Steel shot damage?

[Keith Doty]

I have a light 12 Belgian A5 from the 50s choked full. It was my favorite pheasant and duck slayer for years until steel shot came along. I called Browning and was told "bad idea". I put the gun op for several years until I came across what Cabelas said were genuine Browning replacement barrels for about $300. Called Browning again and was told the barrels were indeed from Browning, of recent manufacture, and would fit my gun with no gunsmithing needed. I bought a MOD, it fit perfectly, and have fired many hundred rounds of 2 3/4" steel #4 out of it for years no issues, no "ring bulge" and lots of ducks that got to meet my dogs.
Not recommending this, never measured the bore on this barrel. Just my personal experience!

[Bill Murphy]

I shot many 3 1/2" 1 3/4 ounce ten gauge steel loads out of an AYA Matador with .045 chokes, without any damage. I'm not a waterfowler, but this gun gave superior results in the waterfowl shooting I have done. Kevin is right in stating that steel loads are not useless as some proclaim.

[Keith Doty]

I wouldn't say useless as I have killed many, many waterfowl with steel. I WOULD say steel is not as effective as lead or some of the modern substitutes. I switched to bismuth, load my own, and find it , as far as I can tell, as effective as lead. Now, the cost for any of the "store bought" modern substitutes is brutal, Don't miss often! The bismuth shot cost is about $1 per ounce and going up but I'm less than $30/box for the one ounce 12 ga. ammo I use over decoys for ducks and find it effective easily out to about 50 yds. I see fewer cripple ducks, many more cleanly killed ones with bismuth. Easy to load as well, uses same wads as I use with lead, just about 10% volume difference.

[Bill Murphy]

A 7/8 ounce load in a 20 is not as effective as a 1 1/4 ounce load in a 12. A 1 ounce load of steel is not as effective as a 1 1/4 ounce load of lead. A 3/4 ounce load of lead in a 3" .410 or a 28 is not as effective as a 1 1/8 load of lead in a 16 gauge. It's all a matter of the conditions and the range you shoot. Any load of shot will kill game if you shoot within the limits of your skill, your gun, and your ammunition. For many years, I never shot a duck or a goose with anything other than a ten gauge AYA with 1 3/4 ounces of steel of various sizes, mostly #2, BB, and larger. Some days, I surprised myself, other days I surprised my companions. I was more than satisfied with the results of shooting with that combination.