RST Bismuth

[James Halvorson]

Originally Posted by Dave Erickson

I loaded up 3+ boxes of Nice Shot 5's roughly 10 years ago for a South Dakota trip. As rotten luck would have it that year, both of my older 16's when down with mechanical problems! I had thrown in a 12 gauge double at the last second and it ended up bailing me out on the trip. (At the time I felt foolish bringing a 3rd gun.)

I still have most of these loads, and used up a small stash of Activ hulls to better differentiate the pricy Nice Shot loads.

If I had three boxes like those on a shelf, I'd buy a 16. Nice stash!

[gman]

The specific RST load works for me in a Trojan 16 M&F.

[Scott Chapman]

I might be considered just a young pup but I have been shooting ducks and geese with steel since it was first required (early 80's). I have shot waterfowl all over North America and I will tell you that steel 3" 1425 fps #3 will crush a duck as far as you can realistically shoot using IC in Beretta 391. The same thing can be said for cranes, big geese and small geese (snows, specks, Ross, lesser Canada) with 3" 1425 fps BBs.

I just returned from southern Alberta with my first attempt to take Large Canada geese with my Parker Trojan 12 and the new Rio Bismuth 1 1/4 oz #4 at 1350 fps. The Trojan is choked mod/full and I was not impressed with the performance of the Bismuth. Decoying birds within 30 yards that were head shot dropped like hammers. Outside of that range or body shot birds, I experienced a large percentage of cripples and would not recommend for big geese.

Conversely I shot mallards at a fair distance (40 to 50 yards) with the same Bismuth #4 or #5 load and they dropped like rocks. I feel fairly confident that the Bismuth load would be adequate for close small geese. Unfortunately, those big Canada geese can absorb a lot of shot before they drop.

I have some Bismuth #2 and plan on handloading some rounds to around 1200 fps and just less than 8000 psi. Hopefully I'll have a chance to try some out with the Trojan and compare results.