Why is lead shot used rather than steel?
- Thread starter RM
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Lead is cheaper, has the density needed for performance at longer yardages, and won't harm the barrels on older guns. Steel has no weight to it, needs much larger pellets to deliver the same amount of energy to break a target which results in fewer pellets in the pattern which results in less broken targets. Steel won't deform when it hits a target, but will bounce back off the clay targets and make more injuries for the shooter's unprotected skin.
ugaarguy
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The short answer is that lead generally patterns better in all chokes, and can be shot in tighter chokes than steel. Steel shot is pretty much a product of wetland conservation that made lead shot illegal. This also created the expensive bismuth and tungsten shot for waterfowl since it pattern more like lead but is still considered non toxic. I'm sure the expert wingshooters will be along shortly to give you a better answer and correct any errors in mine.
Edit: Well Kudu beat me to it with a better answer.
Edit: Well Kudu beat me to it with a better answer.
qajaq59
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Yup, and if you hunted ducks before and after the ban on lead shot you'd have seen the difference real quick. Although if you decoy and call well it doesn't matter too much.
Smith357
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Lead shot was easy to make with the limited tooling back in the 1700s, it has a higher density which gives greater range.
MCgunner
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You've obviously never tried to make a 40 yard shot on geese with steel BB. Steel sux, plain and simple. The only reason there IS a steel shot is waterfowl laws forbidding toxic shot in marshes. I've not read the studies, but they claimed a 10% loss in waterfowl due to lead contamination in heavily hunted marshes. Personally, I'd trade a 10% less bag limit to shoot lead. It carries farther.
On ducks over decoys it's not really a big deal and the cost of steel has come down a bit. But, on geese, I use Federal Tungsten Iron now days. It hits HARD! It also hits your wallet hard, but it's cheaper than any of the other magic non-toxic stuff like bismuth and Remington Heavy Shot. Ten rounds of it is about 13 bucks, but I don't shoot a lot of it on a goose hunt. I'll carry a couple of ten round boxes and a box or two of BB steel in case I shoot 'em up, but hardly ever shoot that much goose hunting. It seems to me that hunting geese, you get more cripples lost using steel than you could ever expect to lose from lead contamination. Geese don't normally feed in marshes, either, not snows and blues on the Texas coastal plains anyway. They fly into crops to feed. Now, on my lease I had a few years ago, I'd go hunt doves in dove season with lead 7 1/2s and when goose season came around, I'd be hunting that same field with Tungsten Iron due to non-toxic laws. How stupid is THAT? I shot a whole lot more lead during dove season over that field than I did non-toxic during goose season.
So far, the law hasn't mandated non-toxic for ranges or upland, but I'm sure it's coming eventually, especially if Al Gore ever gets in the white house.
Well, there might not be any hunting anymore or gun ownership for that matter if that happens, so I guess the non-toxic thing is moot.
On ducks over decoys it's not really a big deal and the cost of steel has come down a bit. But, on geese, I use Federal Tungsten Iron now days. It hits HARD! It also hits your wallet hard, but it's cheaper than any of the other magic non-toxic stuff like bismuth and Remington Heavy Shot. Ten rounds of it is about 13 bucks, but I don't shoot a lot of it on a goose hunt. I'll carry a couple of ten round boxes and a box or two of BB steel in case I shoot 'em up, but hardly ever shoot that much goose hunting. It seems to me that hunting geese, you get more cripples lost using steel than you could ever expect to lose from lead contamination. Geese don't normally feed in marshes, either, not snows and blues on the Texas coastal plains anyway. They fly into crops to feed. Now, on my lease I had a few years ago, I'd go hunt doves in dove season with lead 7 1/2s and when goose season came around, I'd be hunting that same field with Tungsten Iron due to non-toxic laws. How stupid is THAT? I shot a whole lot more lead during dove season over that field than I did non-toxic during goose season.
So far, the law hasn't mandated non-toxic for ranges or upland, but I'm sure it's coming eventually, especially if Al Gore ever gets in the white house.
Well, there might not be any hunting anymore or gun ownership for that matter if that happens, so I guess the non-toxic thing is moot.berettashotgun
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Lead is SOO much cheaper to shoot. The volume of powder for reloading steelshot is usually over 30gr; and wads are higher also. I got my steelshot dove reloads down to $6 per box, but the recoil is kinda rough for high volume - read skeet/trap/clays- shooting. Acquiring steelshot reloading components is also a PITA.
I would love to see the patterning tests that support this. Steel patterns beautifully, as it doesn't suffer from the same deformation that lead does. Tight chokes can be a problem, but in anything up to modified, I wuold bet (and my own pattern testing supports) that steel will pattern much better than lead.
Scott
Ohen Cepel
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There are still ongoing studies, but I think tungsten could turn out to be much worse than lead was ever thought to be.
I really think lead is the way to go and it should have been left as it was.
I really think lead is the way to go and it should have been left as it was.
MCgunner
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I have patterned Tungsten Iron and get great consistent patterns at 40 yards, tighter than lead full, with a modified choke in my Mossberg. It's also harder and suffers less from shot deformation. It isn't quite as dense as lead, but the velocity it's moving, it kills like lightening at insane yardages (insane if you're used to steel) on geese. Up to 60 yards and there's no problem dropping a big snow like a friggin' sack o' taters. That is BB shot. Steel BBs are pretty much out of poop beyond 40 yards and best to keep your shots inside 35 yards if you really wanna kill the bird now.
I prefer the heavy shot loads by Federal and Remington to lead, myself. It performs better. It's just way too expensive to use on ducks much. I stick with steel over decoys. If I can't get 'em in range with the call, I just let 'em go. That's ninety percent of the pleasure of duck hunting to me, the calling. I could have a blast in the marsh without a shotgun, just calling birds. I've been doing it for 40 years and I'm still in love with duck hunting.
If you pass shoot ducks, you might find steel lacking, but over decoys the way I hunt 'em, it's fine. I've made 50 yard shots with it on ducks. Ducks are quite a bit easier to kill than geese. I used to shoot really big shot on ducks, Number ones or twos, but I've been using 4s last half decade or so and it works great out to 40 yards out of an improved cylinder standard Mossberg choke tube. I shoot nothing, but 3" on waterfowl, fills out the pattern better.
I prefer the heavy shot loads by Federal and Remington to lead, myself. It performs better. It's just way too expensive to use on ducks much. I stick with steel over decoys. If I can't get 'em in range with the call, I just let 'em go. That's ninety percent of the pleasure of duck hunting to me, the calling. I could have a blast in the marsh without a shotgun, just calling birds. I've been doing it for 40 years and I'm still in love with duck hunting.
If you pass shoot ducks, you might find steel lacking, but over decoys the way I hunt 'em, it's fine. I've made 50 yard shots with it on ducks. Ducks are quite a bit easier to kill than geese. I used to shoot really big shot on ducks, Number ones or twos, but I've been using 4s last half decade or so and it works great out to 40 yards out of an improved cylinder standard Mossberg choke tube. I shoot nothing, but 3" on waterfowl, fills out the pattern better.
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