Thank you for adding your experience hunt0168!

- DAA

In terms of effectiveness, no arguments.

$12/rd for Hevi-shot is simply not something most people cannot afford to shoot. It might be an option for a Remington 870 in the bedroom closet that doesn't make it out for hunting season but, for everyone else, it is simply unaffordable.

Even post-COVID I can find 'lead' Pheasant loads for $12/25 at Walmart as one example. Even Winchester Super Turkey LR loads are only $21/10 and that is on the high end compared to Remington and Federal which are ~$13~$14/10 but, out of stock locally.

However, how many of us can AFFORD to shoot those loads with any regularity?

~$65/5 for Hevishot and $35~$40/10 for most Bismuth makes shooting a shotgun a rich man's sport and excludes the masses.

Bismuth loads are few and far between where I live so, perhaps pricing is a little better where it is used more. I also hope this doesn't turn into a butter/margarine/butter sort of issue where we learn after the change that the new better solution is worse than the original. Yes, lead is bad, and so is cancer and heart disease. Lead should not be used everywhere for every circumstance but, there are places and times when it is appropriate. Personally, I prefer copper or nickel-plated buckshot. For most birds out in the prairie and croplands, lead birdshot doesn't seem to be a big problem, especially relative to other things like herbicide and pesticide use and, you can argue over use of some fertilizers as well.

Isn't the plating meant to help prevent 'bridging' in the barrel with Buckshot? Lubricity of copper and nickel will be better than raw lead used in shot/buckshot.

Lubricity is a benefit of plated shot pellets. Additionally there are various materials added as filler/buffers to help in that regard. Plated pellets are intended to be hard and not deform through the forcing cone and/or choke skirt. Round pellets fly true and stay within the pattern better than pellets with flat spots that plane off as flyers from the pattern.

Hard pellets penetrate better and break bone better than soft lead pellets. "Magnum" or chilled shot has a lead antimony formulation that is harder and deforms less than less expensive shot pellets that tend to be more pure lead. Plating can help penetration if it is the right plating material and thickness. I've found most of the copper plating to be a light wash and doesn't help penetration. Nickel plating on the other hand is very hard and does an excellent job. Then of course the denser than lead stuff like Hevi Shot, HD and TSS are very hard materials when put up right. As an example, Dead Coyote shells at one time had a bad batch of pellets that were very brittle and would crush into a gray dust upon impact with bone. I could crush the pellets from that batch with pliers easily. Hunters were shooting coyotes multiple times and rolling them end over end only to have the coyotes get up and run off. Once Environ Metal fixed the mix Dead Coyote became reliable killers again.

This is a very interesting topic !
I have been trying to load some 12 gauge, 2 3/4 buckshot rounds for
chasing coyotes, with dogs.
I have tried #4, F, BBB with 3 recommend wads, buffering and roll crimped.
Both Blue dot and Longshot. My patterns at 45 yards are terrible! I have watched
A hundred utube videos where the groups are in a pie plate at 50 or 60 yards, I
can't keep mine in a 3' by 4'. I am down to buying an after market choke but there
are hundreds.
Any help with loads or a choke selection would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Mark

Think of the choke in terms of constriction. Peruse this thread and see what amount of restriction is generally working well for the size shot you want to use. Start with that one and pattern, pattern, pattern.

I've had good luck with both Kicks and Carlson chokes.

- DAA

DAA,
Thank you for the response.
I need to narrow the search a little more !
I have $400+ in reloading supplies from Ballistic Products,
and don't want $400 or $500 in chokes. I'm using a Browning A5
With just the invector system, should I would buy another shotgun with
a back bore and longer forcing cone and choke system?

Thanks Mark

Just another data point to add to the thread. As has been said 1000 times on this thread alone, you have to pattern YOUR gun to see what works. In my experience, there’s a lot of lore passed on as fact, and my shooting shows it to be incorrect in my guns.

The following pattern was shot at 10 yards using Remington Managed Recoil 8 pellet 00, with a factory full choke in my Beretta 1301 Tactical. It is obviously intended for home defense, which is why I didn’t test it at a longer distance (yet). Just goes to show you that buckshot doesn’t always need a more open choke.