friends:
I will try this again.
From ANSI/SAAMI Z299.2-1992, namely the current SAAMI Standard Pressures are as follows for 12g:
Max Average psi is 11,500 psi.
That is for shells loaded with lead shot, steel shot, bismuth shot, tin shot, plastic shot, slugs, and moose manure.
It is for 2-3/4", and 3".
So - unless you have a 3-1/2"12g , the magic number is now has been, and forever will be, 11,500 psi.
11,500 psi may be hard on older guns. It is downright foolish to use standard American shells in older damascus guns. Others may disagree. They simply were not designed for it. Will they blow up? Not likely. But they may bend and stretch and wear pretty bad, and then you merely have a piece of junk, rather than an old shotgun.
Steel shot is great in a Model 870. When the shot scores the barrel, you throw the barrel away and buy a new barrel. LC Smith barrels are hard to find.
Steel shot is a crappy projectile. So the makers load bigger pellets, to get the mass up. Then, they need more pellets to get the same number of pellets in the pattern. This leads to LONG shot columns. Since the pellets are now bigger, but still not "massy", they need to be boosted at teeth rattling velocities, beacsue they are big, and consequently have a good deal of drag, so that at 40 yards they retain some killing power.
The calculations are simple, and I have presented them before - the reason steel loads seem to kick the snot out of you is that, well, they kick the snot out of you.
Use Bismith. 7 pounds costs about 90 bucks including shipping. Thats $1.10 a shot for a 1-3/8 oz waterfowl load ( you may find that 1-1/4 oz kills just as well). For a day of ducking with 8 birds bagged, and say 16 shots taken, thats only $17.60. You paid more than that when you fueled the Ford Expedition for the trip to the water.
Spend your money on what you wish, but if you use bismuth shot, there are lots more things you can economize upon.
End soapbox speech.
Regards
GKT
