First shot at a coyote in my goose decoys was with steel BBs. It howled and ran in a circle. As it started to leave a round of lead #2s killed it clean. The steel hardly made it through the hair and skin. Lead penetrated to the lungs.
Patterning boards?
- Thread starter Potashminer
- Start date
Steel shot sucks compared to lead. I did alot of waterfowling in the lead era and the switch to non tox showed a dramatic increase on crippled and lost birds. Using steel shot ive settled on 3s and 4s for 30 yard shots. 2s and bb for 40 yard shots. More open choke as steel patterns tighter and put a dense pattern on the head and neck anx steel works ok for decoying birds.
#7 steel shot is all about useless on game outside 15 yards. And downright dangerous when used on clay targets. Steel shot in bbb and t shot in 10ga will still allowed for extended range on pass shooting large ducks and geese but be prepared to chase cripples
#7 steel shot is all about useless on game outside 15 yards. And downright dangerous when used on clay targets. Steel shot in bbb and t shot in 10ga will still allowed for extended range on pass shooting large ducks and geese but be prepared to chase cripples
It comes right back at you after hitting the target
It breaks the target sure but the steel pellets can and do bounce off the rim.
Ive had lead pellets come back and have had to dig them out of myself and other shooters on several occasions however steel doesnt deform and it often bounces back off any hard surface and can easily pelt an entire skeet squad
Also why i prefer a paper target for patterning steel shot. Shooting steel at steel can hurt
Ive had lead pellets come back and have had to dig them out of myself and other shooters on several occasions however steel doesnt deform and it often bounces back off any hard surface and can easily pelt an entire skeet squad
Also why i prefer a paper target for patterning steel shot. Shooting steel at steel can hurt
It is true that pellets can and do “bounce” off a clay, but it is rare. And when they do, they seldom come straight back at the shooter as the clay is spinning rapidly.
The old Dartmouth club had 3 or 4 holes in the outer panes of their double-glazed windows to prove it, and I was once standing by my car eating a sandwich at a sporting clays shoot in Greenwood when a pellet struck the vehicle two over from mine hard enough to leave a slight blemish in the paint.
Two of my partners at our club have shot steel for years. I’ve stood behind them while they have fired tens of thousands of steel cartridges and have never seen or heard evidence of a ricochet.
The old Dartmouth club had 3 or 4 holes in the outer panes of their double-glazed windows to prove it, and I was once standing by my car eating a sandwich at a sporting clays shoot in Greenwood when a pellet struck the vehicle two over from mine hard enough to leave a slight blemish in the paint.
Two of my partners at our club have shot steel for years. I’ve stood behind them while they have fired tens of thousands of steel cartridges and have never seen or heard evidence of a ricochet.
Lead can do that as well on incoming targets and #'s 7 and 8 stations are particularly dangerous for this, hence eye protection is mandatory
the spank
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I've been hit several times shooting station 8 with lead shot. Only station it's happened to me to date and only a few times one season while shooting those cheap Winchester Universal shells they used to sell at Wal-Mart. I suspect they were made with pretty soft lead as I often found the pellets quite deformed or even shards of them lying on the trap house roof next to station 8 on our combined trap/skeet/5-stand field. It definitely brought home the importance of eye protection. I've shot steel target loads on the skeet field and sporting clays course when ammo was supplied at a shoot. Only difference I found shooting steel target loads is you can plainly hear the shot strike the target and that is with good custom molded hearing protection. Back when I shot using electronic muffs it was very audible.
We got a 3ft roll of brown paper from staples. Built a stand for it. 4x4 legs. Pice of 3/4 play wood standing on them. Made a roller at the top. Pull down 3-4ft of paper. Staple a couple times. Good to go. We put plywood over the paper roll to protect from shot. Unfortunately a 22 hit the roll a few times. Next round it will have a pice of steel to protect the paper roll
If you shoot at a Metal patterning board PLEASE do it from a slight angle so the ricochet of the pellets diverts away from you and any other person or thing you value. You may wish to put up a witness board with paper in the direction of the ricochets so you can understand that every pellet is bounced off of the metal pattern board. The steel pellets ricochet farther that the lead. All pellets ricochet in random directions.
AND please please wear some HD eye protection anyway.
AND please please wear some HD eye protection anyway.
