Bismuth Fragmentation

A5 Sweet 16

Well-known member
Again I find myself considering pheasant death. This time, it's bismuth shot, specifically.

I've shot a lot of bismuth & commonly find fragmented pellets in birds. To me, that proves the pellet made it to the bird & fragmented on impact. Had it fragmented in the barrel/choke, it would've never made it to the bird.

Do you think any bismuth pellets fragment in the barrel/choke? I think that if they tended to, copper plating (i.e. BOSS) would help prevent it. But I don't know if that's an issue or not. I suspect not.

If we ignore the lubricating properties of copper plating (which could possibly lead to some level of "improved" pattern & penetration) & focus only on minimizing fragmentation, do you think copper plating bismuth improves its performance upon hitting a bird? I really don't know if it requires hitting a bone to fragment a bismuth pellet, or if it can happen simply upon contact with flesh. If a pellet hits a bone, I'd prefer it remain whole, in order to drive through that bone & break it. If copper plating can improve the likelihood of that, then I'm all for it. But then I consider how few pellets actually hit a bone when I shoot a bird. Most, I think, never hit a bone (a big one like a leg or wing bone), & are mostly dealing out destruction of flesh & organs. In the case of organ penetration, I suppose I'm in favor of non-fragmented shot, simply so it has a better chance of making it TO the organ. But how about flesh? I can see a fragmented pellet causing more damage sometimes. And I also believe "shock" (the transfer of kinetic energy) kills & is largely responsible for whether (or how grizzly a death) a bird dies. In that case, I'm at least somewhat in favor of fragmented shot. My theory is that if the entire fragmented pellet remains in the bird, ALL of that pellet's shock energy is transferred to the bird. Whereas if a pellet passes THROUGH the bird, some portion of the pellet's energy travels on with it.

As you see, I'm a little torn between which is better. Whereas both a whole pellet & a fragmented pellet can play a big part in killing a bird, maybe the critical thing is to consider is what puts a bird on the ground the quickest. I think that's breaking bones (wing, skull, neck) and scrambling internal organs. I think on the average, a whole, non-fragmented pellet would be more effective at doing those things.

What do you think?? (This picture of Ace with a very late season rooster should help you consider things.)
20210201_080641.jpg
 
I haven't been on the forum long, but it didn't take much to learn who overthinks these things a much as me. HA.

I don't think fragmentation would help a ton in lethality for shotshells. Most intact pellets aren't going to retain a ton of energy going through a bird so fragmentation won't help nearly as much as it does in something like a bullet. I mean multiple pellets are essentially a perfect fragmentation of a bullet in the first place.

I recently went through a ton of different shells with patterning (lead/steel/bismuth) and bismuth even copper plating had a lot worse pattern. I can only suspect that the majority was caused by said fracturing during the shot.
 
I though Bismuth had resolved the fragmenting problem by changing the percent of Tin in the pellets? Are you referring to older shells, or shells from the last 1-2 years?
 
I shot both Kent and Boss bismuth last year at upland birds and found some fragments with both. I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it though. I also didn’t do a forensic exam to figure out why it fragmented. But I never shot the original bismuth minus the tin either for comparison.
 
What's Rotometals claiming now? Like 6% tin? I think the last case of Kent I bought was prior to the 2019-2020 season. Still fractures/fragments. So I guess I won't really know until I buy more Kent (assuming they use Rotimetals shot). Next year at soonest. Will be trying some BOSS for the first time this season, so it'll be interesting to see the effects of copper plating first hand.
 
I shot both Kent and Boss bismuth last year at upland birds and found some fragments with both. I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it though. I also didn’t do a forensic exam to figure out why it fragmented. But I never shot the original bismuth minus the tin either for comparison.
Interesting & good to know. And for what it's worth, I'm quite certain the "original" bismuth shot was also an alloy (Bismuth Cartridge Co.). Just apparently less tin than some more current versions. Killed well. Fragmented. I don't recall it being any worse than Kent, but that was quite a few years ago.
 
Are you finding the fragments with your teeth when eating?

That doesn't sound pleasant. I don't want metal fragments in my meat. I have never heard a discussion about that.
 
Are you finding the fragments with your teeth when eating?

That doesn't sound pleasant. I don't want metal fragments in my meat. I have never heard a discussion about that.

I have seen it brought up in the past. The thought of shards in my meat is enough of a conversation-ender on Bismuth for me. Maybe the increased tin content has fixed it, but steel works just fine for me.
 
Are you finding the fragments with your teeth when eating?

That doesn't sound pleasant. I don't want metal fragments in my meat. I have never heard a discussion about that.
Sometimes. No more often than finding a whole pellet though. My posts above maybe made it sound like the pellets fracture all the time & are leaving tons of little bits in the meat. Not really. Most of the time, if a bismuth pellet fractures at all, it's probably into 2-3 pieces. Not really more difficult than a whole pellet to find & remove while prepping the bird for cooking.
 
I use ITX shot for my non-tox shells in my vintage guns.

I kill lots of ducks and geese with steel. When I shoot modern guns on crappy weather days I use #2 steel. Never had any issues or complaints using steel shot.

Some of my friends shoot #2 steel all the time so they don't have to switch out with lead. #2 steel is deadly.
 
I use ITX shot for my non-tox shells in my vintage guns.

I kill lots of ducks and geese with steel. When I shoot modern guns on crappy weather days I use #2 steel. Never had any issues or complaints using steel shot.

Some of my friends shoot #2 steel all the time so they don't have to switch out with lead. #2 steel is deadly.
Of all the non-tox stuff I've tried, ITX isn't one of them. But my understanding is it's similar to tungsten matrix/polymer. Is that right? A tungsten matrix pellet can be crushed into almost powder with a pair of pliers. Does ITX do that? Do you shoot factory ITX or loading your own?
If I liked hunting pheasants with any of my 12 gauges, I'd probably shoot #2 steel, at least some. But....I don't.
 
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