TSS any good?

A good hunting buddy and one of the best hunters I know is really into ballistics. We got out of the truck and he said he had the perfect medicine for roosters. First shell he slid in the magazine fiocchi golden, then a winchester#2 steel, and the 3rd one a mystery shell. "One of these should do the trick," he said in his dry sense of humor. And it did.
 
KEOutdoors said:
It doesnt shatter into shards when it hits the bird, is completely round, and is denser (heavier).
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So you've experienced a lot of fragmentation with Boss bismuth? I've experienced almost none. I was skeptical before trying it, but the copper plating really helps. Much better than Kent, Bismuth Cartridge Co., Winchester, or any bismuth I've ever hand loaded.
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
So you've experienced a lot of fragmentation with Boss bismuth? I've experienced almost none. I was skeptical before trying it, but the copper plating really helps. Much better than Kent, Bismuth Cartridge Co., Winchester, or any bismuth I've ever hand loaded.
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My pellets are almost always intact too. In fact, I haven't found a shattered pellet in any birds yet this year. I don't know if that is due to luck, or something has changed. But even when I did see it, in past years, it was only one or two birds. I will say that I use bigger pellets than most. Maybe smaller pellets have a greater chance of it happening?
 
Having only ever used Boss bismuth, (so very limited experience,) I've always been skeptical about the bismuth critics. Randy Wakeman is one that comes to mind. He appears pretty anti bismuth except the Winchester offering, though I've only read some stuff that he posts on SGW. Personally, I find quite a lot of pellet holes in each bird, but no pellets. I've definitely had a few birds in the last two seasons that have fragments of pellets, but that is rare. A few birds will have half of a pellet wedged up against the breast bone or thigh, and I find full, pretty darn round pellets in maybe half of the birds I shoot. I've done pretty extensive patterning trying to get it to throw reasonable patterns, which I did really struggle with, and that proved no fragmentation on setback. If the pellet breaks after passing through the ass of the bird and hitting the breast bone, I can settle with that.
 
Here is an article I read yesterday that was referenced by Randy W. Written by Tom Roster. I found it interesting. Not sure what to make of it as I've never shot TSS.
shootingsportsman.com

TSS Shot Revisited

In the July/August 2020 issue I wrote about TSS shot (“TSS: What It Is and Isn’t”). I concluded by stating I would conduct my own tests and report back when I had completed my data sets. Here are my findings.
shootingsportsman.com shootingsportsman.com
 
A5 Sweet 16 said:
So you've experienced a lot of fragmentation with Boss bismuth? I've experienced almost none. I was skeptical before trying it, but the copper plating really helps. Much better than Kent, Bismuth Cartridge Co., Winchester, or any bismuth I've ever hand loaded.
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Every single duck or goose I have cleaned in the last two years. Every. Single. One. From 3 different shooters. Both factory and reloaded shells using their shot. Most every other waterfowler I have talked to has experienced the same and have moved on from their products. Havent cleaned any roosters shot with boss, maybe it works better there.

This season the first 12 geese and 30+ ducks were all full of boss fragments from factory 20ga shells. Now I banned the stuff in the blind and changed what I shoot, anyone who uses it keeps their birds separate the entire time and you take home your own birds. From then on I didn't have to worry about it, its their problem.
 

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KEOutdoors said:
Every single duck or goose I have cleaned in the last two years. Every. Single. One. From 3 different shooters. Both factory and reloaded shells using their shot. Most every other waterfowler I have talked to has experienced the same and have moved on from their products. Havent cleaned any roosters shot with boss, maybe it works better there.

This season the first 12 geese and 30+ ducks were all full of boss fragments from factory 20ga shells. Now I banned the stuff in the blind and changed what I shoot, anyone who uses it keeps their birds separate the entire time and you take home your own birds. From then on I didn't have to worry about it, its their problem.
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What size shot was being used? Was it regular or warchief?
 
The copper acts just like it does for rifle bullets. Straight lead is soft and malleable allowing its shape to deform and distort and potentially shed weight. The copper is a jacket working to keep shot/bullet intact and less likely to deform thus allowing deeper penetration. Old Nash liked copper coated 5’s.
 
I shot a case of boss and found plenty of fractured pellets in roosters. I think it usually happened when the pellet hit a bone.

As far as keo's/saltcreek bismuth pellets being heavier than others I find that very interesting. I believe most bismuth shot nowadays is an amalgam of bismuth and tin. This is done to help with fracturing, as pure bismuth is very brittle. But tin is lighter than bismuth. So if a pellet had a higher percentage of tin, it's gonna be lighter. Something doesn't add up.
 
I have shot about 8 cases of boss all with factory mod in a 12 gauge Sx3 and Sx4. Most of this was on waterfowl. Started with 5s and was super impressed next case awful cripples and tons of half pellets. Moved to 4s and much better but still a lot of splintered shot. Everybody says you are over choked. Factory modified?? I have heard guys say I never find a boss pellet in a bird. I say BS. I am old and killed over 1000 birds with lead. I find a lot of shot in bismuth birds. This year I am enjoying this case of #4s. Am I shooting better who knows, I do not think so. I love kent bismuth shot a case a few years back but hard to find. Bought a case of hevi shot bismuth, yes I am stupid, pure garage horrible pattern still have a lot of it. My 2 cents
 
Bob Peters said:
I shot a case of boss and found plenty of fractured pellets in roosters. I think it usually happened when the pellet hit a bone.

As far as keo's/saltcreek bismuth pellets being heavier than others I find that very interesting. I believe most bismuth shot nowadays is an amalgam of bismuth and tin. This is done to help with fracturing, as pure bismuth is very brittle. But tin is lighter than bismuth. So if a pellet had a higher percentage of tin, it's gonna be lighter. Something doesn't add up.
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The bismuth we use is 9.75 instead of the 9.45-9.55 of most. I have shot 4 boxes of it in the last month and have had ZERO, and i truly mean ZERO fractured pellets recovered. I have recovered a couple dozen whole pellets up against breast bone or in the gut cavities (mallards and canada geese), they are deformed similar to hard lead.
 
KEOutdoors said:
The bismuth we use is 9.75 instead of the 9.45-9.55 of most. I have shot 4 boxes of it in the last month and have had ZERO, and i truly mean ZERO fractured pellets recovered. I have recovered a couple dozen whole pellets up against breast bone or in the gut cavities (mallards and canada geese), they are deformed similar to hard lead.
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I believe you on your real world results cleaning birds. It's just interesting how you can have a denser g/ml bismuth alloy but have less fracturing? If it's a purer bismuth it would tend to fracture more. Original bismuth loads were very pure and fractured greatly. Bismuth went away for a while due to fracturing until it had tin added to the allow which reduced this tendency, although tin is less dense than bismuth. Maybe they found a metal with a higher density than tin for part of their alloy.
 
I don’t know what it is about bismuth. It appears to hit them hard. I had another one yesterday that baffled me. I hit one at about 35 yds with 4s it hit the ground flopping. The dog was all over it , She missed the grab and only got tail feathers. The dang thing got up and flew close to another two hundred yards. I took a straight line to it hoping it was still alive to leave some scent. It did and moved a bit and after a little bit of time the dogs were able to find it.
 
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Bob Peters said:
I believe you on your real world results cleaning birds. It's just interesting how you can have a denser g/ml bismuth alloy but have less fracturing? If it's a purer bismuth it would tend to fracture more. Original bismuth loads were very pure and fractured greatly. Bismuth went away for a while due to fracturing until it had tin added to the allow which reduced this tendency, although tin is less dense than bismuth. Maybe they found a metal with a higher density than tin for part of their alloy.
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I really have no idea what the alloy is other than they say its USFW non tox approved. The pellet count is lower than the other two bismuth I have loaded with (rotometals and boss).
 
Here is a pic i just found that i took of the new bismuth recovered from geese. You can see its whole but is deformed, this is #5 size
 

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