Trying Steel Shot on Clays

[Pippin89]

BASC attended my local clay ground on Saturday to give members a chance to try out steel shot cartridges so I thought I would leave a little report on my experience. I have put this in general as lead bullets are mentioned in the current consultation too so it may interest more than just shotgun shooters.

We had 3 types of ammo to try out. Below is a small summary of each.

Eley VIP Steel 28g 7.5
This was the best of the bunch and an ammo that I would happily shoot without a second thought..... other than the price. It had a "plastic" cup style wad made from potato starch. Apparently 24 hours in water and it has disappeared, to combat issues with damage to it before shooting, the tops of the cartridges are sealed with a crimp. I don't think I missed a single clay with these (mostly easy targets, but some quick crossers and sim pairs thrown in so not a cake walk for a distinctly average shooter such as myself), it dusted them all, and they didn't feel any different to shoot to my normal Hull Pro One's.

BioAmmo Lux Steel
This wasn't quite the same story. This ammo was FILTHY. After 10 shots with it, one of the guys pointed out the state of his barrel so I checked mine and it was just as bad. Just 10 shots and it looked worse than after a 100 bird shoot. Definitely noticed more "chipped" rather than dusted clays and a couple of misses. However, I am not good enough to say that is the ammo and not me. But the way it filled the barrel with lumps of crap put me off enough to disregard it anyway. One of the cartridges also became jammed in the chamber after firing and had to be levered out. It only happened the once but it has never happed with my gun before. I can't say it was definitely the cartridges but I remain cautious of it.

Jocker Bio Sport Steel
This was the only ammo shot on the day which was not of concern on the cost front. £220ish per 1000 is cheaper than I pay for Pro One's. BUT, they were quite literally the worst cartridges I have ever shot. Its convenient that the logo is a joker hat because they are a complete joke. They have a paper wad... which exits the barrel like confetti directly into your line of sight. Not the end of the world for a single, although hard to tell if you actually hit it. But for a pair its completely impossible to shoot the second. Trying to pick out the clay from amongst the sea of shredded paper in front of you was impossible. The only up side was the paper appeared to clean out the crap left in the barrel by the BioAmmo....

All in all, shooting the ammo really did change my opinion of making the switch to steel. Its not as doom and gloom as I expected it to be. I would happily switch over to the Eley VIP Steel tomorrow if it were within a reasonable price bracket. Currently its not but steel is cheaper than lead so as more and more people shoot them the price should come down significantly.
Here is the problem though, I spent the hour with a BASC instructor and everything was very positive and we all agreed it was good ammo. But then I popped into the shop at the clay ground to get a price on the Eley cartridges. Turns out the BASC instructor forgot to mention that the clay ground in question (and apparently most of them) do not allow steel shot to be used. It limits the way targets can be set up due to the potential for ricochet's etc. So the whole thing of trying to convince us it was a great idea to switch was a bit of a waste of time because they haven't even convinced clay grounds to allow them to be used.

The good take away though is that, when we are forced to leave lead ammo behind, for clays at least, it won't be the end of the world.

[dromia]

Moved to appropriate forum.

Further mis-posts will be removed.

[Blackstuff]

I presume you where shooting English Sporting or DTL? Rather than Skeet with lovely brick/concrete towers for the steel to go pinging all over from?

No harm in having a back up plan but the whole thing needs to be resisted IMO.

Steel won't be an option for PSG (shooting steel, WITH steel not a particularly good idea ) so for a laugh I looked up the price of Bismuth and Tungsten cartridges - £1600/1000 and £2600/1000

[Pippin89]

I presume you where shooting English Sporting or DTL? Rather than Skeet with lovely brick/concrete towers for the steel to go pinging all over from?

No harm in having a back up plan but the whole thing needs to be resisted IMO.

Steel won't be an option for PSG (shooting steel, WITH steel not a particularly good idea ) so for a laugh I looked up the price of Bismuth and Tungsten cartridges - £1600/1000 and £2600/1000

Sport trap, yes. Although the skeet towers at that particular ground are wooden so I can't see that being an issue either. There was some concern over incoming targets a ricocheting steel. I can't see that either to be honest. If the steel hits a clay its either going through or has so little energy a ricochet really isn't a problem. As you say, solid structures and even the traps themselves are the biggest problems for which grounds don't currently have a solution.

Good point on PSG, although I guess when it comes down to it, alternative target material could be an option. Bismuth and Tungsten are non-starters for just about everyone at this point.

[Blackstuff]

Short of wearing full medieval plate armour for PSG matches I think you're right, the only real solution if lead is banned will be targets made out of an absorbent material, or even clays held on a non-ricocheting material 'stand'.

The problem is there's no material I'm aware of that can take repeated shotgun blasts at average PSG ranges 5-20m that wouldn't be obliterated after more than a few shots, and the amount of clay waste produced would be substantial and not currently a factor, which could lead to PSG venues shutting down or at the very least requiring it to be removed after every shoot which would be extremely time consuming.

[bradaz11]

Short of wearing full medieval plate armour for PSG matches I think you're right, the only real solution if lead is banned will be targets made out of an absorbent material, or even clays held on a non-ricocheting material 'stand'.

The problem is there's no material I'm aware of that can take repeated shotgun blasts at average PSG ranges 5-20m that wouldn't be obliterated after more than a few shots, and the amount of clay waste produced would be substantial and not currently a factor, which could lead to PSG venues shutting down or at the very least requiring it to be removed after every shoot which would be extremely time consuming.

what about casting thicker plates out of lead, and shooting those?

[Blackstuff]

We normally use 150mmx150mmx10mm mild steel plates which over time become bend and heavily pocked from the lead shot. I'd imagine a lead plate even if cast to the same hardness as shot would be ripped in half in less than 10 shots. Then there would be the cost, and weight for moving them about (a local shoot can use 40-60 plates and a shoot for a Level 3 match can have over 150). I was envisaging either a tough polymer material and forcing greater shooting distances (but even then it would be an extremely costly affair) or using clays on a heavy duty rubber covered metal 'stand' (it would only need to hold the clay at ground level).

Either way lead is the most practical (pun intended) shot material and steel the most effective target material.

[bradaz11]

We normally use 150mmx150mmx10mm mild steel plates which over time become bend and heavily pocked from the lead shot. I'd imagine a lead plate even if cast to the same hardness as shot would be ripped in half in less than 10 shots. Then there would be the cost, and weight for moving them about (a local shoot can use 40-60 plates and a shoot for a Level 3 match can have over 150). I was envisaging either a tough polymer material and forcing greater shooting distances (but even then it would be an extremely costly affair) or using clays on a heavy duty rubber covered metal 'stand' (it would only need to hold the clay at ground level).

Either way lead is the most practical (pun intended) shot material and steel the most effective target material.

sorry, I should have put up my sarcasm sign...

but in all seriousness, maybe something like throom, the self healing type targets may be an answer, although not cheap

https://throomtargets.com/

[Blackstuff]

I was wondering, but tried to be as diplomatic as possible...

Yeah thats the sort of thing i was thinking of but at present they aren't rated for bird and buck shot.

[nic]

seeing as my first shooting love is wildfowling, i have been shooting steel for the last 25 plus years. tbh i would be just as happy not to shoot lead again.