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Steel shot birds and still no joy


JBS
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22 minutes ago, clangerman said:

steel will do wonders for the corvid population crows and rooks will be big fans lol 

Why? 

1 hour ago, old'un said:

Not criticizing your choice, but it does make me wonder why some people will not shoot pigeons if they have no outlet for them but are quite happy to kill and dump black?

This. Pest control is pest control. If I told the farmers round here I won’t shoot his pigeons unless I have an outlet, he’d get someone else to do it. Ditto for corvids and rabbits. 

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23 minutes ago, London Best said:

Strange how some folk say it doesn’t work on crows and pigeons. It has worked just fine for me on ducks and geese for twenty years.

🙂I was thinking similar.  Can’t really comment on the geese, but many a Mallard has succumbed to steel 3’s from various of my guns over the years. 

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3 minutes ago, Scully said:

🙂I was thinking similar.  Can’t really comment on the geese, but many a Mallard has succumbed to steel 3’s from various of my guns over the years. 

I shot my first and so far only canada goose with a Baikal sxs loaded with Layvale Hunting Steel 32g 4's. I can testify that it works.

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28 minutes ago, PeterHenry said:

I shot my first and so far only canada goose with a Baikal sxs loaded with Layvale Hunting Steel 32g 4's. I can testify that it works.

That’s the badger!

Exactly what I used, and through a Spanish SxS choked true cyl and quarter. 
Work alright.......big time!

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1 hour ago, clangerman said:

because any corvid would be a fan of something with the range of a water pistol 

Steel works very well and very effectively if it didn't nobody would buy it would they ,to say it doesn't is complete and utter nonsense .

when some of the early shells came out 10 years or so ago I tried them and some where dire and very slow ,things have moved on and improved out of all recognition ,now many educated shooters actually prefer steel .

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1 hour ago, clangerman said:

yes both half a slab has been keeping the back door open ever since it’s a done deal anyway now we are going to be stuck with it 

Half a slab of what brand ? As I said some of the early stuff was dire,I remember some of the early Lylvale express stuff in a light blue box  being unusable ,now there are some top quality shells available we can't all be wrong .

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29 minutes ago, holloway said:

As I said some of the early stuff was dire,I remember some of the early Lylvale express stuff in a light blue box  being unusable

Serious question, how have they improved,

 

37 minutes ago, holloway said:

Steel works very well and very effectively if it didn't nobody would buy it would they

I can honestly say i don't know a single shooter who uses steel for any thing other than having some for a bag filling drive on a poor driven day 

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1 hour ago, 8 shot said:

Serious question, how have they improved,

 

I can honestly say i don't know a single shooter who uses steel for any thing other than having some for a bag filling drive on a poor driven day 

 I can't seriously believe that after all of the discussion especially on this forum taking into account all of the first hand experience especially from the modern law abiding wildfowling members who have been using steel for donkeys years that anyone can doubt that it is effective and humane .

To answer the first question how has it improved ? Because the commercial cartridges have been developed utilising specially developed powders that can increase velocity and keep pressures safe .

secondly why would gameshooters use steel ? They don't need to so how can you expect them to change ,so of course none of them would use steel by choice to say it doesn't work is an insult to all of us who use it regularly.

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50 minutes ago, holloway said:

They don't need to so how can you expect them to change ,so of course none of them would use steel by choice to say it doesn't work is an insult to all of us who use it regularly.

I patterned some Eley EcoWad 32g #3 saturday afternoon and admittedly was pleasantly suprised beautiful patterns out 40 to 45 yards after that unuseable compared to a Lead equivalent

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7 hours ago, 8 shot said:

I patterned some Eley EcoWad 32g #3 saturday afternoon and admittedly was pleasantly suprised beautiful patterns out 40 to 45 yards after that unuseable compared to a Lead equivalent

What chokes did you use ? It patterns tighter than lead  for most ,beautiful patterns at 45 yards then unusable why ? why not use a tighter choke or is your gun fixed ?

 

8 hours ago, clangerman said:

as some charlie is bound to post a yt vid that’s not edited rubbish but warts and all using both in the hide won’t be long before we know who’s right 

Ok .......i don't bother with YouTube.

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8 hours ago, clangerman said:

as some charlie is bound to post a yt vid that’s not edited rubbish but warts and all using both in the hide won’t be long before we know who’s right 

Geoff Garrod. Whether it is unedited or not is a question you could ask him. Alternatively you could do it, as you say you’ve used both. 
Let us know how you get on. 👍

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After using steel for a year my findings are that for a start I convinced myself there were more wounded birds, the range was greatly reduced and my ratio was terrible compared to lead.

However, I now realise it was all in my head, yes there are wounded birds but no more than with lead, range over decoys shooting from a hedge or roosting in a wood are no different as far as I can now tell and my ratio has actually improved over shooting lead. I don’t claim to be the best shot and almost always shot pigeons at 2.5:1 this went to 3:1 when I first started using steel but is now pretty much a constant 2:1 

The real shame is that there is still no outlet for them, people offer to take them and then don’t get back to you or make up excuses, I miss being able to run in as many as we had shot straight to the game dealer 😞

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43 minutes ago, JBS said:

After using steel for a year my findings are that for a start I convinced myself there were more wounded birds, the range was greatly reduced and my ratio was terrible compared to lead.

However, I now realise it was all in my head, yes there are wounded birds but no more than with lead, range over decoys shooting from a hedge or roosting in a wood are no different as far as I can now tell and my ratio has actually improved over shooting lead. I don’t claim to be the best shot and almost always shot pigeons at 2.5:1 this went to 3:1 when I first started using steel but is now pretty much a constant 2:1 

The real shame is that there is still no outlet for them, people offer to take them and then don’t get back to you or make up excuses, I miss being able to run in as many as we had shot straight to the game dealer 😞

Yes it is a shame that there is no outlet for them ,but I suppose if they are shot as a pest control measure then we shouldn't really worry too much about dumping them ,but to many of us it just doesn't seem right.

when I used to decoy pigeons I used to start wondering what I was going to do with them ,20 ish seemed reasonable and I could always use them myself.But I would shoot for my own sport and the table ,didn't feel that I needed to justify it as long as I used them for the table.

A large bag must cause a problem or two.

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6 hours ago, holloway said:

What chokes did you use ? It patterns tighter than lead  for most ,beautiful patterns at 45 yards then unusable why ? why not use a tighter choke or is your gun fixed ?

 

Ok .......i don't bother with YouTube.

I used Teague 1/2 choke, there was very little difference from 20 to 40 yards then got very sparse, not a consistent killing pattern on a pheasant let alone a pigeon or partridge in my opinion and somewhere between 50 to 60 yards barely registered a hit on a sq.m cardboard box. I going to do it again with some proper patterning card if I can get some and do a lead equivalent at the same yardages 

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3 hours ago, 8 shot said:

I used Teague 1/2 choke, there was very little difference from 20 to 40 yards then got very sparse, not a consistent killing pattern on a pheasant let alone a pigeon or partridge in my opinion and somewhere between 50 to 60 yards barely registered a hit on a sq.m cardboard box. I going to do it again with some proper patterning card if I can get some and do a lead equivalent at the same yardages 

So if you had a full choke in what would you consider a reasonable shotgun range ?

 

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