16ga.com ~ View topic

Joined: 31 Oct 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Eastern Oregon

Local dealer is selling reclaimed shot. It has been cleaned and bagged. He is selling it at a substantial savings. Any experience with reclaimed shot? Would you recommend or buy any?

Thanks in advance

Roundup

I have never personally used reclaimed shot, but I have known a couple people who did. They used it for practice and bought new shot for registered shooting.

that's what our major trap club did . Reclaimed for practice - the good stuff for regis. Even our w-h-o-famer does . They say they can't tell a difference .... I don't know what Nick's been up to lately , but he was really likeing his Middleton teardrop shot .( If you had a way to screen the reclaimed , that'd probably be a plus . Otherwise you are shooting a mixed bag of sizes . Don't really see that as a problem though .)

I used a lot of the stuff when I lived in the Orlando, Fl area and regularly shot targets at the Orlando Trap and Skeet Club. In my experience, cleaned and sieved reclaimed shot gleaned from the back areas of trap ranges is usually pretty good. It's fine for trap singles and #1 doubles targets, close in sporting clays, 5-stand, or for skeet if there is no ban on pellets bigger than #8 in place. Most regular trap shooters use magnum shot for everything. Most deformed pellets leave the patterns long before they end up at the terminal end of their range. So most of the reclaimed pellets are extra hard and reasonably round. A mix of #7.5 and #8 shot in a load won't make too much difference in the pattern at typical singles target ranges.

I would never recommend the stuff for H-cap targets of any kind though. That's when nice dense patterns of very round pellets are needed for gettting the best results.

It would be fun (tedious, really) to run some comparison patterns between reclaimed and new bagged shot.

Admittedly, I was still learning the basics of proper trap shooting during my years in Orlando. However, between chilled, magnum, or reclaimed shot, I couldn't tell any difference from my singles breaks. I wasn't "much punkin" as an H-cap shooter at the time, so I couldn't make a fair comparison from my limited experience gained during that time.

I can now though. H-cap is more demanding. Shots must be executed more precisely to score well. So only the best loads should be used in support of the effort. Just how it is.

Member Joined: 31 Dec 2009 Posts: 61 Location: Salina, KS

roundup, are you buying it from Connie's?

You would be amazed what reclaimed does for dove and quail hunting!
It is great
Mike

Joined: 15 Jun 2010 Posts: 1358 Location: Twin Cities, MN

I have reloaded a bunch of reclaimed shot and some of my friends have shot large amounts of it. Some batches are cleaner than others and even if it has been run over a magnet almost every bag will have some steel pellets in it, at least mine has. I pour some into a shallow bowl and swirl a magnet through it. I have had up to 100 steel pellets in a 25# bag. I have also shot patterns with 1 oz loads in a fixed modified choke 12 ga barrel comparing hard West Coast 7.5s vs reclaimed. The reclaimed threw patterns that were about 1 choke more open than the hard shot with more flyers. Just to make myself feel better I mix 1/3 new shot (7.5 or Cool

and 2/3 reclaimed. I have shot it in several 12 ga guns with screw in and fixed chokes, in my 16s and 20s. I do not shoot it in the little guns, but several of my friends do. It works great, but I do shoot tight chokes as a rule. I would not shoot it at registered SC or trap. Try some. Just make sure it's clean and free of steel pellets. Except for a few long on edge targets you will not be able to tell the difference.
Regards
Jeff

Joined: 31 Oct 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Eastern Oregon

Joined: 31 Oct 2006 Posts: 5 Location: Eastern Oregon

I do not shoot formal trap anymore. Do a lot of informal stuff with shooting buddies. Most bird hunting confined to chukars and grouse with an occasional pheasant thrown in. Would use the reclaimed for the informal stuff and use some of my "hoarded" 16 ga. stuff for hunting. Retail 16 ga. stuff isn't all that easy to obtain locally.

Joined: 29 Jul 2013 Posts: 61

I'm new to 16 ga reloading and have been reloading 12 for only a little over a year now. But I have reloaded and shot 4000 rounds of 12 ga loads this year between me and my daughter. Mostly for 5 stand.
I have used both and have seen no difference (except price). My gun club goes to great lengths to clean, wash, and filter the shot. we have a 7-1/2 or higher rule at the club so its mixed between 7-1/2, 8's, and 9's.
It is substantially cheaper which I like. The store bought lead doesn't help me at all, my daughter still kicks my butt everytime !
We load only reclaimed shot now.
Hope this helps some ?

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

With reclaim it's best to look before you leap---ask him to open a random bag for inspection.

I have used reclaimed. As far as shooting the stuff at skeet and short yardage targets, it seemed just fine to me.

What I didn't like was that it would bind the bars in both my 9000's and Sizemasters. The stuff I used was clean and had graphite on it, but the misshapen pellets would mess up the reloading process now and again.

I stopped using it, but only because of the bar binding problem.