Posted by Lloyd on December 15, 2007, 9:21 pm, in reply to "Re: steel shot ???"
Destry:
Steel use is mandated even in Mexico? Absolutely amazing. Talk about scams, these pseudo-science nitwit environmentalists are freak'en everywhere anymore! (and I say that as a former EPA contractor and a 20-year veteran of the environmental remediation industry.) God save us from political do-good'ers and idiots.
Oh well....you really shouldn't have to do anything too-drastic. Just buy a cheap (and I realize that cheap is relative, let's say $500 or so...) serviceable double with relatively heavy tubes and then open the chokes to say, IC and Mod, and go back into business with steel shot. That Lefever Nitro Special you mentioned should be a fair candidate for such a conversion. It won't be your beloved 10-bore Parker (at least, not always) but it will be a double none-the-less. My trusty Belgian 10 (which I only recently discovered is/was a Universal Doublewing variant before I went after it with a coping saw to convert it to English stock and splinter) has done yeoman's duty on a steady diet of 3 1/2-inch steel without even a whimper (and I check it regularly). I dare-say that some of the later Marlin-era Elsies could do the same job just as well, with perhaps a bit of preparation.
Revdoc is so-right when he says that steel has come a long way. With the newer, heavier shot-cups, the steel pellets should never even touch the barrel steel, which has always been the biggest concern. And, as long as the chokes aren't any tighter than Mod, swaging shouldn't be an issue either, which is the real threat to the ribs.
It beats sitting home and moaning about the cost of non-tox shot.