Tungsten 15g/cm or 18g/cm

[ceard]

Good afternoon all,
The ducks at the end of this season have been high and with the season closing up soon I would like to get a jump on loading some late season shells for next year. I was hoping someone on here could point me in the right direction as there was a thread with some discussion at the end of last year. Where do I get the 18 or 15g/cm tungsten spear/ball. I see some suppliers on AliExpress and such yet the ones at a reasonable price (55-70$ a KG) all require a 10kg min and that is a bit much for an experiment to try to get some extra range for the late season to find out if it is worth it. And another question about loading hulls. The tungsten is much denser, so when people say they are loading a 1oz load. Are they actually loading 1 oz or using a 1 oz shot scoop or gate.

 

[amu_shooter]

Just my .02.............I'd go with the 18gm/cc and hand weigh each charge of shot for consistency.

Ballistic Products has the 18gm/cc stuff plus wads to support.

 

[Darryle]

I saw 12g/cc, 15g/cc and 18g/cc all used over the past 5 days, 7s, 8s and 9.5s in that order, the 9.5s were just as deadly as the 7s at the same distances. The patterns were more uniform with the 15g/cc and 18g/cc than the 12g/cc stuff. We load 3/5oz, 5/8oz in 28ga and 1/2oz in 410. It's a waste of money to load it for 20ga or 12ga.

With respect to distances, they will kill further than you should be shooting. There were several impressive shots made with both the 28gas and 410s to keep a bird from leaving the spread and becoming educated.

If it were me and it was anything other than a 28ga or 410, I would just go up a size or two in steel and refrain from making the impossible shots.

 

[ceard]

Thankyou Amu_ I don't know why but they did not come up in my googling for tss or tungsten ball.

Darryle, funny enough I just saw some of your posts on the 28ga post and was trying to figure out how to message you as I did not want to steal someone's thread. I see you do a bit of reloading for shotshells and it looks like a lot of very successful bird hunting. I have many questions for you if don't mind as you seem to have a wealth of knowledge, I need currently being a new waterfowl hunter.
Yet as pertaining to before I am currently borrowing a 12 as my current shotguns that are in 10, 16 and a 12 OU that's my sporting clays gun. Caring the 10 seemed a bit much for mostly wood ducks and I couldn't get 16ga non lead till recently.
When loading are you weighing the desired charge or using a volume measure?
I want to buy a 20 or 28 for next year as I have wanted an excuse to get a 28 for a long time. What are you calling impossible shots? I'm not completely new to birds, I have dove hunted quite a bit and am comfortable out to around 50y. This was my first year hunting ducks and I was hesitant to shoot anything past 40y as I don't like crippling birds and I had heard/been told that they are a lot tougher than doves.

 

[Darryle]

Impossible to me is anything outside of the needed pattern density and required energy needed to penetrate deep enough to reach the vitals or the off switch in the head.

#9 TSS will blow thru a mature mallard at about 40yds, but we try to keep everything well inside that. The little Tristar Viper G2 Bronze I have came with an extended Skeet choke, .003" constriction or .543" bore. Something 5lbs is easy to get up, easy to hold on extremely cold days and it is a ton of fun to shoot.

I took 60 shells for the 5 days of hunting, 25 birds possible, and I looked last night when I got home, I had 17 shells left. That's 43 shells counting cripples, whiffs and birds taken. This is my first full time with the Tristar 28ga hunting, but once I got it dialed in, it became so much easier than anything or anytime in my life with the 12ga. As a buddy joked, they were so close you could see them blink.

TSS is expensive, but if you consider how few opportunities you get to hunt, how successful you become, how effective and efficient it is, it's not really that expensive.

Buy the Tristar, they make the 410 in synthetic, hoping they do a 28ga version for shot this year, practice sporting clays and load a few shells every day until season, you will figure out fast enough that dynamite comes in small packages. 5/8oz will get you 25 shells per pound, buy it in bulk from reseller's, swallow the price and then prepare for the eye opening experience.

I have 12ga, 20ga and 16ga shotguns that I doubt I ever hunt with again.

 

[Orange Dust]

I played with D15 Tungsten this year. Loaded 5/8oz #7 in .410 and 1-3/8oz #3 in a 20ga. The .410 load is better than any lead load I've ever shot in a 410. I shoot HeviXII #4 in the 20 at ducks. That in itself is an impressive load. But, I keep some of the #3's in my pocket for geese that just won't mind. Mindblowing for a 20. Pattern is not thick enough for ducks at the ranges you need that shot, but it is sure impressive to those around you with 12ga's shooting geese. I'm not even going to mention what 2oz will do in my 10

 

[Nicoli7153]

I've loaded HW13, HW15 and TSS18 for waterfowl. Great stuff but pricey! Have since switched to Boss bismuth as my go to and save my Tungsten loads for crips on the water and when it's really windy. I use Alliant Steel, but it's not very available now