Steel vs. Lead Shot in Shotguns
These are my thoughts about lead vs steel shot in shotguns. But they are only my thoughts and I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.
Bottom Line Up Front
There are three reasons I hunt pheasants with steel even though there is no requirement to shoot steel. Before I get to my reasons for shooting steel, let’s talk about this steel vs. lead shot argument a little bit. If you’ve been to discussion boards you’ll see that it is kind of a heated topic.
Discussion
I’ve been a long time user of steel for reasons other than just the environment. When I first started shooting pheasants with steel it was hard to get steel in #6. But year by year more steel, and non-toxic options become available.
With that said, let’s review the arguments in the steel vs. lead shot debate. Most of them are very familiar, but one really caught me by surprise. After some reflection, I understood the physics behind phenomena.
The major differences
We’ll start with some basics from Hunter-Ed.com
Two Major Differences Between Lead and Steel Shot
Steel is less dense than lead. The pellets weigh one-third less than lead pellets of the same size.
Steel retains less energy and may not kill birds cleanly at the same ranges.
Steel with the same weight and shot size contains more pellets than lead, making loads that contain more shot than necessary.
Compensate for the lighter weight by using a shot one or two sizes larger than the lead shot size.
Steel is harder than lead shot.
Birds may bleed more freely because the steel penetrates better without clogging the wound channels with feather balls.
Steel shot spreads less and has denser shot patterns, resulting in less margin for error in gun handling and trigger timing.
Compensate by using a more open choke like an improved cylinder or modified choke rather than a full choke. This is especially true for shots within 50 yards.
That is a nice summation. It seems that there is a compensation for each failing of steel shot. Stay tuned because I did find one failing there isn’t a compensation for as far as I know.
Old guns and ricochets
Range365.com brought up some interesting lead vs. steel topics that we haven’t covered yet.
Cost: Steel shells cost more than lead shells. While this is true it isn’t the whole story. More on this a little later.
Old guns/Barrel Damage: I’m adding barrel damage to this topic. Some truisms.
If you have an older gun, take it to a qualified gunsmith to see if they think the barrel can handle steel shot.
Avoid full chokes with steel. The overpressure can/will damage the barrel.
Modern guns with wider chokes can handle steel. I couldn’t find a definitive answer about this but I did scour some chatrooms and competitive shooters, shooting thousands of shells every year seem to think that their barrels are holding up. Granted they are shooting competition guns that are meant for thousands of rounds. So make of that what you will.
Ricochet potential with steel: Never thought about this, but you can’t deny that with the harder substance, there is a greater potential for a ricochet.
Performance Lead vs. Steel shot
This is a site that puts into graphics what everyone thinks about energy and the spread of steel vs. lead shot and a bonus fact that I didn’t see coming.
There are fewer lead pellets in the same steel loads. Meaning #2 lead shells will have fewer pellets than #2 steel shells.
For the same size pellet, lead carries more energy. This is obvious physics, but if there are any questions the graph proves that to have the same energy you have to use a larger steel shot.
Steel spreads are smaller than lead spreads because steel doesn’t deform.
This one caught my attention. Similarly because lead deforms its shot string is longer than steel. Meaning a bird is more likely to T-bone a lead pattern.
The shorter shot string is the only reason steel cannot compete with lead when hitting a bird. Energy can be compensated for with speed and a larger size pellet. The spread can be compensated for by opening the choke. But shot string cannot be compensated for as far as I understand. That doesn’t mean I’m all for shooting lead shot because there are other reasons why I shoot steel shot. However, this last item I learned for the first time writing this article.
History and my Silver Pidgeon
Here is an interesting article from ammunitiontogo.com about the lead vs. steel shot debate. He adds some history to the debate. There was a theory from a Canadian geochemist, Jerome Nriagu who argued that the fall of the Roman empire was due to lead poisoning.
Bonus article from ChuckHawks.com for those of you who can’t get enough of the debate.
I personally shoot a Berretta Silver Pidgeon 20 gauge. And I have to admit that there are times when I shoot a bird square and the pattern is so tight that the bird is absolutely destroyed. It has a 28-inch barrel. I wish I had a 26-inch barrel to help the spread.
Three reasons I shoot steel
3) It is better for the environment. Remember before when we said that steel shot was more expensive than lead? If you take into account this passage:
Since steel has replaced lead, the reduction in lead poisoning can be summed by this quote by from Ken Richkus, chief of the Branch of Population and Habitat Assessment in the Division of Migratory Bird Management at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “We’re looking at about a million to a million and a half ducks a year, in general, that do not die from lead poisoning due to the ban on lead shot. That’s relative to what we saw in the 1980s.”
You see there is more to the equation than just the price of shells. Fewer ducks mean tighter bag limits. And more expensive licenses to build habitat and clean up existing habitat. So, in the long run, steel isn’t that much more expensive when everything is added in.
2) If you go back to Hunter-Ed.com’s comment about steel passing through the bird more easily that is my number two reason for shooting steel shot. I rarely get a pellet in my dinner. It seems, and this is just personal experience, that when I shot lead I got a lot more pellets in my dinner.
1) And the number one reason I shoot steel is for personal health. It came to me one time when my extremely talented daughter, four-time state volleyball champion/Johns Hopkins premed, got a lead pellet in her dinner. At that point, I thought I should stop feeding lead to my kid.
Stupid personal story
So I was in Alabama and going on a quail hunt at the gorgeous Chattokee lodge. Once I got on the ground I made sure to hit up a sporting goods store so I could get some lead-free shells. I found them and bought some for me and my son. My daughter was with us, but she wasn’t shooting.
Anyway, at the end of the hunt, the owner Harlan Starr offered to swap birds with us that were already clean if we were tight on time. “Cool,” I thought, I can get these to Fedex and get them home and I can be on my way.
Yes, you are correct. Those birds had lead pellets.
Duck hunters haven’t had a choice since 1991 whether to shoot steel or lead. But upland game hunters still do in some areas. But for me personally, I don’t want to eat anything that is shot with lead. In fact, when I hunt big game it is with lead-free bullets.
Comments