doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Non toxic shot in damascus

Hello, I am a new reader of this forum. My main interest is black powder rifles - but I recently decided that I needed a Parker hammer gun and black powder loads to shoot ducks. I purchased a 12 gauge parker hammer shotgun with damascus barrels. My research into non toxic shot showed that bismuth or tungsten matrix shot are the only real alternatives for shooting in these guns - is that the general concensus? Is ITX or Nice Shot suitable for these guns? Does anyone know of a source for bismuth or tungsten matrix shot? Thanks for your help. Mark

In Shooting Sportsman, a couple issues age, there was an article on non-tox shot.

Nice shot outperformed Bismuth but not TM. It said you can shoot Nice Shot in any choke that lead can be used.

You can get Nice Shot bulk from the company. I forgot their exact web address.

And welcome

Here is Nice Shot:
http://www.niceshotinc.com/

From their main page

Pete

I have shot Nice shot, bismuth and ITX with great results. If you reload then ITX is the most economical soft nontoxic shot on the market. Are you loading BP or smokeless loads ? I have yet to load up nontoxic BP. After a long day of hunting I really don't feel like cleaning barrels.
If you do not reload then: If your barrels are stout and in good condition then you could probably get away with the factory loaded TM (if you can find it) and Bismuth. If you have a light 12 gauge then you may want to purchase some low pressure Nice Shot loads from RST. Republic Metallic Cartridge used to have bismuth black powder shells available. Not sure what they have now.
Good luck with the ducks,
Kurt

My goal is to shoot BP, I really enjoy it - even the cleaning which actually is very easy. The question is more related to non toxic hardness as relates to barrel wear and damage. This Parker appears to have little or no choke. Thanks for replying.

Everything I've heard about NiceShot is that it's fine in old guns and so is the new ITX.

If you don't want to fool with loading your own or cleaning up blackpowder try these guys:

http://www.rstshells.com/

They've got a line of low pressure shells loaded with NiceShot that are absolute death on ducks.


Destry

Another option would be the Kent Gamebore shells, loaded with Tungsten Matrix. They even make those in 2 1/2", for guns requiring lower pressure loads. I don't shoot a lot of nontox, but when I have to, that's what I use in my Brit doubles.