Steel Shot Sucks!

[lokidog]

GO SHOOT SOME CLAYS WITH THE STEEL!  You wouldn't target shoot your deer rifle with 120 gr bullets all year and then go out and shoot 180's without resighting it in (I hope), same thing for the steel shot.  Different velocity shells will shoot differently, practice with what you will hunt with.   

[Black Plague]

if you can kill geese and mallards with steel but cant kill pheasants with it.....well maybe try aiming right at the birds  ...when they take off the biggest problem I see is people  getting flustered and leading it too much, they make a lot of noise but aren't really going that fast (especially fatties on the release sites in my experience) ....that steel is fast, so if the bird is just getting up , a lot of times you can aim right at its head ...now if its outside of 40 yards and you are not shooting BB you might have a little problem.

[sisu]

I started reloading steel with the help from some folks here and have great success with it on ducks and pheasant. I use Precision #4, #2 and BB for my loads. The 4 and 2 on both ducks(jump shooting) and pheasant. My hulls are Remington, primers are Federal, Steel powder by Alliant. I'm not advocating you to start reloading but just saying that steel can be very effective.

[NW-GSP]

Try some 3 inch 12 gauge number 4 steel, I dropped over fifty roosters with that load last year,

BTW I was using the cheap steel loads from Wal-Mart

[PaulM]

Just for the record Prairie Storm is lead.Here is the text from Federals website( don't use it on the release sites!)

"New Prairie Storm™ features the FLITECONTROL® wad and FLITESTOPPER® (FS) lead. It uses the same technology that's proven outstanding on waterfowl-but is specially designed for the needs of pheasant hunters. Never before have loads produced such full, consistent patterns. A mix of Premium® copper-plated lead (70%) and nickel-plated FS lead (30%) gives these loads better down-range performance. "

[NW-GSP]

Ya I'm going to guess that fish and game will not care that the lead is copper plated

[dawei]

Prairie Storm® is also offered in STEEL; see here.......
• 12ga - #PFS143FS
• 20ga - #PFS207FS

[PaulM]

dawei, thanks for the info on the steel version of the Prairie storm. I use the lead stuff and think that its the best load on wild roosters. I have noticed more feathers though. They are really tough to tease out through the pellet holes.Any one have any tricks? I see about 4 times the feathers and twice as big of hole with those nice cutter pellets holes. I have a hard time finding them in the local stores up near lynnwood. any one know stores carring them? I have only found them at Skagit Arms.

[dawei]

Paul, I got my 20ga Prairie Storm® @ Wholesale Sports Outfitters® in Lacey. I agree w/you that the lead stuff is awesome. Where are you pheasant hunting where you can still hunt w/lead?

[bobcat]

You only have to use non-lead on pheasant release sites. There are actually places in this state where you can hunt wild birds.

[270Shooter]

You only have to use non-lead on pheasant release sites. There are actually places in this state where you can hunt wild birds.

And some wildlife areas and i believe all refuges require non toxic for upland now too.

[Sportfury]

Wow, thanks for the replies guys. One thing that we didn't do was try shooting steel at trap or skeet, so I guess you could say we are going at it blind. Like someone else said trying to shoot a new weight bullet without checking it at the range. We may need to spend some time at the range and do some pattern testing. My dad and son were both shooting 20 gauge #4's.

My dad shot skeet for a lot of years and my son is no slouch, so the results were surprising. We will get it down, but I think we are going to switch over to the Hevi-Metal and go from there especially since my dad and I have switched over to 20 gauge and I bought the same for my son in an over and under. This will be good for the occasional duck we see or jump out of a pond or ditch and the wildlife areas over in eastern washington that you know hold quail, but since you have lead you cannot stop at.

Since some people have been talking reloading has anyone tried to reload Hevi-Shot? Do they even sell shot to reload? Is there other non-toxic shots that can be reloaded? Also if you reloaded non-toxic shot how would you prove it was non-toxic without cutting open the shell or carrying around a receipt.

[BOWHUNTER45]

GO SHOOT SOME CLAYS WITH THE STEEL!  You wouldn't target shoot your deer rifle with 120 gr bullets all year and then go out and shoot 180's without resighting it in (I hope), same thing for the steel shot.  Different velocity shells will shoot differently, practice with what you will hunt with.   

Exactely it !!!! just like choosing a turkey load ...find the best load and pattern and use it !!! simple as that 

[AWS]

You can load Bismuth and Nice Shot from Precision Reloading and ITX shot from Ballistic Products.  I believe both of them carry Hevi shot but I haven't paid attention because I'm loading for vintage doubles.  The Bismuth, Nice Shot and ITX are all safe in older shotguns designed for lead.  They are heavier than Steel and just a little lighter than Lead and can be loaded so they can contact the barrel.  One of my guns use 2 1/2" shells and I load it with oldtime fiber wads, Nice Shot and a roll crimp.

AWS

[DuckDr.Duke]

The trick with steel shot is to have the higher feet per second FPS. Finally about 10 years ago all the manufactures finally learned to up the FPS on steel. I used to reload it a lot in the 90's not anymore though only trap rounds. Back in the day we were loading 1550 FPS 2 3/4 inch shells they were a duplex load of #3's steel with BBB on top, man they were good. I used them on pheasants too, they worked great. I should start loading them again.