Question About Bismuth To Lead

[Kingston Wulff]

I load bismuth loads specifically for my Damascus 12ga. Parker shotguns. You can get bismuth from Rotometals.com. I have sourced it from other places but the Rotometals products are great quality. They describe the density of Bismuth to be nearly identical to lead so I actually load it the same way. The guns are vintage 1881, and 1889. I have the hand loading tools where you use a dipping tool for a square load. ie. same volume of black powder to shot. It works great. I shot a duck at a mountain pond that I discovered with one shot at about 40yds. When I cleaned the bird, he had been hit with at least a dozen pellets and all went clean through him. It patterned well and with great velocity. That is a non-technical term because I have not chrono-ed the loads. But it has to be safer than using RST reduced loads in the BP vintage shotguns. The RST loads are still 3X the chamber pressure as BP. I say, "Load the BP shotguns the original way they were intended to be shot and you will be surprised to learn that they shoot like a modern shotgun and you don't need 3 in. shells to get the job done. Bismuth is expensive but I don't shoot as much as I used to anyway. I shoot #4 and #5 shot bismuth for ducks and upland birds. I hope that helps you.