Trying Steel Shot on Clays
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2022 6:52 am
BASC attended my local clay ground on Saturday to give members a chance to try out steel shot cartridges so I thought I would leave a little report on my experience. I have put this in general as lead bullets are mentioned in the current consultation too so it may interest more than just shotgun shooters.
We had 3 types of ammo to try out. Below is a small summary of each.
Eley VIP Steel 28g 7.5
This was the best of the bunch and an ammo that I would happily shoot without a second thought..... other than the price. It had a "plastic" cup style wad made from potato starch. Apparently 24 hours in water and it has disappeared, to combat issues with damage to it before shooting, the tops of the cartridges are sealed with a crimp. I don't think I missed a single clay with these (mostly easy targets, but some quick crossers and sim pairs thrown in so not a cake walk for a distinctly average shooter such as myself), it dusted them all, and they didn't feel any different to shoot to my normal Hull Pro One's.
BioAmmo Lux Steel
This wasn't quite the same story. This ammo was FILTHY. After 10 shots with it, one of the guys pointed out the state of his barrel so I checked mine and it was just as bad. Just 10 shots and it looked worse than after a 100 bird shoot. Definitely noticed more "chipped" rather than dusted clays and a couple of misses. However, I am not good enough to say that is the ammo and not me. But the way it filled the barrel with lumps of crap put me off enough to disregard it anyway. One of the cartridges also became jammed in the chamber after firing and had to be levered out. It only happened the once but it has never happed with my gun before. I can't say it was definitely the cartridges but I remain cautious of it.
Jocker Bio Sport Steel
This was the only ammo shot on the day which was not of concern on the cost front. £220ish per 1000 is cheaper than I pay for Pro One's. BUT, they were quite literally the worst cartridges I have ever shot. Its convenient that the logo is a joker hat because they are a complete joke. They have a paper wad... which exits the barrel like confetti directly into your line of sight. Not the end of the world for a single, although hard to tell if you actually hit it. But for a pair its completely impossible to shoot the second. Trying to pick out the clay from amongst the sea of shredded paper in front of you was impossible. The only up side was the paper appeared to clean out the crap left in the barrel by the BioAmmo....
All in all, shooting the ammo really did change my opinion of making the switch to steel. Its not as doom and gloom as I expected it to be. I would happily switch over to the Eley VIP Steel tomorrow if it were within a reasonable price bracket. Currently its not but steel is cheaper than lead so as more and more people shoot them the price should come down significantly.
Here is the problem though, I spent the hour with a BASC instructor and everything was very positive and we all agreed it was good ammo. But then I popped into the shop at the clay ground to get a price on the Eley cartridges. Turns out the BASC instructor forgot to mention that the clay ground in question (and apparently most of them) do not allow steel shot to be used. It limits the way targets can be set up due to the potential for ricochet's etc. So the whole thing of trying to convince us it was a great idea to switch was a bit of a waste of time because they haven't even convinced clay grounds to allow them to be used.
The good take away though is that, when we are forced to leave lead ammo behind, for clays at least, it won't be the end of the world.
We had 3 types of ammo to try out. Below is a small summary of each.
Eley VIP Steel 28g 7.5
This was the best of the bunch and an ammo that I would happily shoot without a second thought..... other than the price. It had a "plastic" cup style wad made from potato starch. Apparently 24 hours in water and it has disappeared, to combat issues with damage to it before shooting, the tops of the cartridges are sealed with a crimp. I don't think I missed a single clay with these (mostly easy targets, but some quick crossers and sim pairs thrown in so not a cake walk for a distinctly average shooter such as myself), it dusted them all, and they didn't feel any different to shoot to my normal Hull Pro One's.
BioAmmo Lux Steel
This wasn't quite the same story. This ammo was FILTHY. After 10 shots with it, one of the guys pointed out the state of his barrel so I checked mine and it was just as bad. Just 10 shots and it looked worse than after a 100 bird shoot. Definitely noticed more "chipped" rather than dusted clays and a couple of misses. However, I am not good enough to say that is the ammo and not me. But the way it filled the barrel with lumps of crap put me off enough to disregard it anyway. One of the cartridges also became jammed in the chamber after firing and had to be levered out. It only happened the once but it has never happed with my gun before. I can't say it was definitely the cartridges but I remain cautious of it.
Jocker Bio Sport Steel
This was the only ammo shot on the day which was not of concern on the cost front. £220ish per 1000 is cheaper than I pay for Pro One's. BUT, they were quite literally the worst cartridges I have ever shot. Its convenient that the logo is a joker hat because they are a complete joke. They have a paper wad... which exits the barrel like confetti directly into your line of sight. Not the end of the world for a single, although hard to tell if you actually hit it. But for a pair its completely impossible to shoot the second. Trying to pick out the clay from amongst the sea of shredded paper in front of you was impossible. The only up side was the paper appeared to clean out the crap left in the barrel by the BioAmmo....
All in all, shooting the ammo really did change my opinion of making the switch to steel. Its not as doom and gloom as I expected it to be. I would happily switch over to the Eley VIP Steel tomorrow if it were within a reasonable price bracket. Currently its not but steel is cheaper than lead so as more and more people shoot them the price should come down significantly.
Here is the problem though, I spent the hour with a BASC instructor and everything was very positive and we all agreed it was good ammo. But then I popped into the shop at the clay ground to get a price on the Eley cartridges. Turns out the BASC instructor forgot to mention that the clay ground in question (and apparently most of them) do not allow steel shot to be used. It limits the way targets can be set up due to the potential for ricochet's etc. So the whole thing of trying to convince us it was a great idea to switch was a bit of a waste of time because they haven't even convinced clay grounds to allow them to be used.
The good take away though is that, when we are forced to leave lead ammo behind, for clays at least, it won't be the end of the world.