Steel for Pheasants?

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Gary O

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For years I have used size 6 lead shot at 1200 fps to great effect on pheasants. But now here in California we are ordered to switch over to non-toxic shot for all game birds except on private "game farms". What do you folks suggest? Thanks...
 
You have choice of Bismuth, Steel, or tungsten shot. Bismuth would be my choice, drop one shot size, but it is still pricey. Steel you would need to go down 2-3 shot sizes, #3 or #4 in steel. Tungsten is quite expensive, but I hear does the job, I have never used it.
Sorry you have to go to these extremes where you live. When you break a tooth on a pellet, sue your state government for pain and suffering. ;)
 
For years I have used size 6 lead shot at 1200 fps to great effect on pheasants. But now here in ********** we are ordered to switch over to non-toxic shot for all game birds except on private "game farms". What do you folks suggest? Thanks...

Number 4 steel through modern shotgun. A twelve gauge would be preferable due to wider selection of ammo being available.
 
I have used #5 lead for pheasants since the 60's, and still use it when I go to South Dakota. On Waterfowl Production Areas steel is mandated. I still use a Rem model 1100 with 2 3/4 chambers with #3 steel for close shots. For the 2nd or 3rd shells I may use #2 steel. The high velocity 3 inch steel is used by the other 4 guys I hunt with. I agree that #6 is a little small for wild birds. I have threatened to go to #4 lead for late season birds. But after retirement I only get to go to South Dakota for 7 days, because I retired to South Carolina and it is 21 hour drive to South Dakota Pheasant Heaven.
 
#4 steel will work almost as well as #6 lead on close flushing birds. For longer shots on wild birds, I would use 2's or 3's.
 
For years I have used size 6 lead shot at 1200 fps to great effect on pheasants. But now here in ********** we are ordered to switch over to non-toxic shot for all game birds except on private "game farms". What do you folks suggest? Thanks...
I suggest hunting the game farms. I quit duck hunting because of steel shot, I won't quit pheasant because of it. Your other best option is Kent shells.
 
All I shoot is 16 gauge for pheasants, grouse, doves, and ducks. All new 16 gauge guns are rated for steel. Also any made in the last 30 or so years same as a twelve gauge.

Sometimes steel shot for the 16 can be hard to find but I stockpile it so no worries.
 

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All I shoot is 16 gauge for pheasants, grouse, doves, and ducks. All new 16 gauge guns are rated for steel. Also any made in the last 30 or so years same as a twelve gauge.

Sometimes steel shot for the 16 can be hard to find but I stockpile it so no worries.

It is good to stockpile steel when only Federal still seems to be loading steel in 16ga. One thing 16ga has going for it is ammo which is loaded with reasonable shot weight and velocity for gauge lone exception is stupid foster slugs at 1600fps. Cabela's has really helped 16ga shooters buy offering good quality affordable Italian loads under Herter's label.
 
I shoot a 16ga on ducks a few times a year. The only loadings I find commercially available in steel are #4 & #2. I prefer the # 2's. I assume they would be the better bet on a hardy bird like pheasant. My go to 16 is an Ithaca 37 plain barrel, fixed modified choke, made in 1954. I've shot a lot of it through this gun over the years with no ill effects. Steel patterns tighter than lead so the mod choke works very well.
 
Story time...

I am 64 and have shot nothing but lead during my wing-shooting years which ended about 1985 in Alaska where I lived for 35 years shooting ducks, geese, and brant. I just lost interest and waterfowl seasons there were generally very cold and wet.

For pheasant in Nebraska (before I enlisted in the USAF in 1971), depending upon the terrain (Nebraska can be hilly or flat) I used a Rem 870 Wingmaster 26" 12 gauge I/C choke with #6 for the flatlands. For the cornfields on hills, where long-range shots are more the norm, I used my Dad's Win Model 12 16 gauge 28" full choke with #7-1/2 when home on leave. The #7-1/2 loads were his choice for years in 16 gauge because they contained more shot pellets than #6. After he tired of shucking the Model 12 he got a Ruger Red Label O/U 12 gauge (mod/IC chokes) shooting #6 shot and was happy as a clam, except he could rarely hit anything with it (chuckle). I think he liked that it was shorter than the Model 12 and a bit lighter to carry, and always had the excuse that an O/U only had two shots and that was all he could get off at one bird.

With the 16 I hit a rooster at a paced off 65 yards using lead in 1972. Longest shot I ever made, and even though I worked at a trap/skeet shooting park ('69-'70 Roberts' Dairy Farm, Elkhorn NE: it no longer exists and is now the site of a community college. Imagine that!) it was a lucky shot, even if it was a station 4 low-house shot at that larger distance. The bird was badly shot up (feathers flew) and the farmer whose land we were hunting upon said there was too much shot to pick out and he was glad it was MY bird. Chuckle!

Back to the OP. From what I have read years ago, bismuth is the best route if non-lead because it is fairly heavy and will probably penetrate the bird better, but I have no experience with it or steel. If the other posters are using #2 steel in lieu of #6 lead, that says volumes.

I am sorry this post is probably no help for you.

I enjoyed your post and the responses. Thank you!

Jim
 
I started out using 4 shot steel with my 16 gauge, 26 inch choked skeet. 4 shot works, but when I ran out of 4 shot I grabbed a box of steel 2 shot. In my experience, steel 2 shot is much more effective from my rig than the steel 4. I hunt over a spaniel and most shots are a little longer than shooting over pointers. I haven't done pattern testing on paper, but am guessing it is patterning close to full. I use lead 5 shot when not in a lead free zone and have not noticed an advantage over the steel 2 shot.
 
wild pheasants are a very hardy and tough bird, I have hunted them with both #2 steel and #4,5 and 6 lead. The Winchester Rooster XR loads in 1.25 oz 2and 3/4 oz lead #5 are what I used last year in modified choke. they worked fine. according to what I read and my pattern testing they are currently the ultimate load for pheasant. If I had to use steel it would be #2 in the best patterning load I could find--Kent fast steel or equal at 1500+fps.

that's my 2 cents!!

Bull
 
I have a TriStar Hunter EX 16 gauge O/U with screw chokes. The folks at TriStar suggest that steel is fine as long as I install a modified choke as my tightest choke; I have about decided to try Kent bismouth #5's on those local roosters...
Thanks for all your council...
 
I have a TriStar Hunter EX 16 gauge O/U with screw chokes. The folks at TriStar suggest that steel is fine as long as I install a modified choke as my tightest choke; I have about decided to try Kent bismouth #5's on those local roosters...
Thanks for all your council...

Gary,

I had not heard of that shotgun before your post. I looked it up and it seems like it is a very nice O/U. I just never could get used to double guns, even the 2 SXS Fox Sterlingworth guns my Dad had in the 60's, both with double triggers, one in 12 and the other in 20.

I also like the 2-3/4" shell in both the 12 and 20 and feel that for upland birds that is all that is needed; likewise the 16, and I never felt under-gunned. I hand-loaded the 870 12 with 1-1/8 oz #6 lead over 18 gr Hercules Red-Dot (skeet load specs) and never had a problem. My Dad's 16 was always loaded with high-brass Remington Express 1-1/8 oz #7-1/2: I don't think he ever shot any other loads.

Good on you for choosing a 16! I like the fact that it has extractors, not ejectors.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/prod...16-gauge-28-barrel-2-round-capacity?a=1809023

Good hunting, sir!

Jim
 
This is more creeping arms control. These lead laws are used to control ammunition. It is now being used to halt .22 rim fire ammo on public lands. There is no end to the attempts to circumvent the 2 Amendment.:(
 
This is more creeping arms control. These lead laws are used to control ammunition. It is now being used to halt .22 rim fire ammo on public lands. There is no end to the attempts to circumvent the 2 Amendment.:(

I do not think this will be an issue. With Our New Leader having plans to expand military, keep social security and Medicare intact plus lower taxes public lands will have to be sold off to private sector to generate income. We will not be able to sustain public lands any longer.
 
This is more creeping arms control. These lead laws are used to control ammunition. It is now being used to halt .22 rim fire ammo on public lands. There is no end to the attempts to circumvent the 2 Amendment.:(

It's not just arms control here. No wood fires in the winter, no bbqs, no lead bullets (to allegedly save a species of bird too dumb to avoid flying into transformers) pay through the nose to register a vehicle, $50 for a season long fishing license etc. etc.

The gun control thing is an intrusive violation of rights, but the underlying motivation here is not to ultimately send jackbooted thugs to our doors to round us all up into concentration camps, it's to out-progressive all the other cool kids at the party, so to speak. "You gotta stick it to those icky backward gun toters. So uncouth and uncool."

That episode of South Park with the San Franciscan's getting high on the smell of their own gas expulsions is very accurate. I'm convinced that the vision this state's ruling class have for its citizens is one where everyone is full of kale and anti-depressants and has the latest apple devic e implanted in their brain. A far cry from the world of "1984" but no less depressing and oppressive.

The crazy part is that before I moved out here, I considered myself to be a fairly liberal guy (on most social issues, anyway). Out here I'm far right by comparison if for no other reason than I'm a firm believer in being on time for work and not high.

/rant
 
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