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Old 07-17-2018, 05:58 PM
TargetRick TargetRick is offline
 
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Default Cast iron shot?

I'm reloading shot shells, and will be doing a lot of the new ones with steel shot, to kind of keep from scattering lead around.

I wonder, though, why is shot made in steel, rather than cast iron? Seems as if cast iron should make fine droplets of metal as it hits the cooling water. And it's not like cast iron is new technology - everyone in the world has been using the stuff since the 1800s. All those manhole covers today are for example cast iron.

- Cast iron is slightly softer than steel - soft seems good, since lead is also soft.
- Maybe cast iron rusts, but rolling pellets in oil ought to put paid to that. Really, I suppose one could even use canola oil to stay green.

Anything else I don't know about as to why not to use cast iron for shot shells? I have a dream they would make great gopher-blasters!
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Old 07-17-2018, 06:39 PM
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catnthehat catnthehat is offline
 
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I am fairly certain that cast iron was one of the media tested years ago when steel first came in .
For whatever reason, low carbon steel is the choice and I doubt very much that it can be improved upon fir modern guns.
I don't shoot it in my vintage guns but I use it in my my modern waterfowl guns .
Cat
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Old 07-17-2018, 07:02 PM
amosfella amosfella is online now
 
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It's a density issue. The cast iron, and regular steel isn't dense enough to carry well when shot. The steel they use has a fair bit of tungsten in it to make it almost like lead shot.
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Old 07-18-2018, 08:32 PM
TargetRick TargetRick is offline
 
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Default I see

Aha, now I see! Thanks for the info.
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Old 07-18-2018, 09:10 PM
southernman southernman is offline
 
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cast iron is fairly brittle, so that maybe part of the reason as well.
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Old 07-18-2018, 10:50 PM
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Grizzly Adams Grizzly Adams is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by amosfella View Post
It's a density issue. The cast iron, and regular steel isn't dense enough to carry well when shot. The steel they use has a fair bit of tungsten in it to make it almost like lead shot.
Tungsten is heavy, hard and abrasive, can't see that being a plus in a barrel.

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Old 07-18-2018, 11:00 PM
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Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams View Post
Tungsten is heavy, hard and abrasive, can't see that being a plus in a barrel.

Grizz
Just one of the reasons that steel based non toxic wads are super thick compared to wads designed for lead
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Old 07-19-2018, 05:48 AM
saskbooknut saskbooknut is offline
 
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Tungsten, as an alloy component, is a very small percentage of steel and not significantly affecting the weight of steel shot.

Steel shot, when compared to lead, is low density, which is why high velocity is important for pellet energy.

Steel is a poor compromise for density brought about by the economics of shot production.

Truly heavy Tungsten alloys have always been very expensive, and quickly fade from the marketplace. There have been many versions over time. The best was "Nice shot" which was soft like lead but high density.

New generation Bismuth shot seems to be a better product than the original version, but we have limited and unreliable supply in Canada of factory Bismuth shells at any kind of reasonable price.

None of which answers the original question - I would guess that it is hard to produce relatively soft cast iron spherical pellets of consistent size.
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