Reloading with BBs?

[Rando]

Not really a casting question, but what about using BBs for air guns to reload 12 gauge shells? Duck season is around the corner and I need a quantity of non-toxic shot. I'd rather make my own than pay retail for steel shot and I see that MidwayUSA has steel BB shot for $20/10 lbs + shipping. I don't really need 10 lbs worth though and was wondering if using airgun BBs would cause unexpected problems. Thoughts?

[Johnch]

was wondering if using airgun BBs would cause unexpected problems. Thoughts?

Yep Scratched barrels

Air gun BB's are a lot harder than "Steel Shot "

It dosn't go bad LOL

Best place I know of for steel shot is Precision Reloading $16.99 for 10 lb http://www.precisionreloading.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=PRE&Product_Code=HVSBB&Category_Code=NON_PLATE_STEEL_SHOT

If you can come up with a 40 lb order
They ship it in a flat rate box

As between me and 2 freinds
We shoot up close to 2 flat rate boxs of steel shot a season

John

[shotman]

steel shot uses a different wad as john said precision . should have both

[sargenv]

Before when I had a lot of air rifle shot, I woud use it making sure to get the thickest steel shot wads available, at the time were the BPGS-BP12 combo or the old original Ranger wads from BP. It made ok 1 ounce loads at the time with the at the time high velocity of 1400 fps. I was able to take down snows and honkers with that combination out to about 50 yards.. 1 ounce translated to about 80 pellets of Air rifle shot. I never did scratch my barrels.

These days I can get Winchester Xperts that do 1550 fps just like the Kents and at a reasonable price.. $11/25. At this point, I can't make em for much less if you include my time put in. I loaded some Tungsten/Iron last year since I was able to make them only cost $1.25 a round, cheaper than the $2/round that they sell them for, and while they worked pretty good, I can't afford to shoot ammo that expensive all season. I loaded 2's and 4's, and out of 10 pounds got just under 6 boxes. That lasted me 3 or 4 hunts.

You do need buy the special thick steel shot wads if you want to do any loading.. you can't use the regular lead stuff.. and the large shot like that doesn't go through a shot bar, so it's either weigh the charge or do some kind of "dip" method. I use old small primer trays and determine how many pellets make up 1 charge. If it is 120 pellets, I use tape to mask off 60 of the tray holes and dip the tray three times for the 120 pellets and then hand insert that into each hull. Time consuming as heck.

[d garfield]

I don;t duck hunt but thought BB's were to big for duck.#2 is the largest.

[Tom W.]

Back when I was young and dumb, I loaded a few shells with BB's and went rabbit hunting. It killed them dead, pulled all manner of rabbit fur into the meat, and had a bad tendency to bounce off of trees and such, perpetuating the old saying " You'll shoot your eye out, Kid." I stopped such foolishness posthaste.

[Centaur 1]

Back when I was young and dumb, I loaded a few shells with BB's and went rabbit hunting. It killed them dead, pulled all manner of rabbit fur into the meat, and had a bad tendency to bounce off of trees and such, perpetuating the old saying " You'll shoot your eye out, Kid." I stopped such foolishness posthaste.

Not BB's, but when you said young, dumb and rabbit hunting reminded me of an "experiment" that I performed when I was a kid. I had several patches of brush that held only rabbits and all shots were close range. We didn't have choke tubes back then so we had to make due with what we had. Usually it was either a miss or most of the meat was destroyed. I tried using BB's but they made a weird whistling sound so I stopped using them. Then I tried making spreader loads that used only 7/8 ounce in a 12 guage, with an over shot wad to disperse the shot. Even better than the wad was when I used a ball of fishing line, it really got tangled up and spread the pattern. The best load though was when I used handloaded #4 buckshot. They were light loads that probably only went 1000 fps, and 1 or 2 big holes was better than 150 #6's. Although it worked the best, it would be illegal to use in most states.