# HEVI SHOT ?



## cut'em (Oct 23, 2004)

I realize chokes are designed and shoot differently with steel or lead. what then does Hevi shot act or shoot like, should you use the choke codes for lead or steel?
thanks


----------



## Burly1 (Sep 20, 2003)

From my experience, nothing tighter than modified choke should be used with Hevi-Shot. Remember, you are dealing with a harder shot than steel. Good shooting, Burl


----------



## ndwaterfowler (May 22, 2005)

I shoot everything from steel to hevi-steel to tungsten and hevi-shot through my pattern master, haven't had a problem yet.


----------



## the Bender (Mar 31, 2005)

Best thing you can do is to get out and pattern your gun. Bring a notebook, and keep a record of your findings. Maybe bring some expired snow geese if you want to know about energy or oomph... 
I shoot an 870 and I recently put in my factory full-choke. I have never shot so poorly in 6 months. There are alot of little differences like shot density, pellet weight, speed, and kinetic energy.(knockdown power) Hopefully you can drop em dead as a limp dish-rag. Good luck.


----------



## Greg_4242 (Feb 21, 2005)

I use a duck commander improved modified extended choke during the spring snow goose season (the only time I will shell out the money for shells that are $1.50 to $2 a shell). The hevi shot patterns awsome. A friend and I crawled within 35 yrds of about 1000 snows last year and pounded 38 out of the flock. You would never be able to do that with steel! Thats almost 5 birds a shot!


----------



## Dan Bueide (Jul 1, 2002)

Assuming the constants of speed, payload and shot quality (because varying these factors will in and of themselves affect "pattern"), steel will generally pattern tighter than lead and HS tighter than steel. Steel better than lead because steel does not deform like lead and any given "bang" of steel will produce less "fliers" that form the outside edges of your pattern. HS better than steel because it is also very hard and resists deformation, but more importantly because of it's weird shape. As was explained to me, the shape of HS was purely a function of the manufacturing process - they couldn't get it to come out round through traditional shot mfg. processes. As it turns out, the wierd shape is actually more aerodynamic, flies truer and thus patterns tighter.

So, applying this to your question, you can generally achieve the same pattern densities by opening up choke along the lead/steel/HS spectrum. Only the pattern board will tell you how much farther you can open up and still achieve lethal densities, and it may not be a one factory choke tube difference between steel and HS. May be more like 4-6/1000ths, which is something on the order of a half factory choke tube difference. Drakekiller (PM him) can make you a tube to any 1000ths constriction you'd like.


----------



## jhegg (May 29, 2004)

Dan,

In any given shot size, steel will only pattern tighter than unbuffered lead shot and then only out to 50 yards or so. You are correct in that the improved form factor of steel shot over unbuffered lead shot does give steel shot an advantage over unbuffered lead shot for short to medium ranges. At long ranges though, even unbuffered lead shot - in a reasonable pressure load - will outperform steel shot.

The reason hevi-shot patterns so well is that it has a high density. The higher the density of a given diameter pellet, the less it de-cellerates over a given distance and the less it disperses laterally (assuming a reasonably round pellet). This translates into a higher energy pellet at any given range that also provides a denser pattern at that range. Thus, we are able to use a smaller pellet size and increase pattern density. Increasing pellet density is a winning proposition, until we look at the cost that is.

Jim


----------



## Dan Bueide (Jul 1, 2002)

Jim,



> At long ranges though, even unbuffered lead shot - in a reasonable pressure load - will outperform steel shot.


In what sense, "outperform"? Same number of pellets, same muzzle velocity and same choke, and the unbuffered lead will produce a denser pattern than steel at finge ranges? I've never done lead-to-steel comparisons, but that seems a little counter-intuitive to me. I have done HS to buffered lead comparisons on turkey loads and found it is at the longer ranges where HS really shines over lead.

Not saying your findings are wrong - just not what I'd expect, especially with good quality steel shot (there is plenty out there that is poor quality and will not hold a dense pattern over distance).



> The reason hevi-shot patterns so well is that it has a high density.


Yes, but doesn't the "light bulb" shape has something to do with it too?



> until we look at the cost that is.


I don't know how HS weights compare to lead. But for a while I've been wondering the cost per shell of a HS 20ga #5 load in something like a 1 or 1-1/8th oz lead equivalent. Any idea? If a guy could get the per shell cost down to something reasonable, it would be really fun to play around with 20 ga HS loads for waterfowl. I'll bet it would be pretty easy to get a 3" 20ga HS load to have the same lethality of a 1-1/4 oz. 12 ga steel load. The question is how much price differential? If it could be done at a somewhagt reasonable price, I'd think seriously about starting to reload again and would do it all in 20ga.


----------

