buck shot 2

[686]

i did not know i was getting something started that would shut down my question. i did get the answer, cast them hard. thanks to those that helped

[turbo1889]

I noticed that closed thread as well. Not quite sure what went wrong down there and I certainly don't think it was your fault. Just a few guys with very strong differences of opinion and at least one who was not going to be civil about it. I was going to post on it but it got closed while I was writing my post.

Both sides actually had good points. For hunting loads generally hard buckshot seems to work better, but for like tactical loads where the velocities are less and the buckshot doesn't get brutalized as much on the trip down the bore and your not worried about a clean kill and blood trail but rather tearing up the target as much as possible and buckshot that flattens out and does more tearing up on the inside and doesn't exit the other side of the target critter - well in that situation soft buckshot can be better. Especially if you want to reduce the potential for barrier penetration (so the buckshot don't go through house walls and kill the neighbor) as well as prevent over penetration on the target.

As to the price of store bought buckshot being so cheap it doesn't make sense to cast your own. The only time I have seen that true is the few times I've seen buckshot sizes solid in big 25# bags right along with the other bird shot sizes and for the same or nearly the same price per bag. I've only ever seen one brand sold that way and at only one place and only in a few sizes and it was soft not hard buck shot. If you happen across such a deal and its in the size you want at the hardness you want. Then, yes, by all means its a steal of a deal and will save you a whole lot of time and work compared to casting your own. Just doesn't work out that way all the time, only has worked out a couple times that way for me. All the rest of the time I had to cast my own to get what I wanted at a reasonable price.

[turbo1889]

Long story short, IMHO:

~ Soft buck shot has its use in tactical 2-legged trouble loads but for hunting hard buck is the way to go.
~ Sometimes you can get store bought buckshot for a cheap enough price to make casting your own not worth the trouble, but it don't work out that way very often for me at least.