doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bismuth

Last year, I bought up all my club's Bismuth shells in 20 and 28 to be used for quail and pheasant. My club mandates non-toxic for birds.

I'm about out of 20Ga. I don't like steel's lack of killing power (my perception) and I worry about it's effect on my fine guns if the cup/wad is defective.

The Hevi-shot Classic only comes in duck & goose loads. I like a light load and 7 1/2 shot for quail and released pheasant.

Any source for Bismuth shells yet? Any upland load alternatives to steel.

Doug, you might look at that abstract of the Tall Timbers (Georgia) quail study and the use of lead. From that, it appears that lead is not a risk for club quail hunting.

See one of the other non-tox tirade threads. I can't recall which one.

Brent

Doug,

Check Cabelas for HeviShot ammo. They list something called HeviShot Classic Doubles Upland with lower velocity, lighter shot loads.

Niklas

http://www.rstshells.com/niceshot.htm lists their Nice Shot offerings. 28 gauge thru 10 gauge. $75/box of 25 for 28 thru 12 gauges. #5, #6, and #7.5 except the 28 gauge does not come in #5, which seems reasonable.

EcoTungsten web site says Nice Shot is a bit harder than lead, but can be loaded into lead load recipes - same density as lead. If a bit harder and not brittle, then it could pattern efficiently. Might need different choke constrictions, likely more open, to get same pattern densities as lead.

http://www.ecotungsten.com/shots.html

Costs $50 for 2.2 lb. Enough for about 39 one ounce loads. $1.28 worth of shot in each shell. $32 worth of shot in a box of 25 one ounce loads. I do not know what they charge for shipping, but the total might make it come to around $1.50 per shell for one ounce handloads.