Tungsten Alloy Shot

[mchughcb]

2 turkeys a season. Plenty of meat for thanks giving. Small change for a season on hunting.

[mchughcb]

Yeah, it doesn't make sense for the kind of hunting you do but for my turkey addiction, it is a small fraction of the costs. If I travel to four states to kill all four species each year I'll wind up spending 30-40 times the cost of a box or ten shells and hopefully only shoot four so it should last me a couple of years. To make it more cost effective and spread the cost over more hunts, I guess I could go for a world slam and add goulds and ocellated to my normal, eastern, osceola, rio grande, and merriams hunts .

No it makes sense. I'd only shoot about 20 or so foxes a year with the shotgun so in the interests of world knowledge on youtube I have decided it is my duty to shoot the most amount of foxes on youtube with a Blaser BD14 using TSS shot in 2021. Which shouldn't be too hard as there isn't any already I can find. As soon as I get some components I'll start patterning them by the end of Feb. I might also start using them on ducks if we have a duck season this year. If the loads prove outstanding I might order in a couple of kilos of #10 to see how they perform. Might even give me the incentive to buy a 28G just for TSS only

[mchughcb]

Well I just found this off another forum. 28 gauge, 18 gram load of #7 at a range of 53m using a IM choke. Well that has to be a 95% pattern there as I counted in the order of 120 pellets and the load is 122.

[SPEEDY]

That's a dead duck at 50m for sure.

[mchughcb]

I've just spent the last couple of hours pulling apart 20 gauge lead GB #00 30gram loads, NSI #0 31gram loads, Eley CT20 #7.5 28 gram loads. Then I pulled apart a B&P #3 32gram steel shot which has a wad slit 6mm from the base.

I have discovered a lot. Firstly there is not much difference in thickness between steel shot wad thickness and lead shot thickness however the steel shot is well encapsulated in the wad whereas the freeboard with the lead shot column outside the wad is huge.

I also discovered that the GB #00 shot has the largest capacity and also has more than 6mm before you hit the first slit. Compared to only 2.5mm in the NSI. Eley was 3.5mm

I then played around with the using #3 shot as a buffer while reducing the equivalent lead shot size of the TSS 7.5 down to 18grams without over filling the wad. The GB will take 9.3 grams of #3 steel and then 18 grams of TSS 7.5 equivalent = 28 grams with a factor of safety with the load as its designed for 30 grams. This is interesting as the wad appears it will have the least spread.

So what does this all mean? Not sure yet but using steel #3 shot as a buffer certainly seems feasible and still stay within the load weight while cutting down the amount of TSS required for the job. I think I can see why it must be easier from a quality point of view in manufacturing to drop in larger steel shot then top up with TSS and keep the charge weight, wad type etc the same. Plus as the TSS must be most expensive component they obviously want just enough to get the job done. I might just go down the same path.

[stokesrj]

I can tell you one thing about the steel and TSS loads like the Federal third degree. You get the worst of both steel and TSS. To really seize the capability of TSS you need a full dose.

[mchughcb]

Interesting Bob. We can't get those loads here to try out. But checking with simple rounds I cut up. I can fit 28gram TSS equivalent into the Eley and a 24 gram TSS equivalent into the NSI full to the brim of the wad without doing anything then roll crimp it and its done.

[SPEEDY]

Be curious to see a velocity difference in patterns, I've always found the more moderate speed loads always outperform the higher velocity loads.
Although I've never been the most scientific of tester's.

[mchughcb]

This might be useful to somebody. Looks like a 28 gram load for the Eley and a 24 gram load for the NSI will be close to whats needed without spacers for a 50m fox load with enough factor of safety on the pressure side.

[mchughcb]

So far so good. The TSS arrived today. My calcs were pretty spot on. I don't have mylar wraps or overshot cards so I'll be cutting up some dorito packets and use some cardboard 0.04" around the house. Hopefully I'll hit the range soon and see this stuff work. This stuff is very dense.

#7 TSS-18 (2.5mm) vs #2 Copper plated lead (3.82mm)

[mchughcb]

https://youtu.be/9tK7wC8t5KQ

Start loading them up tomorrow with bits lying around and then get to pattern testing in the next couple of days.

[stokesrj]

I was shooting ducks on my last day off and was using up all my miscellaneous steel or steel heavy shot blends and didn’t like the number of cripples. I switched to my TSS and killed every one after that stone dead, splash in the water and not even wiggle. When I got back home I ordered a case of the Federal BlackCloud #3 Flight stopper steel and #9 TSS duplex. After rebate they will be under $3 per shell and hopefully a happy medium between that and $11 turkey load TSS.

[mchughcb]

If this works out Bob, I'll order a kilo of #10 (1.8mm) or #9 (2.0mm) and make up some 12 gram loads. That will get the cost down to US$1.44/shot in time for duck season in a few months and give me time to pattern the loads.

[stokesrj]

Wow, that’s a really light load, less than half what you can get in a 410 TSS load. I would be worried about pattern density beyond 30 yards. Even over my decoy spreads I wind up killing most of my ducks at 35-50 yards.

[SPEEDY]

That does seem light, I'd want 36gm loads for foxes in a 12ga and probably 32gm load in a 20ga, smaller shot needs more then speed and penetration it needs a fuller pattern with more hits, at least that's what I've found with steel and lead.