Has anyone tried using steel Pachinko balls for shot?

[astrawn]

They are steel, probably get 3-4 in a regular 12ga shell.

Thanks!

AStrawn

[Winger Ed.]

They'll slow down faster than lead, and probably ding up your barrel.

That used to be a big complaint with steel shot in general.

Save them for a high end sling shot. They do pretty good in them.

[smithnframe]

I would never shoot anything but lead shot in my shotguns!!!

[longbow]

"...and probably ding up your barrel."

That would be my worry. That and they are likely hard on wads. You'd want thick wad petals. Is that 3 or 4 in a wad or 3 or 4 to fill the bore? Regular lead shot wads are most likely too thin to protect the barrel. That's why steel shot wads are really thick... to keep steel away from steel.

At 11mm they would also tend to wedge badly I think so like the Tri-Ball load you would likely be best off using a buffer to support the balls. Do a search for Tri-Ball and read James' comments on wedging and buffer. If steel balls wedged badly enough they'd extrude the shotcup petals then be steel on steel (ball to bore) and likely split the barrel.

You might also do a search on ball bearing loads. That comes up regularly too. Not sure if anyone has posted successful load data. I avoid those sorts of loads so no interest here.

Good luck. And if it works please post successful load data. It never hurts to have more data and we all learn something. In fact if it doesn't work please post results. Again, we all learn something and it can save someone else the trouble of testing.

Longbow

[too many things]

well do a few and if you live post pic of what is left

[Winger Ed.]

Back in the old days when steel shot first came along to replace lead-

People that did a lot of shot-gunnin' talked about it trashing their screw in chokes, and even blowing out a few of them.
The barrel behind the chokes didn't fare very well either.

[Bazoo]

I'm not super versed in shotgun tech but my modern 870 is rated for steel shot. Some of the chokes are steel rated and some not. I think all modern guns would be made to take the abuse of firing steel.

[richhodg66]

I'm not super versed in shotgun tech but my modern 870 is rated for steel shot. Some of the chokes are steel rated and some not. I think all modern guns would be made to take the abuse of firing steel.

I believe you are correct, but steel shot is actually iron as I understand it and softer than things which are usually made of steel. It's also loaded with special wads.

I don't think I would try this.

[rking22]

I don’t know what type balls you are directly referring to, but if they are ball Bering material, they will be harder than Chinese’s arithmetic, 52100 is a very good knife steel! There are special steelshot wads to protect the boar, but if they are buckshot size I would be very concerned about bore damage. Shoot one in a good wad, ok. Put a cluster in a wad and they may gouge some serious furor’s in the barrel as they fight for position. If they are soft, well I shoot lead....

[Cap'n Morgan]

I once read that ball bearing shot would disperse more than lead shot due to the "elasticity" of the hardened balls. This was from a book from the fifties, long before anyone would dream of shooting anything but lead.

Once, an old geezer showed me some 16 gauge "slugs" made by replacing the shot load with a large bearing ball, held in place with a wrapping of newspaper.
He explained he had been given them by another od geezer from Sweden who used them for moose hunting!

[Cap'n Morgan]

An interesting sidebar to all this. Careful inspection of many older mild steel barreled shotguns that have shot heavy charges of large sizes of lead shot, especially for waterfowl hunting, have ring bulges at the choke constriction having never even "smelled" a shot shell loaded with steel shot!! Turns out heavy charges of magnum and large lead shot do about the same thing to chokes as modern steel shot does to these older shogun barrels- a mostly cosmetic ring bulge at the choke constriction

That's certainly true. I, and several of my hunting buddies was using AYA s/s magnum shotguns back in the eighties. These guns had the barrels brazed together in full length (normally only the chamber section is brazed, while the barrels and the ribs are soft soldered) As a result the barrels were noticeable "softer" and all of them developed a slight bulge at the start of the chokes after digesting a number of 1-7/8 ounce #2 loads. (they also quickly developed a loose fit due to the heavy diet fed)

[bangerjim]

I own 3 antique Pachinko machines. Those balls are worth FAAAAR more than any silly ammo use you would have. Save them/sell them on ebay - if you have several hundred of them. Especially the ones with the engraved writing on them.

banger

[richhodg66]

I own 3 antique Pachinko machines. Those balls are worth FAAAAR more than any silly ammo use you would have. Save them/sell them on ebay - if you have several hundred of them. Especially the ones with the engraved writing on them.

banger

Sorry if this is a thread hijack, but what exactly is a Pachinko game? Like some kind of pinball or arcade game?

[tunnug]

I own 3 antique Pachinko machines. Those balls are worth FAAAAR more than any silly ammo use you would have. Save them/sell them on ebay - if you have several hundred of them. Especially the ones with the engraved writing on them.

banger

Great idea, a buddy gave me a few (or at least a couple) hundred in a large container, they have some Chinese figures on them, I'll have to look into that, was thinking of firing them off in my wristrocket, glad I didn't.

[bangerjim]

Sorry if this is a thread hijack, but what exactly is a Pachinko game? Like some kind of pinball or arcade game?

Remember....................GOOGLE is ALWAYS your friend to ask questions of!

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=7gkCX4u4IPL19APKoK3oCA&q=pachinko+machine&oq=pachinko&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgCMgUIABCxAzIFCAAQsQMyBQgAELE DMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADoFCAAQgwE6B AgAEApQxQ5YpiBg1TpoAHAAeACAAU2IAcwEkgEBOJgBAKABAao BB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=psy-ab#spf=1593969146771

[MusicMan]

Sorry if this is a thread hijack, but what exactly is a Pachinko game? Like some kind of pinball or arcade game?

Google is your friend.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Google is your friend who collects your data and sells it :P LOL

I use duckduckgo on anything I don't care to have shared too far.

[MusicMan]

Google is your friend who collects your data and sells it :P LOL

I use duckduckgo on anything I don't care to have shared too far.

I use Ghosterly to keep down the tracking and eliminate the ads.

[missionary5155]

We use Dogpile.com for searches... no trail.. no memory plus Ghostery which shows there are 4 trackers here.

[bangerjim]

I use a VPN, so there is no tracing. I use several different search engines depending on what I am looking for......most people are used to Google.......that's why I mentioned it.

banger

[KCSO]

Steel shot had a LOT of development to make it soft enough to shoot in most new guns. Steel BB's ball and ball bearings are way to hard for a gun barrel. Steel buck shot would be a ballistic disadvantage also as it is too light to carry the penetration you need. Yes folks have tried all of these options and I have got to see and try and repair the end results. On older barrels even REAL steel shot can bunch up and bulge a barrel especially if you don't use a special steel shot wad.

If you really want to try this please keep me in mind for the ruined barrel as I donate them to Hunter Safety teachers.