A while back I found some Bismuth in about 1/4" ball pellets
Also I have my Great Grandfathers 20 Gau Winchester 23 that was made before steel shot was ever made
I am a bit cheap and didn't want to buy Bismuth shot unless I had to
So I mixed up a batch of Bismuth and tin to make a 90 / 10 % mix
So I cut a mold to make what I hoped would make #4 shot
A mold that is like the Lee round ball molds , with a small flat spot where it is cut off
Messed up the size and made it to small and ended up with #6 , the second mold DID make #4 shot
Even with a 8 cavity mold , it took a bit of time to cast 1/2 lb of shot
I was about to dump the shot back and remelt it
But I thought about hunting Blue Wing Teal and kept it
I loaded 6 shells
5/8 oz of shot at 1200 fps
The Winchester 23 is choked Mod & Full , but that was for the old loads with fiber and card wads
So it is like a Full and Super Full
This morning 2 of us headed out to the marsh to see if the Teal wanted to play
My friend told me to shoot first
So we waited till just after sun rise and I got to try the Winchester 23 out on Teal
6 Teal were just outside the decoys at about 30 yards
Jeff was ready , so we stood up
The Teal just looked at us and sat there for about a min before taking off
My first shot was a easy bird about 2' off the water and the second teal was about 8' up and farther out
Jeff got 3 more and his lab had to make several trips
I was sure glad I had not missed LOL
I didn't feel like shooting up all 6 shells
So I put the Winchester 23 in the case and switched to my Remington 11/87 and Steel shot to finish off my limit
I have enough shot to load a few more shells with the #6 shot and enough #4 shot to load about a box of the 20 gau loads
So I figure I can hunt Mallards a few times
John