Steel shot for clay targets?

analogdino

analogdino

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Hi, All,
For a while now I've wondered why I have never (perhaps for others, hardly ever?) seen steel shot target loads. Over the last several decades I must have have dumped hundreds of pounds of lead into our sporting clay woodlands, not to mention the club's skeet fields. Frankly, I would have preferred that this had been steel that would have rusted away harmlessly.
Since a demanding waterfowl load can be duplicated in steel, why not the much easier 2 3/4 dram target load? A small increase in shot size, say from #8 to #6, plus a load increase to 1 1/8 ounce should do it easily (with stiffer wads, of course). I've not done a pellet count or calculated internal ballistics, but you get the general idea.
For the record, I load all my own target loads; 12 gauge, 1 oz lead #8 shot, 700X powder, at about 1250 fps, in a Pacific 366 progressive loader. If the components were available I would be happy to load steel... as long as steel shot would flow well enough in the shot measure - I seem to recall a possible problem here!
Chokes are not a problem; just use the right screw-in or original cylinder chokes (and don't shoot steel in classic, collectible doubles!)
So, what has or has not happened to steel target loads?
Cheers,
Roger
 
Nobody wants to use them. More expensive than lead. Likely won't work in older (or any) fixed full or similar chokes. The suspicious science used to ban lead for waterfowl doesn't apply on land. Steel shot in trees ruins the tree for logging. There may be a few more that I forgot.
 
If you increase the pellet size, you need to increase the weight of the shot charge to maintain the number of pellets, and the pattern density. Increasing the weight of the shot charge increases recoil, which adds up when you shoot 100 rounds or more in one outing. As well, skeet involves four gauges, there is no way that you could hold enough steel to provide adequate patterns to reliably break targets with a 410.
 
Kent produces a steel target load . know of a couple people that shoot them regularly .I believe they are #7 shot 1 oz 12ga and 7/8 oz 20 ga . I will assume that they would be a bit more pricy than the promo loads of the other ammo makers .
 
Winchester makes AA Steel. I've tried it. Very dense patterns, broke targets well enough but I didn't try it on anything beyond 30 yards. I wouldn't shoot it through my P-gun with Briley Thin-Walls.
 
I tried #8 steel dove loads on skeet targets. They wouldn't kill doves so I thought I'd use them up on the skeet field. They bounce off the clay and come back at you. Breaks the targets but I don't trust them not to bounce off.

In heavily hunted ponds yes some birds may get lead but on open water lakes or moving rivers or over fields the chance for waterfowl to pick up enough lead pellets is remote at best. We should be able to still use lead for waterfowling. We can for woodcock
 
Probably can't find any cause theres no reason for it. Its total bs needing to use steel for waterfowl in terms of environmental impact, so no reason to use it inland if the law doesn't require it. Therefore no demand and no production.
 
Steel shot for clay shooting in Europe is becoming more common. Most manufacturers offer one or two specific clay loads in steel (versus 20 or so in lead....). Price is actually slightly cheaper than lead. George Digweed even gave a plug to steel shells on fieldsports Britain a few months back; he said the increase in pellet numbers can actually make it better than lead for certain close in targets.
 
For shooting skeet, I would be afraid of steel pellets bouncing back at the shooter on close targets, such as 1 low, 7 high and both 8s.

Also, certain low price steel target loads feature very uneven and misshaped shot, which will likely yield poor patterns at any significant distance.
 
pacobillie said:
For shooting skeet, I would be afraid of steel pellets bouncing back at the shooter on close targets, such as 1 low, 7 high and both 8s.
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Bounce backs happen with lead pellets too. Does anyone know if they occur more often with steel shot than lead?

ALWAYS wear your eye protection and not just when you are shooting but when you are watching too.
 
I have been using Kent #7 target steel to shoot sporting clays and skeet for the last five years. On average I shoot about a hundred rounds of steel each week. I have never had an issue with pellets bouncing off targets. My sporting clays scores have not been adversely affected. Long range performance is very good possibly due to the denser patterns. I have shot target steel out of a variety shotguns including modern and older fixed choke guns with no adverse effects to the guns such as bulging of chokes. The target steel is a little more expensive than lead but for me it is worth the additional expense.
 
analogdino said:
Why would they do that?
I was told one range near me (not mine) demands only steel shot be used. It is allegedly part of the agreement for this use of the land.
Cheers,
Roger
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Probabaly because there are trees on the land, and the range likely won't be there forever, or even if it is there for a long time, it's a real bltch to cut down trees with steel shot embedded in it, especially a lot of it
 
urbaniamike said:
I have been using Kent #7 target steel to shoot sporting clays and skeet for the last five years. On average I shoot about a hundred rounds of steel each week. I have never had an issue with pellets bouncing off targets. My sporting clays scores have not been adversely affected. Long range performance is very good possibly due to the denser patterns. I have shot target steel out of a variety shotguns including modern and older fixed choke guns with no adverse effects to the guns such as bulging of chokes. The target steel is a little more expensive than lead but for me it is worth the additional expense.
Click to expand...

Can I ask why you say it's worth the additional expense? Is it because you actually like the way it shoots better, or because "you're saving the environment"?

If it's because it shoots better, right on. If it's the treehugger thing, it's a total myth worse than global warming... I bet there's been approximately 8 ducks or geese that have died or fell ill due to lead ingestion... and probably all near toronto anyways, from the lead paint that they seem to still use :p
 
i shot thousands of rounds of steel at the connought range a few years ago when they temporarily banned lead shot for some reason. big pain to change over but it worked... in the end they lifted the ban. not sure about now. lead definitely shoots much nicer i found.
lead comes from the earth, it will return.
 
I have shot some of the AA steel loads. I could hear the pellets striking the clay target through my headphones!! Anyhow I did not see any advantage to them and the down side is cost. I used them on the skeet field. I don't think they would make an effective handicap trap load though, at least not for a long yardage handicapper like myself. I think they would be light on hitting power from the 25-27 line. Only way I'll ever find out is if they become mandated.
 
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