Lead vs. Steel Shot

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

You can see, then, that the density of an individual piece of metal is only one of the ballistic considerations involved in choosing between lead and steel shot. The majority of experts today agree that, at a range of up to 70 yards, a properly selected steel load should be at least as effective as lead. But let's go on to look into documented hunter performance with steel and lead shells.

THE WHAT AND HOW OF STEEL SHOT

For the moment, let's leave questions of value aside and discuss what a hunter needs to do to get the best results when using steel shot.

It's appropriate to select a steel shot size that's two designations larger than the lead shot you would normally use. For hunting grouse, say, you might try No. 6 or 4 steel rather than No. 8 or 6 lead. In turn, No. 4 or 2 steel works well for most ducks, and No. 2, 1, or BB could be used successfully for geese. A listing of Federal's 12 gauge shells — 2-3/4" long, with 3-3/4-dram equivalent charge — follows:

Because steel shot shells pattern better than do the conventional lead loads that most hunters use, it might be wise to consider using a more open choke when shooting steel. Thus, if you've been using a full choke, you may want to think about going to an improved cylinder to improve your hit rate. Of course, the best approach would be to test the patterns produced by your gun when using both lead and steel and then to decide on the best barrel for the hunting you do. It'll be up to you, however, to determine the most advantageous compromise between breadth of pattern (for more frequent hits) and density (for sure kills when you do hit).

IN PRACTICE

Numerous state conservation agencies — and the U.S. Department of the Interior itself — have conducted controlled studies of the performance of lead and steel shot in both duck and goose hunting. The research technique typically used was developed at Tulelake, California by the Department of the Interior during the 1977-78 and 1978-79 hunting seasons. In that test, over 2,200 hunters fired more than 40,000 steel and lead shot shells (without knowing which was which) and brought down a total of 4,182 whitefronted, snow, and cackling geese.

The hunters were given a random selection of steel and lead shells of various sizes and were asked to record the number of shots taken, the estimated range, and the effect (bagged, crippled, or missed). All birds that were visibly hit but not bagged were considered to be crippled.

In the Tulelake study, there was no significant difference found between lead and steel. For every 100 shots fired, the hunters were able to bag 17.5 geese (and cripple 7) at an average range of 46.4 yards. Nor did statistical differences show up in either bagging or crippling rates, whether BB, No. 1, No. 2, or No. 4 shot was used. (Interestingly enough, hunters regularly indicated more satisfaction with shell performance when they thought they'd been shooting lead . . . even though some who reported that fact had actually been using steel shot.)

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print