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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:27 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy

My personal experience is that 7/8 oz. steel reloads perform pretty solid. For mallards I use #4 in the skeet choke and #3 in the I/M barrel of a Lefever. Results? Clean kills to 40 yards in the open barrel and 50 with the tight side and 3's. Canada geese? #2 in the open barrel and #2 or #1 in the tight side. Same results as with the ducks. If I need to make kills beyond 50 yards I reach for a 12, or if the chips are really down and I know I need it, the 10 ga.

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shouseal
PostPosted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 2:41 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 07 Aug 2012
Posts: 52
Location: Michigan

Savage16 wrote:
I don't do facebook but got Sporting ammos ph# off the link. Their 16 ga ammo is $19/box. 1's through 6'sof steel. Might do smaller on request. Doesn't recommend the 1's in 16ga. Willing to do mixed shot sizes on cases and cases are $180 . Shipping is extra and done UPS ground. Wondering if John or Shouseal have tried the Federals in #2 and how it compares to Sporting Ammo's loads


Yes, I've used Federal's #2 steel in 16 ga. While I like Federal ammo quite well generally, this load wasn't cutting it on big ducks beyond 30 yards, or geese beyond about 20 yards.

Sporting Ammo II loaded me a case ($180) with 5 boxes of #2 and 5 boxes of #3 nickel plated steel at a genuine 1450 fps. I picked them up, so no shipping. They performed markedly better than the Federal #2 steel.

I've chronographed factory waterfowl loads and the rarely live up to the claimed velocity. Sporting Ammo II does. The visit was interesting. It's a very small operation in a very rural, farming area of Michigan's thumb, between Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. He checks the loads for proper performance when using new lot numbers of components and even has a pressure testing gun there to ensure that his loads are within industry specs and safe.

Steve

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John Singer
PostPosted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 10:59 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 03 Sep 2014
Posts: 398
Location: Rochester, MN

Savage16 wrote:
I don't do facebook but got Sporting ammos ph# off the link. Their 16 ga ammo is $19/box. 1's through 6'sof steel. Might do smaller on request. Doesn't recommend the 1's in 16ga. Willing to do mixed shot sizes on cases and cases are $180 . Shipping is extra and done UPS ground. Wondering if John or Shouseal have tried the Federals in #2 and how it compares to Sporting Ammo's loads


I have tried the 16 gauge Federal #2 steel. For me it has underperformed on ducks. I find myself shooting at closer range and using multiple shots to drop a duck.

The Sporting Ammo loads easily out perform the Federal loads.

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wahoo
PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 7:38 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 22 Jan 2015
Posts: 345

With all the traveling to hunt that t it sounds like you are doing Rick, wonder how hard it would be to open a UPS Store Postal Mail Box acct, someplace just accross the CA border in another state? These PMB accts work great. Somebody always there to sign for your delivery, and it sets there waiting till you can come pick it up. I think mine is running about $40 a quarter.

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1929 Thomas Bland 16ga SxS 28"
1947 Browning A5 16ga 28"
1948 BRNO 16ga SxS 27.5"
1949 Stevens 530 16ga SxS 28"
1950 Stevens 311A 12ga SxS 30"
1952 BRNO 12ga SxS 28.25"
1963 Superposed O/U 12ga 27"
1968 V Bernardelli SxS 12ga 28"
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Ray-citori
PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:19 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 05 Feb 2015
Posts: 267
Location: New Braunfels TX

www.rotometals.com for bismuth for reloading just an FYI
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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 3:49 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy

Something worth watching is Tom Roster's "Field Testing Steel Shot" (1980). I have an old copy of it but it is now available for anyone to view on YouTube. It is the whole half hour film. The real interesting scenes are actual shooting of waterfowl in the wild at measured distances. Post mortem necropsies are performed and even x-rays are shown. It is amazing just how dead these birds fall with ammo that so many claim isn't fast enough, as good as today's ammo, etc.

The real eye opener is when he shoots mallards with #6 steel and a skeet gun at about 16 minutes, 50 seconds. Pay attention to those distances. The comments section will be full of disagreements but I can say from extensive experience that Roster is not lying to anyone.

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Chukar60
PostPosted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:13 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 31 Jan 2019
Posts: 55
Location: Idaho

I well remember when steel became the law of the land. OH how we moaned and gnashed our teeth.
After The first season I forgot what it was like to shoot lead at Mallards.
I did all my waterfowling over decoys and most of it with a Ruger Red Label 20 ga.
I put in more open tubes (prior owner had browning investors installed) and that was the only adjustment I made.
The crew i hunted with were all dedicated decoy and calling fanatics. Shots past 35 yards were rarely taken and frowned upon when they were. Most of us used 20 ga guns.
I never really minded the steel other than the additional cost.
I have not hunted Waterfowl in years. Quail got in my blood......bad.
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MSM2019
PostPosted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:47 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 04 Mar 2019
Posts: 1819
Location: Central ND

Back in 1995 I was staying in Springfield, SD. I knew a few of the guys that were there solely to duck hunt and they offered me a place to stay for a week. My payment was to clean all ducks, pheasants and quail harvested. That was cheap rent and I took on the job.

I went duck hunting with them one day and watched. Limit after limit, stone dead ducks . No Barnum and Bailey Circus acts with 15 shots to kill one duck and cripples.

They were shooting 1 1/8 oz. of #4 steel @ 1350 FPS. I know that because I developed the load for them.

Yes they were shooting over decoys and these guys knew what they were doing. Class A act if I ever saw one.

So how did they do it? Simple....shot placement. When I cleaned those birds there were very few pellets in the breast meat. All were killed up front in the head neck.

Folks say you can't reliably kill birds when leading the head. OK fine with me, shoot #2's, #1's , BB's and keep on complaining that steel is terrible, all the while trying to anchor birds with body shots.

Killing any kind of bird is not about penetration but shot placement. So that video of Roster is a video of good shooting skills not pellet penetration.

Personally I use bismuth in my 16's as most of them are a bit older. When I have to use a 12 then it is #3 steel.

Oh yeah the guys killing those ducks in SD that year were the folks that own Big Foot Goose Decoys/Clinton Decoy Co. Art and Greg Ladehoff, they taught me a lot.

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WyoChukar
PostPosted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 9:37 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 16 Jul 2015
Posts: 2124
Location: Hudson,Wy

One thing the Roster video does show, are X-rays of dead birds, which reveal shot location and penetration. Killing birds cleanly isn't just about shot placement or penetration...it takes both. "You can't git 'em if you don't hit 'em".

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