What type of shotgun shells to use

Non-toxic shells are becoming more popular as the Environmental Protection Agency and conservation groups move to limit or ban the use of lead ammunition on public hunting grounds. Their argument is that residual lead poisons fish, waterfowl and predators. Likewise, some private hunting clubs are requiring non-toxic shotgun loads. The most popular non-toxic shotgun loads are packed with pellets made of steel, Tungsten frequently alloyed with nickel, iron or bronze , Bismuth or some combination of these materials.

Non-toxic materials differ in their density, stopping power energy and velocity. Steel decelerates more than other non-toxic shotgun loads and is recommended for close shooting such as decoy hunting.

Because of its hardness, steel shot should not be used with full or extra-full chokes for fear of damaging the barrel or choke. Find out if your shotgun barrel is rated for steel shot before making a purchase. Likewise, confirm whether or not your choke is rated for steel. The hardness of steel also presents problems for bird hunting. Basically, you want a shot material that will flatten and spread when it hits your prey for better stopping power. Steel shot, because of its hardness, can pass through an animal rather than lodge in vital organs for a fatal wound; the results can produce an unwanted number of wounded birds.

In terms of shot density, steel is about 70 percent as dense as lead. Bismuth shot is nearly as dense as lead. Some tungsten alloys come close to the softness and density of lead shot.

Hevi-Shot is the heaviest of the non-toxic ammunition. With the exception of percent steel shot, other non-toxics should be effective on longer range, waterfowl, passing shooting. Get ready for sticker shock, though. Most reloading fans will tell you they make their own loads to save money.

But the ability to customize your shells for performance and recoil often makes for a more compelling argument to build-your-own. Reloading your own shotgun shells may indeed cost less than off-the-shelf boxes even at big box stores. The other side of the equation is time and travel. You still need to drive somewhere for pound bags of shot, bulky bags of wads and jugs of powder. Online purchasing is of course an option, but take into account shipping and the cost benefits could easily diminish.

And what about space? Do you have the room for a dedicated reloading bench and assorted accessories? You need to also consider that reloading is dirty. Shot pellets will inevitably spill all over the place. Gunpowder granules spread like dust, except they leave a black residue. And pretty soon the area smells of grease and cleaning solvents. A MEC reloading press. To start, from a financial perspective, you need to rationalize the initial cost of a shotshell press.

Mayville Engineering Co. For gauge shells, you may find the balance sheet tipped in favor of low-cost shells from big-box retailers. The same financials may apply to gauge shells — except when you get into competition loads packed with number 8 or 9 pellets.

Moving to 16 gauge, 28 gauge and. For 12 and 20 gauge, however, it would be tough to sustain a strong financial case for hand-loading versus retail — unless you talk about quality. It all begins with the Lyman Shotshell Reloading Handbook or something similar.

Individual components such as hulls, wads, powders and primers have distinctive ballistic characteristics. Tweaking the recipes is of course flirting with disaster remember, shotshells are explosives , but what you will find with sufficient experimentation of different recipes is the perfect load for you — a personalized shell that performs well with the forcing cones of your barrels, your favorite chokes, the particular sport you shoot, your recoil tolerances and the best possible velocity not necessarily the fastest.

In a word, you want consistency rather than the mass-produced shells that could be slightly different from each other as they come off the assembly lines. If you want to reload, safety is a top priority. Wear shooting glasses, latex gloves and even an apron to prevent contaminants from spreading throughout your house. Keep your area clean; vacuum it whenever necessary. Pay attention: too many shotgun barrels explode with catastrophic consequences after a reloading press accidentally drops a double load of powder into a hull without you noticing it.

Be safe, be smart and always respect the components you are working with, and you can experience many years of fun, and savings that come with reloading your own shot shells. Use BB shot for long range and pass shooting. For normal range--No. Goose hunters need wallop so they use the big loads with large shot. Many hunters prefer No. For slugs, shoot between three and five shot groups at paper at a reasonable range; say 50 yards Both types of slugs are fairly low velocity, and thus have rainbow-shaped trajectories that are not helpful to long-range shooting.

Pick a slug which produces acceptable patterns and satisfies your desire for target damage. Part 3. Learn the basic types of choke. Most chokes anymore are interchangeable because the inside of the end of modern barrels is threaded, so chokes can be screwed in and out at will. Generally, the following chokes are the most common: Cylinder bore, which has no restriction, throws open but very uniform patterns. This is useful for close-range shooting. Skeet choke is appropriate for sport and target shooting.

Full choke has a lot of restriction and throws very tight patterns when fed quality shot. However, when fed soft lead, a full choke tends to shoot uneven patterns. Determine the shot pattern appropriate to your purposes. The pattern of the shot refers to how much the load spreads out during flight. The pattern changes depending upon the existence of a choke in the barrel. The tighter the choke, the more the lead will be affected.

The more lead in a shotgun load, the more serious this effect is. Largely, this will depend upon your practice and your shooting style. If you're a very accurate shooter with hunting ambitions, a narrower choke might be appropriate to narrow the shot and ensure a clean kill. If you're a novice, a choke is probably unnecessary. Determine your optimum choke-shot combination. Practice with different shot sizes, lengths, and combinations of different chokes with your shotgun.

With a properly- sighted shotgun , track your shot patterns and accuracy to determine the best combination for your purposes. If your patterns are the wrong size or don't have the density required to kill game, use a tighter or looser choke accordingly. If your patterns are uneven, you are probably trying to push too much soft lead through too small a hole. Sometimes less lead and a looser choke will actually allow you to be effective at longer range.

It is the weight of the shot. Not Helpful 2 Helpful For woodchuck control around the home, with range of up to 30 yards, what is best gauge, shot size and choke? Use a full-choke gauge, 4 buckshot should work perfect for that. Not Helpful 2 Helpful 8. Yes, there is a choke called modified. In order of increasing construction, the common types are: Cylinder no constriction , Improved Cylinder, Modified, Improved Modified, and Full. There are also a variety of specialty chokes, such as Turkey, or Skeet.

Not Helpful 6 Helpful What shots are the best for skeet shooting, quail shooting, and dove shooting? For quail and dove, try high brass, and nothing bigger than 6, which is a pretty universal shot. Will shooting steel shot through a modified choke damage it or the end of the barrel? Not Helpful 7 Helpful Not Helpful 5 Helpful What type of shell should I use for a gauge double barrel shotgun with coach style hammers?

The type of shell depends on what you are shooting at, whether you are hunting or defending, what size chamber, etc. Not Helpful 8 Helpful Any shotgun is good for home defense, but only as a last resort when all options are off the table. With that said, the sound of a pump action shotgun being racked is one of the most recognized sounds in the world and will most likely send an intruder running. Not Helpful 3 Helpful I think the best shot size is between 5 and 9, but it's your preference.

The 5 give you fewer pellets but will provide a cleaner, much more humane kill. My recommendation would be to train on one type and stick with it so you are consistent and predictable. Not Helpful 3 Helpful 3. Drew Fricks. The article states that the "rifled" slug, used in smooth-bore shotguns, has rifling or ribs on the slug.

The other option, Sabot slugs, need a rifled barrel to be shot accurately, so most likely you will be using a rifled slug in your shotgun. Not Helpful 2 Helpful 2. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. Don't shoot steel or other very hard shot through a full choke. You are likely to damage it. Helpful 79 Not Helpful If you don't know the range you will be using your shot shells, it is customary to pattern birdshot at 40 yards It saves money, and the rifled barrel can be easily swapped out for a smoothbore.

There are three things to understand about the sizes of shotgun shells: gauge, length, and shot size. Gauges are simply how big the shotgun shell is in the sense of either the diameter or the circumference. There's quite a bit of history around this naming convention, but here I'm just going to cover the basics.

It seems contradictory, but the larger the gauge number, the smaller the diameter of the shell is. Here are the most common shotgun gauges in order from largest to smallest:. This is literally the length of the shotgun round. Repeating shotguns usually have a tube magazine, and the length of shells determines how many rounds you can load into that magazine.

The shorter the shell, the more you can load. The shorter shells also tend to have less recoil than the longer ones, making them more fun for recoil-sensitive or smaller shooters. You can't just slap any length of shell into any shotgun and fire it off, though. Luckily, there's an easy way to check and see what size of shell your shotgun can handle. On modern guns, it'll be stamped right into the barrel, usually in the neighborhood of the make and model and easy to spot.

Some older guns may not have it, but a quick internet search with the make and model will tell you exactly what the specs are. The next thing to understand is shot sizes, as defined by the American Standard system.

Again, the larger the number, the smaller the pellets. You'll also see the shot weight, which simply refers to the weight of the pellets loaded into the cartridge. The heavier the shot, the harder the recoil. Most shotgunners advise using shot that's heavy enough to get the job done but not so heavy that it kicks you so hard that you don't want to shoot it again.

That'll be up to your tolerance. I've seen pound women firing round after round of heavy shot with a grin pasted on their face and pretty big guys flinching with a medium-weight load. A great pheasant load is a 20ga 3-inch 5. Just gauge, length, and shot size. If there's enough variety, add shot weight to your choice. Easy, right? Don't worry if you get these in a different order, if you look or ask for a 5 20ga 3-inch, it's understood in the ammo world.

As a general rule, the smaller the target, the smaller the shot size, especially for hunting. Once you get to 0's, you're in buckshot territory, and we'll cover that further down. You'll also notice some shot sizes like "BB" or "T," which are mainly for waterfowl. With buckshot or those waterfowl loads, the more letters in the size, the larger the shot.

Example: "B" is smaller than "BB," and "" is bigger than " Let's get into the three main applications: target, hunting, and defense. Shotgun targets are usually referred to as "clays" or "clay pigeons. These shoots can all help improve accuracy when hunting, and they're practiced both casually and in professional competitions. All of the gauges above have been used for this kind of shooting, often determined by the distance of the targets, size of the shooter, and level of difficulty desired.

Target shotshells are usually loaded with small lead birdshot sizes, listed here from biggest to smallest:. To start off, always check Fish and Game regulations for the animals and area you're going to be hunting. These are found on their websites, and they have specific reasons for restricting certain kinds of shotgun ammo. Also, it's very important to note that waterfowl can only be hunted with a lead-free non-toxic shot under federal law.

Here's a breakdown of the different types of shotgun shells that are used for hunting. Notice that I'm referencing only shot size and a range of gauges.

These gauges are only preferences; hunters have successfully used shotguns of all sizes when paired with the correct shotgun ammunition. I've left out shell length as that's determined by the shotgun and the shooter. Especially when hunting multiple species in one trip, many hunters will find a "happy medium" load that isn't overkill for smaller animals or underpowered for larger animals.

For example, using 5 for doves, rabbits, pheasant, and grouse. Waterfowlers may settle on a 2 for ducks and geese. Again, none of these are set in stone; they come down to the hunter's comfort level and preferences.

I've been known to throw a few slugs or buckshot shells into a pocket when I go hunting for upland game in seasons that overlap like deer or black bear. You never know what you might stumble across. This is the most hotly debated shotgun topic out there including whether or not a shotgun is a good home-defense gun. Since we're talking shotshells here, we'll stick to the ammo and leave the other guns out of it.

All gauges of shotgun are candidates for a home-defense gun since it's most likely going to be close-range. You'd be better off throwing sand in an intruder's face than using pest-control shells. I'll dispel one common myth: you still have to aim a shotgun in a defensive situation.

Shotguns can still miss, especially in close quarters. When talking about shotgun ammo for home defense , there are solid arguments for buckshot vs. Your ultimate choice boils down to your own factors. Are there kids or other people in the house that would be injured if projectiles came through the walls?