Home Forums Reloading Shotshells Bismuth shot loads

Anybody have any experience loading Bismuth shot? I've acquired a ton of info but would like to talk with someone who has actually done it. At $12/lb. I don't want to go through too many experimental shells!

I'm planning mainly to stick with low pressure, 1200fps, 1 1/4oz. loads, #2 shot for close-in decoyed geese with a couple of old L.C.Smith's. Maybe a little hotter 1 3/8oz. load in the Browning o/u.

Some sources reccomend buffering the shot. Other's don't even mention it. Who to believe?

Sources for the stuff other than the big distributors?

A couple friends and I went in and bought some loose shot about 8 years ago. One of the guys did end up reloading some. He used no buffering, and it patterned well enough for shooting ducks over decoys. I will probably try reloading some when I get home. The latest Hodgen manual, looks like a magazine, has a bunch of bismuth data, all un-buffered.

Thanks for the reply Hawk Driver. When I get my loads worked up I'll let you know what I came up with.

Keep your head down and come home safe. Thanks to all of you guys.

Ballistic Products has a Bismuth loading manual at

http://shop2.mailordercentral.com/bpicart/prodinfo.asp?number=00MBZM

I haven't seen it, so I can't tell you whether it is useful or not. I've bought lots of shotgun related products from BP though and they are a good company.

I did buy the Bismuth manual from BP, dont remember being too impressed with it. This was 5-6 years ago. Most of the components, IIRC, weren't run of the mill, hulls, wads, powders, that kind of stuff. Since it was BP's manual, most of the stuff was only available thru them. I havent looked at it since right after I got it, so I could be wrong, but I know I wasnt too impressed and never did load any shells with bismuth.

Last time I looked it was cheaper to by Bismuth loaded shotshels than to try and load them.

My buddy had the latest Hogden Annual, it had some loads with more common components, unbuffered, no mylar wraps or shot cards. I am going to try some of those when we get home, which will be about the first week of duck season. It should be alot cheaper than buying the loaded shells. I bought my jug of shot in 97 or 98, for 65 bucks. Wish I could buy a couple more at that price.

I have loaded it in the 28 gauge using data from Reloading for Shotgunners, 4th edition, from DBI books. The components are standard. I found that Bismuth doesn't like speed even when buffered. Maybe it's just my gun but the more sedate loads, buffered included, patterned much better than the faster loads. I know one gun is not enough to form any conclusions but am passing on my limited experience. Mart