Brass shot????

overheard a conversation at work about reloading shot shells for a Pump shotgun. the guy said his "friend" loaded 12 ga Brass cases with Brass shot because it patterned better than either lead or steel shot. Am I missing something? I thought brass cases were used only in single shot or double barrel shotguns and have never heard of brass shot. What say the pro's?

He's probably confused and its copper plated lead shot and not solid brass. I've never seen a solid brass shot being offered for sale but copper plated shot is certainly available and does provide denser patterns as its harder and deforms less on the trip down the barrel.

Conventional Wisdom says that copper plated shot deforms less than plain shot. It does, if we're comparing apples to apples. Round, hard shot plated with copper usually patterns tighter than round, hard shot that's not plated. Same applies to nickle plating.

According to Zutz et al, plating trash shot does little except deplete our cash.

I had a few rounds of live pigeon loads.

IIRC, they were 7 shot and plated 1 1/4 oz. Out of a Modified choke they gave patterns we usually associate with Full choke, from an IC they were more like IM. Not cheap.

Real brass shot will not do much in a shotgun. The lowered density, less than iron, will cause effect to drop off sharply after say, 20 yards.

And then there is Hevi-Shot, which seems to obey a heretofore unknown set of rules relative to patterning. Very hard, very dense, but lousy shape, and yet patterns fantastic. Like McFly told Elaine, it's density.

At one time, in the bad old days, all ammunition for military 12 Ga. riot shotguns was brass cased. These were all pump guns. (Wnnchester 97's and 12's and Ithaca 37's and remington 870's. Sad to say, the ravages of progress have caused the demise of the brass 00 buckshot shell. Our military and police now use plastic shells like the rest of us. That said, the reason for brass shotshells was that the paper shells of the time would swell up and not chamber reliably if they got wet.