Boss copper-plated bismuth shot shells

[LtCol Henderson Marriott]

Good question. The author describes after the first trial that he found "several small flecks of copper plating" in the paper target. Looking at the picture provided by Jeff Stegmeier in the Fox Newsletter article, it appears that the small pieces are plated. The pieces described as "shrapnel" because of their broken condition-are " plated".

Alternatively, copper-washed bismuth pellets might possibly be better than plating,
as the surface treatment is very thin-closer to true bismuth alone.
It does raise another question: could the copper "plating" process itself be contributing
to the issue? Possibly the process could be causing the bismuth pellets to become
brittle, lending them to be more susceptible to the physics of velocity, mass and constriction of the choke. I do wish the author had used more of the Boss treated bismuth in other shotguns, rather than just the HE Fox. That said-the Kent pure bismuth shells still had the best performance in the 3-in Super of all guns in the pattern trial.

We are left with questions and few answers at present. The process Boss uses I do think may be a factor.