Bob Peters
Well-known member
Following closely, I've been thinking of getting more bismuth for next season. I'm split between boss or Kent 1 1/4oz. 4s.
Boss Warchief Bismuth buffered load dissection data and patterning results.
- Thread starter Joe Hunter
- Start date
I was feeling left out on the citizen science. I cut open a shell of 12ga 1.25oz Boss 4’s that I received in the mail almost 2 weeks ago. Below are some pictures. 37 grams of shot, weighed on a cheap Taylor brand kitchen scale. I am not sure the degree of accuracy the scale has, so take it for what it’s worth. But that gives 1.3oz. I counted a total of 178 pellets. Most were round to the human eye, about 10 had visual imperfections like tear drops. According to the older Boss charts, 1.25oz of 4’s should give 193 pellets. Their newer chart says it should give 175. Obviously the copper plating would be altering shot size. If a 4 shot is coated with copper, it would size larger but should still perform like a 4 since the density would not be changed. With my limited knowledge, I’d be likely to argue against the logic of going back down a pellet size and expecting 4 shot performance. Perhaps for many of us 12ga shooters we’d be best off going to a 3” 1.375oz load of Boss. I should have done more thinking before ordering a case. I will need to do more testing on cardboard, but I hesitate to shoot an IC choke with 178 pellets past 30. As I’ve previously said, many of my shots near 40 and I’m not very good at holding off on those.
Attachments
I should also say that in the shells I ordered in October, I’ve had multiple times when shooting paper that the wad didn’t open, or only one petal opened. I’ll have to pay attention to these when I get around to patterning them. But I believe the wads contributed to my sloppy patterns and need to switch to a full choke late last season.
A5 Sweet 16
Well-known member
Ope. Same as the "old" Unmuzzled 12 ga wads (different than Warchief wads). Right in the same ballpark of 136-137 pellets/oz.
LittleBigHorn22
Well-known member
Unrelated to boss, but this made me open up my newest shells I bought which is a 1/2 oz tss #9 load in a 410. According to my calculator that should be 177 pellets. Which opened up and weighted exactly 0.5 oz and had exactly 177 pellets in it. I'm extremely excited about them and now more confident in it. Just need to pattern them here soon.
Labradinger
Active member
Wowswers. Thats an expensive rooster!
LittleBigHorn22
Well-known member
If that was directed for me. I paid $2.20/shell. Compared to Boss's new lineup at $1.90/shell, really not bad. It gets said a lot, but the cost of shells really is cheaper than everything else involved.
Bob Peters
Well-known member
When Joe hunter posted his pattern results it seemed to me that the normal boss shells are the way to go vs. their buffered loads.