The last week of the regular waterfowl season, closing Jan. 31, and the majority of the Light Goose Conservation Order shooting, closing March 31, is an ideal time for hunters to experiment with new shot shell options for their future hunts.
Since the use of lead shot for waterfowl hunting was banned in the U.S. in 1991, ammunition companies have been looking for ways to improve the performance of non-toxic shot. Some of the latest entries in that race have made matters interesting again.
Lead shot was banned for use in waterfowl hunting in 1991. It had been found birds were swallowing it while feeding in the areas over which hunters routinely shot, and the resulting lead poisoning was a major contributor to waterfowl population declines.
Studies conducted in years subsequent to the ban appear to bear this out, and they note a remarkable increase in the duck population as a result of lead’s elimination. That, and lead’s toxicity in general mean it will likely remain on the no-fly list for waterfowl from now on.
Copper-coated bismuth loads from BOSS Ammunition, bismuth-alloyed loads from HeviShot, along with shaped steel shot in Federal’s Black Cloud and Winchester’s Blind Side loads offer answers.
Steel’s most obvious problem is, being lighter per volume than lead, shells require the use of a larger shot size to deliver the same total energy downrange, an act that thins shot patterns significantly. Further, and more seriously, anecdotal evidence seems to show pure steel shot doesn’t transfer much energy to a practical target no matter what size is chosen.
Sudden impacts
Little empirical data exists or, likely, could exist to precisely define the problem, but waterfowl enthusiasts of every stripe and skill level offer anecdotes of ducks solidly hit with steel that fly far from the blind seemingly unhit, then fold and fall, an issue far less common when shooting lead. It can only be presumed, then, that many more birds fly away and die out of sight in the same manner.
Solid steel shot does not deform on impact as lead does, meaning it can pass through without transferring much of its energy into the target. How much it does or does not transfer is hard to measure, but practical application shows there needs to be some deformation of the shot to allow for much transfer at all.
On a scale of density among shot materials, steel is the least dense and, at the same time, tremendously hard, meaning it often goes through ducks and geese like fine needles. If it doesn’t break a bone or damage a nerve, it is unlikely to fold a bird properly.
Down at distance
Bismuth, while not as dense as lead, is much more dense than steel. It is brittle so, to be used in shot, it has to be alloyed with something or coated with something malleable. BOSS Ammunition, based in Stevensville, Michigan on the shores of the Great Lakes, coats bismuth shot in copper, which allows it to deform without crumbling and very effectively transfer energy.
HeviShot, based deep in a mountain valley in Sweet Home, Oregon, alloys bismuth with tungsten in amounts that vary by model of product. Tungsten is nontoxic and it is far more dense even than lead, but it is very expensive to use. The price would likely be prohibitive for waterfowl loads to have shot made of tungsten alone, simply because of the costs of the metal coupled with the volume of shooting involved in waterfowl hunting. HeviShot offers several variations that alloy bismuth with tungsten to produce an effective balance of performance and price.
Square deal
Federal and Winchester each answer the issue by employing steel shot that is manufactured to be other than round.
In Federal’s case, their Black Cloud ammunition, made in Anoka, Minnesota, includes in each shell a number of shot shaped like tiny models of the planet Saturn. These special shot trail a column of normal shot of the same size in each shell. Winchester’s Blind Side ammunition , made in Oxford, Mississippi and East Alton, Illinois, takes a similar approach with the use of shot with flat sides – not cubes precisely, but shot with six flat sides and rounded corners. As a result, Winchester says they’re able to stack more shot into each shell with less wasted space.
Shot that is not round when it leaves the shotgun’s muzzle would naturally plane off unpredictably if left unaided. Both companies use an advanced wad or shot cup in these shells, an innovation designed to create tighter patterns downrange. The tighter patterns can help put more shot on the target and, in tests conducted with ballistic gelatin and in anecdotal results from the field, the individual non-round shot in each case do more damage and appear to reduce loss through wounding as compared to plain round steel alone.
It also appears each shell maker’s shot cup, along with the mass-versus-surface area combination with the non-round shot, tends to make their less aerodynamic shape a nonissue. The shot’s mass and the distance at which it’s used don’t appear to allow those aerodynamics to come into play.
Loads from BOSS, HeviShot, Federal and Winchester are available from Hunters Haven in Tupelo.
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