It’s a Steel!
Okay, I knew more about nematodes than I knew about steel shot but, the one thing I did know about steel shot was that it is "stupid" expensive! “Why stupid?”, you may ask - I know, you aren't asking but I will tell you anyway.
Okay, we're making shotgun shell components, not jewelry, here! The shot alloy’s major element is one of the most prevalent materials on the planet, IRON, and some of the whiniest, always want it their way, folks on earth want us to use it to save the planet. Okay, fine, but why does it need to be so expensive?!
Like the rest of us, I’m doing my part for wildlife conservation, I suppose. In addition to preventing lead poisoning, my limited experience has shown that steel shot seems very effective at preserving the wildlife that I'm actually shooting at! It can be argued that, like wind-generators, electronic vehicles, and public transit, steel shot should have garnered some sort of federally funded environmental subsidy or something by now?!
Anyway, the reason this has come up is, I went to the local sporting goods store to stare, as wantonly as a child, at the empty ammo shelves. I soon noticed they had boxes of # 4 steel shot shells - and on sale! The most amazing part of the story being that there was any ammunition to begin with, it took a double hit when I saw the sale price!
Now, I don't know #4 steel shot from the stars of the "Twilight" teen horror movie series, but I do know what's cheap in the high-finance world of steel shot shells! And, for a greater challenge, the manufacturer deforms the shot for you so it will shoot like the cheap soft lead shot shells I am usually shooting! If you've shot my reloads, you've experienced it and would testify! Amen!
We all know that nothing flies better than perfectly round shot; shot dimpled like golf balls may be the only shape that could surpass perfectly round? (My design idea - don't pass that around!) Some manufacturers stamp steel shot from wire through multiple stages as it works toward a final polish. This is a relatively, compared to dropped-lead shot, long and complex process. Therefore, expensive.
The good folks at Brand X Shot-Shells tell us that the Saturn-shaped projectiles fly truer and hit harder. “The ring around the center cuts devastating channels into the target”, or some such thing. Why the shape of Saturn? Well, one might suppose that’s because yellow moons, pink hearts, and green clover shapes were already taken?
Actually, the design that resembles the planet Saturn, appears to save manufacturers a step or two in a wire-stamping process as compared to completely rounding. Stamping shot into odd shapes and cleverly marketing it to folks that failed high school physics seems to have been a worth-while tactic. Another process that atomizes molten steel has been used for years to create shot for tumbling and peening processes. Not exactly what you’d like done to the inside of your shotgun barrels.
Now, even a labradoodle knows enough about the differences between steel and lead shot sizes to know that they aren't the same. Heck! That would be too easy! Lead shot sizes were determined by the number of similar sized balls of shot per ounce - one version. Later, it all came down to measured diameter. Comparing non-toxic and lead pellet measurements is basically like comparing metric and fractional standard systems. How one places odd shapes - like steel saturn, square boxes, or lead diamonds - into current pellet size parameters is anybody’s guess!
Primarily hunting upland birds since the very early ‘70’s, it still seems odd, to me, to purchase a box of #2 (steel) shot. Though touted as the best all-around performer, that just sounds crazy-large. When you read the pellet-count of shot - lead vs steel - it becomes clear why shot shells that contain steel need to be three-feet long! Two and three-quarter inch rounds with lead shot now require three and one-half inches of steel pellets to be as effective, it seems.
I continue researching the stuff and discover that the information out there is about as convoluted as the sizes! Weights, velocities, energy, choke sizes & designs, best shot sizes for upland birds and waterfowl - even which shot size makes the biggest ball of feathers inside the critter!
It seems that ammunition manufacturers’ still use data from the 1970/80's that was considered to have been suspect – then! Design and manufacturing processes in this industry seems to be as closely scrutinized as performance-enhancing drugs in pro wrestling!
So, it’s this dubiously managed, manufactured, and marketed stuff that I’m taking with me to pheasant “Nirvana”, wetland wealthy, east-river South Dakota. My hope is to blast-away until all of it is gone.
Turning the landscape to red - from rusting steel shot!
