Cast Steel Shot for trap

[wwillson]

Does anyone have experience with loading cast steel shot for trap? I believe cast shot would be much less expensive than conditioned cut wire shot.

[wwillson]

I found a supplier for cast steel shot and acquired a sample S-930 and S-780. This shot is different that conditioned cut wire shot in a few ways. Cast shot is about 10% lighter than conditioned cut wire shot. Cast shot is not as round as conditioned cut wire and many pieces have tails and/or compound particles of microshot. When the shot is shipped it has some tiny pieces of shot that has to be screen out before loading. The loose microshot will bind the charge bar as it accumulates between the charge bar and frame in MEC reloaders.

I found that a fly screen works very well to sift out the microshot and it only takes about 5 minutes to sift 50lbs of shot. The irregular pieces do cause occasional binding as it tends to ride on the rubber insert in the charge bar, however this is not a big problem in single station presses. I'm betting this would be a potential show stopper in progressive presses. The density issue just isn't a problem at 16 yards with 11/16oz in a VP-51, if I do my job the target breaks every time. At 27 yards and 1oz in a VP-60, again it just isn't a problem. For games or competition I would say caveat emptor. It is steel and I believe that even if you use steel wads and if you shoot enough you will eventually get scratches in your barrel, forcing cone, and choke/s. The club I shoot at must use steel, so it is what it is.

The cost is the attractive part it's about 1/3rd the cost of conditioned cut wire shot.

Wayne

[wwillson]

Don't do it... You WILL scratch your barrel. I tried it and effectively ruined a barrel.. As a matter of fact, it doesn't just scratch the barrel, it will gouge deep scars.

Cast steel shot is way harder than the annealed cut-wire shot. It's also about 15-20% lighter, which makes it even harder to break the targets.

There is a process to make soft cast shot that is almost as heavy as cut-wire, but you'll not find it anywhere yet. The factory steel trap loads we can buy over the counter are loaded with cast shot. There must be a patent(s) on the process to make the shot. I hope someday we can get it, but for now the cut-wire steel shot is really the only option.

Wayne