NEF Pardner. Is steel shot ok?

[Michael J. Spangler]

So I have a NEF pardner 12 gauge choked full.

Is it ok to run steel BB or BBB loads in there?

I figured this would be the place to ask!

Thanks guys!

[versa-06]

I understand your caution. I've been on the understanding that large steel loads need Mod. or Imp Cyl Though I must admit I have shot a very few #8's low brass through a full choke. Maybe not smart on my part?

[quilbilly]

I used mine with steel shot for years when waterfowl hunting out of my small kayak where there was no way to beach it. No problems although BB sized was the largest I used. The reason I used the NEF was that it has a lighter barrel than my other 12 gauges so my kayak wouldn't start to swing while following birds. Hitting a fast flying target from a floating twisting and rocking platform was more challenge than I could handle.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Maybe a string and some rope at the range for the first shot lol.

I have a nice 870 with screw in chokes but it’s only 21”
I can’t find bismuth so I can’t make use of the 35” Marlin goose gun or the 30” AH Fox. Both chokes full and full.
Once I find some I’ll run either of those for the season.
Keep the experience coming!
Thank you!

[Bkingnsmth]

Fellas modified is the tightest one should use with steel shot. It doesn't compress like lead will and can break your barrel. I know someone will argue this, but why should you want to ruin your gun? Besides IC will normally pattern best with steel. That's all I will input on this subject.


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[Michael J. Spangler]

I do have another NEF in Modified I could pattern.

[Texas by God]

You might should ask the shotshell manufacturer-since you can't ask NEF any more, sadly. I'm no fan of steel but you have to use it if you want to eat migratory birds. I use modified for the limited amount of steel that I use for ducks.

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[richhodg66]

Another option would be to have a smith tap it for threaded choke tubes.

[Duckiller]

I regularly shoot duck sized steel shot in an older Remington 1100 barrel. I don't believe NEF barrels are particularly thin. Good luck goose hunting.

[Blue2]

I have worked as a gun-smith for many years. Semi-retired now . I have seen a number of shotgun barrels ruined from steel shot . All of the pre internal choked shotguns and especially the European shotguns run a tighter bore than the newer screw in choke barrels. Choke bore diameter is not an exact number but rather the degree of restriction at the end of the barrel compared to the bore diameter preceding the choked section . Shotgun barrel steel is softer and thinner than rifle barrel steel and the pressures inside the barrel are lower . Even before the advent of steel shot Winchester was the first I believe to come out with internal threaded chokes . The barrel bore diameter was made larger to allow room to screw in the choke tubes . This created an interesting condition wherein the "cheap" older shotshells that were loaded with felt/fiber and card wads would shoot "hard" and kill well but those shells did not perform well in the new oversize barrels. Thus the need for plastic cup type base wads or complete plastic wads that would flare out under pressure and seal the bore .
When steel shot became mandatory shotgun screw in chokes were offered in "regular" strength for lead loads or "Approved for Steel" versions . Steel shot choke tubes are made of a stronger harder material to take the extra strain of squeezing down a load of steel shot. An older shotgun and I would say better if an American make may tolerate a limited amount of steel shot if the choke is a Modified or less and the shot not larger than BB ,

[megasupermagnum]

I'm surprised at all the misinformation in this thread. To begin, there is no set maximum tightness for steel shot. There's TONS and TONS of full choke guns, and choke tubes that are perfectly safe with steel shot. This NEF Pardner likely is one of them.

I/C will not patterns steel shot the best. After a decade of pattern testing steel, I never once found IC to pattern the best, and it wasn't for a lack of trying. Sometimes modified is best, sometimes full is best. It's no accident that most choke tubes for tight steel patterns are in the IM to full range.

There is no danger at all to the shooter from using steel shot in any shotgun. The danger is completely to the gun itself. Damage is rare, and usually in the form of bore scoring, or a slight bulge at the muzzle. I'm sure lead-only tubes could crack, but there is no danger to the shooter.

Shotgun bores did not used to be tighter. I've never heard that myth before, and it is not true. I've got a few pre 1960 shotguns, and they all are regular bore sizes. 12 gauge is .730", and 16 gauge was .665". I'm willing to bet a 1910 Browning Auto 5 in 20 gauge was still about .615" bore. Shotguns today still are about those measurements, except for the few "backbored" guns that try and turn a 12 gauge into a poor 10 gauge. Natural card and fiber wads still work as good today as they ever did. I shoot plenty of them. The only difference I've heard was the forcing cones used to be shorter, which I can not confirm or deny. They look the same by eye, but you would either need to measure them, or take a chamber cast to know for sure. Either way, the forcing cone length plays no part in the barrels ability to handle steel shot. I'm not sure what any of what Blue2 said has to do with steel shot, being as shotgun ammo was switching over to plastic in the 1960's, 2 decades before anyone even entertained the thought that steel shot might actually become a thing.

The big difference I see has to do with how the barrels are constructed. I have no idea what steel shotgun barrels have been made from over the years. What I do know is that shotgun barrels used to be thinner, at least some of them did. Look at a plain, fixed choke Browning auto 5 from 1910, compared to a choke tube threaded barrel from the 1990's. Look at a Remington 11-48 barrel vs a Remington 11-87 barrel. Look at a lot of the old SXS's, they had barrels about as thick as a cereal box. That alone was not the problem for steel, it was that now the choke at the end had barely any metal to handle it. It shouldn't surprise anyone that with .040" of constriction, the shot forcing outwards, the muzzle only being .060" thick doesn't have a ton of strength.

Shotguns made after the mid 80's almost all have a lot thicker barrels, and now almost universally are threaded for choke tubes. These tubes are usually made of some kind of high strength stainless steel. There are tubes still out there that say lead-only, but those are mostly going to be XX-full turkey chokes and such. It's going to be very hard to find a full choke tube from the last 20 years that says you can't shoot steel in it.

Hopefully that clears things up a bit. Back to the NEF Pardner. I'm going to assume this is a new H&R/NEF, meaning it is post 1987. All of these guns were built to handle steel shot. As long as this is not an old one with the side lever, it is safe to shoot steel shot in it. I'd personally avoid BBB, because you give up too many pellets to be useful for anything. Even BB is pretty thin on pattern, but it's about all you can do with steel shot. I'd try both your full choke and modified choke guns for pattern. Either one could prove to be better.

[beagle74]

Not that I've done extensive testing, but I use modified chokes with steel shot, which I am led to believe works as a full choke with steel. I havent experienced any problems with my old H&R modified choked 12 ga. Given the choice, I'd go modified.

[Screwbolts]

How long does it take you to cast them steel BBs and BBB?

Will you be hunting with it?

A simple search of this thing called the internet would help you find specific forums for NEF, you know like Greybeard or something to that effect.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Just a story....maybe or maybe not some application to the question. When I was going through gunsmithing school a fellow student had what was just about the ugliest single shot 12 Ga. I'd ever seen. I just had to have it for my accumulation. It is a Nitro Hunter with a humpbacked receiver. I reblued it and refinished the stock. it was mechanically in great shape and locks up nice and tight. The only odd thing about it is that when you look down the bore through the open breech, if it was a clock, there's a deep groove every 5 minutes all the way around. Very evenly spaced, running full length from the front of the chamber to the muzzle. Sure looks for all the world like some sort of experimental rifling system, except that the grooves don't turn like conventional rifling. When I finished the project and presented it to one of the instructors for a grade he examined the bore and said, "Hmph! That's what happens when you shoot ball bearings in them!" I'll say this, though-- I've shot it several times and it's unusually accurate, shoots like a rifle.

DG