I would call some of the small manufacturers of TSS loads and check on the wadding. Usually the wads are so thick there is never any contact between the shot and the bore. Number 9s in TSS (what I use) inside a thick wad cannot hurt anything, and they will load you lighter loads. There really is no need for 1 3/4 ounces of TSS 9s in a 3" or even 1 1/2 ounce in a 2 3/4" 12 gauge. You may find that they have 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 ounce TSS loads available. I loaded 1 1/4 ounce of TSS and shot it through a vintage Parker and Ithaca NID and also 1 ounce in 20 gauge and shot it through a Sterlingworth and a Trojan. No damage due to the shot being so small. double wadded, and the load is completely enclosed and actually far down inside the wadding. One ounce loads of TSS contain 362 pellets, and have the energy of 5s. That's why people are killing turkeys at 40 yards wit a .410 and 15/16 ounce.

Jerry, I agree with you. I don't see any reason why it couldn't be shot thru a SSS with its more open chokes

Steve,
I know this a bit off topic but forget the high tech payloads and work up a good lead load. Millions of birds have been harvested the good old way....with lead. Enjoy it while you can. Good luck and just stay still. :)

That’s true, but I can easily one shot kill a bird hanging up at 80 yards with #8 TSS. Can’t do that with lead #5. It’s the confidence knowing my pattern will jelly-head a bird at that distance that causes me to use TSS.

I can appreciate that and what ever works for you and your gun is fair game. I've always enjoyed the close encounters of the feathered kind. I love decoying birds in as close as possible, be they waterfowl or turkeys. Besides, where I hunt a clear 35yd shot is a long way for a strutting Tom.

I've been around the industrial chroming game some with cylinder lining in diesel engines, my mechanical instincts tell me that it doesn't make sense that you can exclude the choke area while chroming the other 90% of the bore. The only way I see this possible is for the chokes to be cut after the chroming process was done. Why would they cut the chokes before the chroming process on the SSS and not on the rest of the Repro barrels as they went down the production line? Just my curious mind telling me something isn't passing the sniff test here.

I'm still of the thought that all Parker repro's were ran through the same production processes at the factory and the SSS were for the most part just a marketing tool for the dealer that special ordered them for their shop.

An item I try to keep in mind is that when the SSS were made steel shot was just immerging on the scene for waterfowl hunting and there was very little knowledge about it at the time and a dealer having a special run of guns made & marketed as steel shot specials was a great sales hook. This worked so well that we still revere them to this day. Now, here we are having a discussion about a new non-tox shot hitting the market and the circle starts again--Is it safe to shoot it in my gun.

If repro's were still in production, we could have a special run of TSS specials made. Ten bucks says a bunch of them would be sold:shock:

Page 4 of the below linked thread brought forth information by a couple of individuals more knowledgable regarding industrial chrome lining and more intimately involved with the development of the SSS than myself.
https://parkerguns.org/forums/showth...ghlight=chrome

You hunting among the phragmites?? :rotf:

Actually I am. Edges of a swamp/wetlands bordered by mutifloral rose (cat briars) and shiny holly bushes. The only clearing is a fire trail about 5 yds wide. You'd better be ready.

I just look at TSS this way. It is an insurance policy for when my bad vision, excitement, and worn out brain says 30 yards and it is actually 40, and he won't come any closer or starts to walk away. In open oak woods I see no use in having a forty yard gun with the extra full turkey choke and trying to get him to 10 or fifteen yards to miss him completely with a pattern the size of a golf ball. Been there and done that many times. They still haunt me decades later.