Steel balls for reloading buckshot???
- Thread starter seamusm
- Start date
Should be feasible. But......using regular shotshell wads intended for lead shot....is not recommended. Ballistics Products lists some wads suitable for steel shot. I believe Wil Bilozer still handles BP products.
Edit: Caramel is correct. Barrel damage is a concern. I've loaded steel shot up to BB with no issues. But.....that was with BP wads. I would not recommend using anything else.
Edit: Caramel is correct. Barrel damage is a concern. I've loaded steel shot up to BB with no issues. But.....that was with BP wads. I would not recommend using anything else.
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That would be a good way to ruin a shotgun. Steel is a lot harder than lead as well as being much harder than the typical "steel" shot which is actually a soft iron.
Even a thick steel shot wad would have trouble containing ball bearings.
Not could, it absolutly WILL. I've done that as a teenager and I made myself a rifled barrel from a smooth bore even with a wad. So if you do it after knowing that, just take pictures from your barrel before and after so we can have a good laugh!!!
Forgive my ignorance, but can you explain to me why using steel shot in smaller sizes (i.e. BB for waterfowl) is acceptable with the appropriate choke but buckshot would ruin the barrel.
EDIT - Never mind. I just re-read your post and you give a perfectly good answer. I should learn to read twice and then only have to respond once instead of reading once and responding twice!
Smaller shot is more 'fluid' and not as likely to bridge.
Lead is sort of self lubricating in that the pellets will deform and slide against each other more easily to arrange themselves to transition from the shell through the forcing cone and into the bore. Steel balls have no "give" and would try to "lock" acting like the lock up on a Savage Impulse or HK93.
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Brutus
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Notice there's no big ammo company selling this terrible idea off the shelf.
Right around 1997 when steel shot became mandatory for migratory you could sometimes stumble across ruined shotguns in the pawn shops. And there they stayed, unsold.
Right around 1997 when steel shot became mandatory for migratory you could sometimes stumble across ruined shotguns in the pawn shops. And there they stayed, unsold.
Even if you disregard the possible and very likely damage ball bearing buckshot would have terrible properties just like steel birdshot and then some. Fractured shot after striking hard surfaces, poor range even for shot, high risk of ricochet and on and on.
manicmechanic
CGN Regular
Dad used to shoot ball bearings out of Gramp's old WW 1 German Mauser rebored to a 16 ga. He had a friend with a repair shop shop save him old ball bearings and he'd sort through for a certain size to use as "slugs". Pop shot lots of deer with that combination - it once made a perfectly round hole through a deer's pelvis!
I wouldn't chance it now LOL...
I wouldn't chance it now LOL...
A single large bearing with a suitable cup through a straight cylinder bore wouldn't be so bad. I have seen it on YouTube more than once.
Haha yes, if you are going to do it anyway please provide an update at some point.
easyrider604
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Greater Vancouver, BC
Do you have any update of your steel shot experiment?
