looking at the guts..

[addicted]

looking around i found this post and it made me want to look into the quality of the shot in the shells i use. 

I think hevi-shot is crap. A few years ago I was chatting with a guy at my local shop where I bought my Beneli and mentioned using hevi shot. He cut open a shell and it was appalling. The shot varied from size 4 to 9 (in a size 6 shell) and some of the pellets looked like retarded snowmen. Very few were round and many had burrs or bumps on them. Ge said he had seena couple scratched barrels from the stuff. I went home and cut open a couple of my own shells and it was the same so I stopped using it. I have heard Remington has improved the production but I hzve never gone back. I use Bismuth from time to time and want to check out Federals new Black Cloud but mostly use steel as it is most cost effective and doesn't seem to reduce my kill ratio.

the first pic is 3 inch size 4 black cloud. the premium steel(shiny stuff) was amazingly uniform and clean.the flight stopper steel was also very cleanly cast

second pic is the cheaper stuff i use. 3 inch size 4 winchester expert high velocity. not too bad. a dimple here and there with a little size difference but not much.

third pic is flightstopper on the left. premium steel in the center. winchester on the right

you guys ever check in on your shot.

[tlbradford]

I don't.  I pattern a load I'll be using, then I let field experience tell me if it is performing as good as I want it too.

[jackelope]

I don't.  I pattern a load I'll be using, then I let field experience tell me if it is performing as good as I want it too.

if you have patterned your gun at 40 yards and it patterns good, why bother tearing apart those shells and worrying about the shape of the BB's?? especially when those shells are like the price of gold...just my .02.
if you're killing birds where you should be, why worry...
engineering solutions to problems that don't exist.

[addicted]

i was just wonderin cuz that guy said that misshapen shot had been scratching barrels

[tlbradford]

I thought, and don't take this as gospel because somebody may know for sure and it could be different, that today's shot cups pretty much keep the shot fom touching the barrel.

[addicted]

I thought, and don't take this as gospel because somebody may know for sure and it could be different, that today's shot cups pretty much keep the shot fom touching the barrel.

yeah. thats why i wonder why we cant just use whatever choke we want as well.

[Shadow Cat]

I saw the same post yesterday doing some research on Kent FastSteel.

[addicted]

I saw the same post yesterday doing some research on Kent FastSteel.

that shoots pretty good outta my nova.  i liked it over all.

[Shadow Cat]

That is what I have been shooting and like it. I just wish I could find it cheaper.

[jackelope]

shadowcat...check your pm's

[addicted]

i like mixing my shells. i know my first shot is my best and the next is a little more rushed so i put the expencive shell first and something cheaper but still quality behind it. iv also heard of cheaper shells first for the close shots and more expencive ones next for the longer shot when the bird is flairing.

[Shadow Cat]

I try to keep things the same so I am not having to remember what I have where in my gun and make adjustments to my effective range and missjudge the distance.

[addicted]

i guess consistensy is key.

[jackelope]

 

[addicted]

I have started tearing my shells apart and counting the flakes of powder.  It's taking me quite a while,  but it's gotta be the reason I missed a duck the other day.  I'm also looking at my wads, to make sure they are all the same EXACT shade of white... I swear those ducks see them coming if they are not pure white.  I'll keep you guys posted!

my black cloud has black wads. you really think they'll dodge em on just that?

[scottr]

i was just wonderin cuz that guy said that misshapen shot had been scratching barrels

Here is what I posted in the hevi-shot thread. The scratched barrel story was told to me by a shop owner and not a personal experience.

Here are some photos of a hevi shot shell I opened today. It was a size 4 20 ga magnum shell. I still have a couple of boxes of this stuff. This is pretty typical of the 5 or so I have cut open to show to friends etc.



Full of pits, burrs, out of round and snowman pellets



More of the same



This was the biggest and smallest pellet in a size 4 shell



these are the worst offenders in the shell. One was three pellets stuck together and many had burrs or what I like to call the snowman effect.

Now I have never seen a shell that had a "burr" that was outside the wad where a barrel could be scratched and have not had that experience myself (only told stories of it from a shop guy) but at a minimum with the inconsistency in the shot size an lack of round pellets I can't imagine it would make for good patterns.

[scottr]

looking around i found this post and it made me want to look into the quality of the shot in the shells i use. 

the first pic is 3 inch size 4 black cloud. the premium steel(shiny stuff) was amazingly uniform and clean.the flight stopper steel was also very cleanly cast

second pic is the cheaper stuff i use. 3 inch size 4 winchester expert high velocity. not too bad. a dimple here and there with a little size difference but not much.

third pic is flightstopper on the left. premium steel in the center. winchester on the right

you guys ever check in on your shot.

This all looks amazing compared to what I am talking about (see the photos I posted). The band on the Federal shot is a design element that I think is supposed make it perform better

[addicted]

yeah its supposed to make a better wound channel or something like that. i cant say much for my shooting but the shot was definately doing the trick when i was hitting the birds. 

 wow those do look like retarded snowmen. 

[scottr]

addicted,

Kudos to you for being curious and wanting to understand more.

personally at 30 yards or less I very much doubt you will see any significant difference in a perfectly round shiny pellet or a deformed square pellet.  If  you are constantly finding yourself shooting outside of 40 yards I would lend the advice to change some of  your tactics in water fowling. 

If you would like to really have a good read take a look at this article from Delta waterfowl.

http://www.deltawaterfowl.org/magazine/2005_01/01_shooting.php

looks like a good article. I'll have to read it when I have a little more time.

[addicted]

yeah its pretty sweet. and they could have totally made it twice as long.