I can't quite see how different powders are going to greatly change the safety issue between Pb and Bi loads. What principles would create such differences?

I never claimed Armbrust said one could safely interchange load data. He didn't say you could not either. His motivation seems to be in developing very long range waterfowl loads using shot buffers, which isn't exactly my goal.

If there is a lot of bismuth data out there, I don't know where "out there" is. Certainly, there is more than I have found, but there seems to be dearth of information suggesting it is very different than lead shot loads - and that might well explain why Alliant seems to not bother much with listing Bismuth loads for instance.

I'm not going to suggest that anyone load anything in particular in their guns, but I was hoping to find answers to two questions so I could decide what to load in mine.

1. Who makes the better quality Bi shot? That question has still not been answered, even though there appears to be at least two substantially different types of Bi being produced.

2. Are there any general considerations for loading Bi that have been developed since the very early years? The answer to that seems to be no. Certainly, nothing jumps out at me in the portion of "out there" that I have surveyed so far. In fact, everything I see suggests just the opposite. There are no special needs for particularly faster or slower powders, bismuth-specific wads, or anything else that I can find..

So, now I have a load that I feel is not only safe, it is a far cry from pushing any envelopes as well. Whether it will kill pheasants or not, I will find out as soon as this ridiculous, cold weather lets up.

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BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)
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