Shooting Steel

S1de8urnz

S1de8urnz

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Well I finally did it....
I figured it would have taken 50,000 rounds before I did it, but only a dozen rounds of Kent steelshot 3" BB's did the trick. My shotgun couldn't handle the steel shot. I was told that my shotgun would be fine for steel...... big mistake. I picked up a mossberg 835 for steel. Wow, what a difference in the thickness of the chokes and barrel wall. I also followed up and bought a Beretta A400.
 
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I'm not sure why someone would tell you "you can't run steel through an U/O shotgun"? If you have chrome lined bores and proper chokes, your good to go. Where you went wrong is using a full choke to shoot steel. Too restrictive a choke. Some barrels may become 'ringed' by shooting larger amounts of steel, but by the accounts I've been told by manufactures, this is to be expected in some models.
 
Redhead is not a Czech made gun its just sold by CZ which is now configured to trade on the name for profit and make a buck.

Now their products like the Redhead are made in Turkey to cut cost etc.

That being said you need to get a chart of what steel shot can go through what size choke.

Nothing wrong with using steel in a gun that is designed for it but if the choke is too tight the force is going to 'test' your firearm no matter where it is made.

Here you go:

winchester-repeating-arms-x-pump-sxp-page23.png
 
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my chokes for my franchi O/U have 2 sizes on them, one detailing lead and one steel. the traditional modified is for lead but acts as full for steel. similar to the chart above. sounds like a simple case of over choked.
 
Over and under had nothing to do with the problem. Use cylinder and imp cylinder and you would most likely been ok.
 
You say you were shooting steel bb in a full choke. That was your problem. #5 steel would have been fine
Bigger the shot the more open choke you need when shooting steel.
 
It still baffles me that after more than 15 years of steel being used almost exclusively for non toxic shot, that guys can't seem to comprehend what chokes to run with it....
 
chisholm said:
It still baffles me that after more than 15 years of steel being used almost exclusively for non toxic shot, that guys can't seem to comprehend what chokes to run with it....
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Agreed. I wish I was told "you need to change up the chokes" instead of "oh yeah, you'll be fine" when I asked this question a while back. It's too bad it wasn't made a bigger deal.
 
chisholm said:
It still baffles me that after more than 15 years of steel being used almost exclusively for non toxic shot, that guys can't seem to comprehend what chokes to run with it....
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Not surprised that a good number of people do not know about it.

I was auditing a PAL/RPAL instruction presentation and noted that other than mentioning the use of steel rather than lead and the reasons for it none of the choke issues with steel were mentioned.

When I run into a newbie I try to remember to ask if the course mentioned the steel choke issues or other things like Damascus barrels, Revolver Flash gaps and Pistol slide bites etc but so far none of them recall any of that.
 
And there are still those on here who offer up advice to go ahead and shoot steel shot through full chokes!!! f:P:2:

I shoot an O/U made in the mid 80’s. Steel was not mandatory then either in Canada or the US. When we went to steel I called the manufacturer and asked if I could shoot steel through the gun. They gave me a rundown on choke/shot combinations and were implicit “do not shoot ANY SIZE steel shot through either of the full marked chokes(my gun came with F & XF) and do not put any shot larger than #2 shot through either of the modified chokes(M/IM). I even inquired if I heard right that I could shoot it through IM as its not far off of full and they answered YES again as long as I did not go bigger than #2 shot. Any larger than 2 shot use the SK and IC chokes supplied with the gun. I have stuck to that advice since 1998 and have thousands of rounds through my O/U without an issue ever.
And not to sound like an ass, you’ve had a tough learning experience but you get what you pay for in quality and many here will argue it but Turkish guns are NOT quality guns!!
 
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the spank said:
And not to sound like an ass, you’ve had a tough learning experience but you get what you pay for in quality and many here will argue it but Turkish guns are NOT quality guns!!
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Nah, I'm not taking it wrong. I am really happy with the Beretta I bought.
Thanks guys and gals. I do appreciate the discussions and advice.
 
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did you use a thread release on the chokes putting them in? how long were they in? not judging but did you cross thread the chokes (so yes judging) when you put them in
 
Donny Fenn1 said:
did you use a thread release on the chokes putting them in? how long were they in? not judging but did you cross thread the chokes (so yes judging) when you put them in
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Hahahaha, no worries about the judging. Yes I use an anti seize on the chokes. I remove the chokes everytime I clean the gun... And I shoot quite a bit. They get a monthly cleaning and greasing/oiling. I am a popular guy with the local RCMP with my neighbours complaining about the amount of shooting I do. My neighbour is a Km away and complains monthly about me. I've tried reasoning with him, but the option was either stop completely or just keep doing what Im doing...

Thanks for the advice though. I see that problem often and its not uncommon.
 
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OP, all is not lost. I had bought an o/u for cheap that looked very similar to yours. The threads on the lower barrel were damaged and seemingly stripped out. I bought a threading tap at Brownells for it and cleaned the threads up as good as I could and blew the chips out with compressed air. Then I reassessed the situation. I felt that the threads wouldn't live long enough to support multiple choke changes going forward so I bought a new improved cyl tube and had it silver soldered into place.
It works great and I continue to shoot steel thru it to this day. You can't even tell it's ever been damaged. The upper barrel still gets chokes changed so during a pheasant hunt I put a full in there and got the short and long range shots.
Hope that puts your mind at ease a little. It is still a useable gun.fwiw
 
Can't you just send the barrel to a competent gunsmith and get the damaged part removed and then the barrel re-cut/threaded for new tubes or would that cost more than the gun was worth? You do say it was your favorite shotgun.
 
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elimsprint said:
Can't you just send the barrel to a competent gunsmith and get the damaged part removed and then the barrel re-cut for new tubes or would that cost more than the gun was worth? You do say it was your favorite shotgun.
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This would be my immediate thoughts.

I would look for a set of the extended chokes that brought the constriction well forward of the actual barrel, too, although I would hazard that shooting steel is a pretty low priority for the OP now.
 
I shoot steel in my steel rated double all the time (Ruger gold label), but you can’t go past Mod for chokes, and for larger shot sizes IC. Steel doesn’t need nearly as much choke as lead anyhow, disperses less.

elimsprint said:
Can't you just send the barrel to a competent gunsmith and get the damaged part removed and then the barrel re-cut/threaded for new tubes or would that cost more than the gun was worth? You do say it was your favorite shotgun.
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Barrel regulation will almost certainly be off if you shorten it. Hopefully the barrel threads are ok and just put Mod / IC or IC / IC in and go hunt.
 
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