Hypothetical exercise, tungsten shot?

[Wes Peart]

I know a few guys who swear by tungsten #9's for turkey out of a 410 shotgun. Guys are whacking geese with 410's and 28 gauges shooting #7.5 or #8 tungsten at distances formerly reserved for 10ga magnums shooting BB's or T-shot. True tungsten shot is 50% more dense than lead and the smaller sizes seem to pattern very well.

I've found some videos of guys shooting 1 1/2oz of tungsten BB sized shot at 1250 FPS into a gel block at 25 yards and getting around 16" of penetration with BB's (18 caliber). He also tested lead BB's which got less than half the penetration the tungsten ones did. A 1 1/2 ounce load of tungsten BB's contains roughly 47 pellets. So you're talking about 47 individual projectiles, any one of which can hole the vitals of most any person, at any angle. It appears tungsten BB's penetrate roughly the same or better as #1 buck however you could shoot ~40 (assuming a 2 3/4" 1.25oz load to be comparable) BB's with each pull of the trigger versus 15 with #1 buck.

Throwing the $4-8 a round tungsten shot costs aside, what would it take for you to consider stoking your defensive shotgun with tungsten loads? If Federal came out with a Flite control tungsten BB load tomorrow that patterned as good as the vaunted 8 pellet 00bk load, would you break out the credit card?

[rd62]

Would it out perform the lead 00 at 1/4 the cost? I'm not a shot a master of the gauge but sounds more like "nearly as good as" and less "better than", but maybe I'll learn something from those with more expertise.

[Caballoflaco]

I would only load a shotgun for self defense with tungsten BB shot if slugs or buckshot were no longer existed and center fire rifles or even pistol caliber carbines were unavailable.

[mmc45414]

If there was perhaps such a thing as tungsten buckshot that might be interesting, since pellet deformation is a cause of pattern flyers.

[willie]

At shotgun self defense range I doubt that tungsten shot would provide advantage. Its increased penetration could be a disadvantage.

[Wes Peart]

At shotgun self defense range I doubt that tungsten shot would provide advantage. Its increased penetration could be a disadvantage.

I think the idea is to tailor desired penetration to pellet size. Shoot the smallest pellet that will hit the penetration you require because the more the merrier. The only reason people shoot #1 through 00 buck is because with the sectional density of lead being what it is those are the required pellet sizes to get adequate penetration. Larger tungsten buck wouldn't really make any sense unless you wanted to hunt big animals that require a lot of penetrating to reach their important bits.

If you want 12-16" of penetration amenable for defensive use it seems tungsten might get you there with a BB or potentially even smaller shot like #2. And pattern better to boot.

[Hambo]

If Federal came out with a Flite control tungsten BB load tomorrow that patterned as good as the vaunted 8 pellet 00bk load, would you break out the credit card?

No.

[diananike]

I think the idea is to tailor desired penetration to pellet size. Shoot the smallest pellet that will hit the penetration you require because the more the merrier. The only reason people shoot #1 through 00 buck is because with the sectional density of lead being what it is those are the required pellet sizes to get adequate penetration. Larger tungsten buck wouldn't really make any sense unless you wanted to hunt big animals that require a lot of penetrating to reach their important bits.

If you want 12-16" of penetration amenable for defensive use it seems tungsten might get you there with a BB or potentially even smaller shot like #2. And pattern better to boot.

I agree
Assuming penetration and patterning are equal the more individual wound tracks the better the terminal performance will be.
More surface area equals more tissue crushed.
That’s why many recommend the #1over the 00 buckshot.
I do think that the price is too high to consider it seriously though.
It would cost a ton to guarantee function in your individual gun.
Or to sock a bunch away.
I’d love to see someone else do the beta testing on this concept.
If they could show the benefits were great enough I might get on board.

[Hambo]

There was no performance problem with lead shot. If it wasn't for regulatory changes to waterfowl hunting (based on some pretty spurious research IIRC), there probably wouldn't have been steel, bismuth, or tungsten shot. In the same way, there is no performance problem with FC 00, and there is no environmental issue shooting a BG with one or two rounds.