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Joined: 07 Jan 2015 Posts: 27 Location: Colorado Springs

My apologies if this has been discussed, tried the search and Google and found nothing.

Does anyone have experience/advice on the effect of NP or CP shot on teeth vs lead? If they're anything like steel I'm not interested.

Thx.

- Jon Snider

Hello Jon

The comparison is that these types of shot are harder than lead and will have a greater effect on teeth

Most of us will use a shot size one larger to allow full penetration of the game bird. I also sometimes use the microwave to see if any shot remains in the portion of meat Smile

Mike

Shot of any type is hard on the teeth, but that should be the last thing to worry about. Plated or not, lead shot in the digestive tract is dangerously toxic. I strongly suggest you carefully search for and remove any and all pellets from harvested game birds before cooking and eating them.

I used to pluck some of my supposedly cleanly killed pheasant which did not appear to be shot up and other similar birds and cook them with the skin on. After finding too many stray pellets still in the meat (and probably digesting a few) I now skin them all and carefully search the meat and joints for pellets.

I use a small diameter stainless steel probe rod with the end ground into a dull edged small cup to push shot and feathers out of the meat. I also slice open wound canals and separate joints to make sure I've gotten all the pellets and junk out before cooking the birds. Badly shot up birds get discarded. Not worth the risk. Better shooting with loads which have bigger pellets and fewer of them helps avoid some of the risk. Fine shot increases the risk. I avoid it if I can.

I'm been dain bramaged enough over the years from other causes. Swallowing undetected pellets won't improve things. Rolling Eyes

Don't know much about lead and teeth, but about 20 years ago I bought my last bag of copper plated shoot. The reason was that the shot was not coated very well and some of the pellets had no coating at all. From that time on, up until 9 years ago I used Lawrence Magnum shot.
When I started loading hunting loads in all brass hulls, I tried a variety of different hardnesses of shot including nickel plated shot. I shot 5 rounds of each recipes from 20 yards at 5 yard increments out to 45 yards. Yep, 6 shots with the same load from 20 to 45 yards.
To my amazement the nickel plated shot in 1 oz. of #6 and 1 1/8 oz. of #5 1/2 gave outstanding patterns from my Imp. Cyl. and Mod. barrels. 1 oz. of #7 Lawrence Magnum shot also gave great patterns. I was amazed because the wads in all three loads were card and fiber, not 1-piece plastic.

*Last edited by jschultz on Tue Jan 13, 2015 6:39 am; edited 1 time in total*

deleted

If you bite onto a lead pellet, plated or not, it is probably going to be a bad experience.

You gotta clean your birds well!!!!

Joined: 07 Jan 2015 Posts: 27 Location: Colorado Springs

Just to be clear. I clean my birds, probe all wound channels and have occ used a small metal stud detector. The rare shot stills get by. In my experience, unplated lead won't break a tooth, but steel will.

Microwave sounds interesting - just put it on for a few seconds and listen for the arc?

- Jon

Wow. The things we worry about. Long winter??

Member Joined: 16 Nov 2006 Posts: 1338

Joined: 07 Jan 2015 Posts: 27 Location: Colorado Springs

Joined: 07 Jan 2015 Posts: 27 Location: Colorado Springs

Hmmm. Just read this thread.

http://www.16ga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16846

Plated shot was new to me with the Federal loads I tried last weekend on a pheasant hunt. But maybe I'll just stick to magnum lead. It's worked fine in my 20 ga loads.

The magnim shot of today is for the most part OUTSTANDING ! Almost always as good as it gets . The aprt about what the guys said about cleaning the birds is what you really NEED to do and sounds like you do it . As good as I try to clean them , I chew SSLLLLOOOOWWWWWLY ! It may not break your tooth , but will crack it and you'll know at some later time . ( MAYBE , run your forkful over a MD as you are about to eat it !? Plastic of course ! )

Member Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 1863 Location: Wisconsin

It's going to be a long winter. Reno