it was still made! I still have some I bought over twenty years ago; I recall the face of the lady in the iron mongers lighting up when I asked for a couple of boxes.

How much is a box nowadays?

Dunno the price Scully, I’m still using stuff I inherited when an old shooting mate died and I had to clear all his guns for the family. I was told to take all the cartridges.  Not bought any bismuth for 20 years like you.

[Dave at kelton]

I have several kilos for the muzzle loaders. 3 for duck and bb for geese. Unless I am out with the 8 bore I use steel these days.

[Terry2016]

i use 30g 5s eley vip in 20g ok for a flight pond, £30 a box of 25 

[Drayman1965]

42 minutes ago, Scully said:

Bismuth! Didn’t even know it was still made! I still have some I bought over twenty years ago; I recall the face of the lady in the iron mongers lighting up when I asked for a couple of boxes.

How much is a box nowadays?

Gamebore bismuth £29 a box 👍

[Scully]

1 minute ago, Drayman1965 said:

Gamebore bismuth £29 a box 👍

Thanks. What type of shooter are Gamebore targeting to sell Bismuth?  

[B725]

I suppose those who don't want to use steel. 

[Drayman1965]

56 minutes ago, Scully said:

Thanks. What type of shooter are Gamebore targeting to sell Bismuth?  

My Aya isn't steel proof so I use bismuth, don't shoot many duck's so it's not too expensive

[London Best]

I don’t own a steel proofed gun but I do use it in ‘the Spaniards’. The bismuth is reserved for if I need to shoot duck after a game day with the H&H.

[Drayman1965]

6 minutes ago, London Best said:

I don’t own a steel proofed gun but I do use it in ‘the Spaniards’. The bismuth is reserved for if I need to shoot duck after a game day with the H&H.

Which steel do you use?

[scobydog]

1 hour ago, Terry2016 said:

i use 30g 5s eley vip in 20g ok for a flight pond, £30 a box of 25 

I use the same on Canadas on the golf course, luckily they supply the cartridges so no cost, they are very effective on them through a tight choke.

scobydog

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by scobydog

[London Best]

Just now, Drayman1965 said:

Which steel do you use?

I bought a load of Express Hunting Steel in 32 gram 4’s years ago when I was shooting a lot of duck and geese. Even big Canadas died obligingly on a regular basis despite the small shot. ( tin hat on now!)

[Drayman1965]

Just now, London Best said:

I bought a load of Express Hunting Steel in 32 gram 4’s years ago when I was shooting a lot of duck and geese. Even big Canadas died obligingly on a regular basis despite the small shot. ( tin hat on now!)

👍

[Scully]

40 minutes ago, Drayman1965 said:

My Aya isn't steel proof so I use bismuth, don't shoot many duck's so it's not too expensive

Fair enough. I can understand your concerns, although steel won’t harm your gun at all. There are a lot of misconceptions ( spread by scaremongering no doubt ) about steel shot and none steel shot proofed guns. 
 

[Drayman1965]

1 minute ago, Scully said:

Fair enough. I can understand your concerns, although steel won’t harm your gun at all. There are a lot of misconceptions ( spread by scaremongering no doubt ) about steel shot and none steel shot proofed guns. 
 

Yeah I have heard a lot of people still shoot steel through non steel proof but the amount of duck im going to shoot at its not going to break the bank

Cheers mate

[Scully]

28 minutes ago, Drayman1965 said:

Yeah I have heard a lot of people still shoot steel through non steel proof but the amount of duck im going to shoot at its not going to break the bank

Cheers mate

👍

[Dave at kelton]

36 minutes ago, Scully said:

Fair enough. I can understand your concerns, although steel won’t harm your gun at all. There are a lot of misconceptions ( spread by scaremongering no doubt ) about steel shot and none steel shot proofed guns. 
 

 

4 minutes ago, Scully said:

👍

I use eley vip steel for ducks in my AYA no 3 bored out to half and half no problems. I had it bored out for exactly that reason.

[lancer425]

6 hours ago, Drayman1965 said:

Hi all

What size bismuth cartridges does everyone use for duck

Cheers

I can not remember the last time i bought any bismuth, but i think it was for 20bore and english 4s .

  Gamebore are looking to cash in on the low price of raw bismuth at this time, and pushing it hard right now, looking for a meal ticket like they had with ITM back in the day.

  My advice , save your money and either buy bismuth shot reload it yourself, or even reload steel.

 Not many guns you can not shoot normal steel type loads in and be safe to yourself others and your gun.

  Reloading is not for everybody \and you wont save a huge amount in fact nothing if you insist on including your time as a wage in the equation. biut if you want versatility and get what you want when you want it reloading has lots to offer.

  Life is too short to wait for the commercial ammo makers to produce a load that suits what you want exactly only to charge you a premium for the privilege.

  I talked a friend into buying a pacific 155 i heard about local . he never looked back loads all his steel duck loads himself now has genuine 1600fps loads which although not nessasary is what he chose to do and it suits his needs and works great in his gun (mk1 extrema.)

  Reload. whatever bismuth you buy wont be cheap, if you must have bismuth reload that too get again exactly what you want not what gamebore or eley spew out .

 

[Drayman1965]

8 hours ago, lancer425 said:

I can not remember the last time i bought any bismuth, but i think it was for 20bore and english 4s .

  Gamebore are looking to cash in on the low price of raw bismuth at this time, and pushing it hard right now, looking for a meal ticket like they had with ITM back in the day.

  My advice , save your money and either buy bismuth shot reload it yourself, or even reload steel.

 Not many guns you can not shoot normal steel type loads in and be safe to yourself others and your gun.

  Reloading is not for everybody \and you wont save a huge amount in fact nothing if you insist on including your time as a wage in the equation. biut if you want versatility and get what you want when you want it reloading has lots to offer.

  Life is too short to wait for the commercial ammo makers to produce a load that suits what you want exactly only to charge you a premium for the privilege.

  I talked a friend into buying a pacific 155 i heard about local . he never looked back loads all his steel duck loads himself now has genuine 1600fps loads which although not nessasary is what he chose to do and it suits his needs and works great in his gun (mk1 extrema.)

  Reload. whatever bismuth you buy wont be cheap, if you must have bismuth reload that too get again exactly what you want not what gamebore or eley spew out .

 

Cheers mate something to think about 👍

9 hours ago, Dave at kelton said:

 

I use eley vip steel for ducks in my AYA no 3 bored out to half and half no problems. I had it bored out for exactly that reason.

👍

[Guest cookoff013]

bismuth is about 0.88x the density of lead.

were i to invest in a non compromised shotsize for duck would be 4s to 3s. at the relative normal speeds shotguns can "effectively" fire. maybe even using a fibre wad too .... eh?

with my density assay i can comfortably shoot pretty much any nontoxic. this bismuth is fantastic for older, and incompatable chokes. (fixed older crimp style, or silly tight ) like my merkel.

my 12ga  loads started at 25gram steel, in #2s or so. but i think that would be better with a faster powder like csb5. thats what my and everyone elses data says. as for the copper, bismuth, niceshot, itx10, are for the softer  requirements, than hard steel (yeah, steel is hard) and tungsten.

my load is not the pinicle of reloading. it is not the best long range / best patterning etc. it goes bang and i can pretty much say anything in normal range might be in the bag.

there have been a few guys that tried out my steel loads 25g of BB steel has a low pellet count, but it has ~worked.#

if i recolect i was impressed with those itx10. and if i was to go ducking, would be a good tossup between itx10, bismuth, niceshot, in my normal guns or even powershot in the benelli. 

if i were to go that route, these are the shotsizes id use for duck

steel-2s

copper-3

itx10-3

bismuth -3-4

lead-5

powershot - 6s?

Nb. 1300 - 1400fps model