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Non toxic shot


roughshooter
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Good evening gents.

I need to load some 12g 3" goose loads and am leaning back towards Bismuth.
Current price in the states is $149.99 for a 10lb sack which is obviously plus delivery but still looking like a lot cheaper than any of the offerings in the UK.
Itm has gone silly price and ITX is only available in 4's which doesn't quite cut the mustard.
I am not keen on the thought of this super hard TSS as I am not convinced it will not kill the barrel........

So 2 questions - has anyone had any Bismuth from Rotometals?
                             - has anyone got any ITX, ITM or Bismuth for sale at a reasonable fair price? I don't need a massive lot as health conditions mean I can do quite as much as I would like nowadays.
Regards
Graham
Ps also after some once fired 12g Remington cases in 3"

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If your handy you can make your own bismuth shot, you can buy  a kilo of bismuth for just over £17 and alloy it with tin solder , i bought a BB mould for casting BB shot its a bit time consuming making the stuff but it works well, with a goose last week that was hit  with  shot that passed right through the body of the bird and also broke a wing so there is no problem with the shot fracturing like the early stuff.

It is also quite easy to drip bismuth shot but the largest size i could get to work was about  size 3

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1 hour ago, aberisle said:

If your handy you can make your own bismuth shot, you can buy  a kilo of bismuth for just over £17 and alloy it with tin solder , i bought a BB mould for casting BB shot its a bit time consuming making the stuff but it works well, with a goose last week that was hit  with  shot that passed right through the body of the bird and also broke a wing so there is no problem with the shot fracturing like the early stuff.

It is also quite easy to drip bismuth shot but the largest size i could get to work was about  size 3

This is the way to go you can get ingots relatively cheap now, the production up to uk size 4 is possible  on typical lead dropping equiptment, but once you get any bigger you need to mold it and it gets impractical.

For USA BBs Roto metals bismuth is the best option.

 As for TSS its no more a barrel damager than steel which is fine anyway , its mass means pressures are if anything reduced so TSS at its price point is a good safe option.  The 15 weight or 13 weight is cheaper and popular option, but TSS or to be accurate 18 weight is where you can achieve the best performance.

 The mass has spacing to take into account and on 12s and tens the case vollume is a complication, and why small bores are in some ways less fuss.

It all depends what you want and what you want to spend.  You do not need TSS or any other heavyweight,  Steel will work and work well up to what most mortals can shoot.

  So in some ways the HW shot is already OTT, and unless you are a small bore addict or old and infirm need a small gun for its handling,  its probably less complicated expensive and potentially  less controversial to just use steel in typical wild fowling guns, at typical ranges thus avoiding the high shooting bother that lurks under the surface of our sport no matter how efficient you are with what you use.

Bismuth is good in that it to all practical purposes replaces lead in fact it could be argued the slight pellet count increase is a benefit over lead shot size being equal.

 Load bismuth properly protect it buffer it and pay attention to pressures and keeping velocities under 1300fps all help to improve patterns, and if you put a little time in you can make it work just fine.  

 

 

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