Non-steel, Non-lead .410 shot shells?

Roccus7

Roccus7

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Learned Colleagues:

I use .410 3" lead shot shells for varmint control which includes big-azz porcupines 30' up in a tree so I need a good punch.

We just had another 2 eagles die from lead poisoning so I'd like to get away from the lead, but won't use steel because of the poor stopping power of that. Does anyone know of copper, bismuth and/or tungsten .410 shells? I can't find any.

Thanks,
R7
 
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Roccus7 said:
I used to use my 12 gauge duck gun, but that meant cleaning it every time I used it which is like 2x per year. Bought a cheapo single shot .410 for varmint control that I never clean...
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Just curious a clean gun shouldn't matter especially if you hardly use it
 
cany said:
Just curious a clean gun shouldn't matter especially if you hardly use it
Click to expand...

Exactly the point, if I shoot it a couple of times of year, all those corrosive chemicals will sit in the barrel and chamber and start eating away at the metal on my expensive duck gun. On the $100 .410, it can get eaten alive and I really wouldn't care. When it goes south, I'll just by another cheapo...

Pequa1 can probably 'splain this mo betta...
 
Not really. I thought corrosive chemicals went out for the most part with World War Two, but when on the college rifle team (housed in the ROTC range), in the Army, and for all my own little collection, I do at least clean the bore and chamber every time a firearm is fired, although many do not. Its a habit the military instilled. For the most part that is a leftover from my "Bore Clear!!" days with the artillery, insuring that a followup round will not encounter any obstruction. At the very least I run a slightly oily patch to prevent any rust in the barrels if my shotgun isn't fired after a day deer hunting.
 
Roccus7 said:
Thanks, but no steel. I just found some Browning Tungsten at Kittery Trading Post, but at >$5 a shot, that's expensive varmint control...
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Hey bud, you will get nearly the same results with the bismuth shot. They are cheaper AND you won't be driving the price of Tungsten up.(Not that 5 shells will affect the price) :p In the last couple of years all my Tungsten carbide tool bitts have gone up nearly 50%. It's such a waste to have Tungsten for shot. It's still a heavy metal that may cause much damage to wildlife.
 
Old Mud said:
Hey bud, you will get nearly the same results with the bismuth shot. They are cheaper AND you won't be driving the price of Tungsten up.(Not that 5 shells will affect the price) :p In the last couple of years all my Tungsten carbide tool bitts have gone up nearly 50%. It's such a waste to have Tungsten for shot. It's still a heavy metal that may cause much damage to wildlife.
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It was the only non-lead, non-steel .410 loads available from here to Kittery; both KTP and Cabela's had them.

It's an experiment. I do see some mail order bismuth options at a lower price, but I'll end up paying more for shipping, albeit less than $5.50 per round.

We'll see. I usually only fire a fire rounds per year and since there was a pretty good "ethnic cleansing" last year, the next few years should be relatively slow...
 
Roccus7 said:
Exactly the point, if I shoot it a couple of times of year, all those corrosive chemicals will sit in the barrel and chamber and start eating away at the metal on my expensive duck gun. On the $100 .410, it can get eaten alive and I really wouldn't care. When it goes south, I'll just by another cheapo...

Pequa1 can probably 'splain this mo betta...
Click to expand...
Ya could give it a cleaning ive shot hundreds of rounds of steel duck hunting never had an issue
 

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