More waterfowl content can be found at The Waterfowl Resource!
| Amongst reloaders, comparing home-rolled shotshells to factory loads
is a universal exercise. We compare price, of course, but the real fun
and lively debate involves performance comparisons. Although most waterfowlers
discuss shotshell performance, reloaders are especially focussed on how
their loads bag birds in the field relative to factory loads. Factory loads
set the performance standards. In fact, a new reloader's first look at
reloading data virtually always involves searching for a recipe that duplicates
the factory load he has been using.
How well a shotshell bags game depends on things like the species hunted, distance to the target, choke in the shotgun barrel, pattern quality, pellet type, and shot size. Consequently, true shotshell performance must be assessed by each individual hunter, while considering his particular hunting situation. This involves more than can be covered in one article, so I would like to start with the basic ballistic description of shotshells, or what I like to call "load configuration". Load configuration is simply the weight of the shot charge, type of pellets, and the initial velocity. A shotshell's basic function is to propel a shot-charge from a shotgun barrel at a particular velocity, and these 3 characteristics describe that event. When hunters decide which factory shotshells to buy or which reloading recipes to assemble, they are most concerned with how much of what kind of shot is fired how fast. Reloaders, especially steel reloaders, are very conscious of chamber pressure and may be surprised that I don't include it as part of the basic load description. However, non-toxic waterfowl loads tend to have large shot charges and pressures near industry limits. Even if chamber pressure were listed on a box of shotshells, I doubt it would be important to hunters. We have used terms in the past, like "magnum" and "drams-equivalent", that are of little use today. "Magnum" means a larger-than-normal shot-charge, and "drams-equivalent" is an index to velocity. A quick look at steel-shotshell packaging today will show that most loads are called "Magnums" and are loaded to "Max." drams-equivalent. Lately, some manufacturers are putting actual velocity on shotshell packaging in addition to drams-equivalent. My suggestion is to forget descriptive terms, and be simple and precise. "The load shoots 1 1/8 ounce of steel 3's at 1365 feet/second (fps)" gives the pertinent information. So let's see how the loads described in the reloading data compare to those offered by non-toxic shotshell manufacturers. Factory Load Configurations Here is a list of the factory non-toxic shotshells offered by major US ammo manufacturers. This list does not include every load available, and there may be slight velocity differences between manufacturers (<25 fps), but it includes the predominant load configurations provided by at least 1 ammo company. Most of the steel loads are offered by more than one company, but only Winchester offers bismuth loads. Loads with tungsten pellets are not included because pellets are not available to reloaders. Steel Shot:
Bismuth Loads:
* load contains buffered shot charges These configurations provide hunters with a reasonable choice of loads. According to ammunition distributers in my part of the country (Gulf Coast), the most popular are the 3-inch 1 3/8 ounce and 2 3/4 inch 1 1/4 ounce steel loads |