Originally Posted by
SecondChance
And I fully understand this. Lead 4's, Steel 2's. Technically same difference. But fire both at 1400fps with a 10mph crosswind and see who drifts more at 40 yds. See what has more sustained energy at that distance.
I grew up shooting in the great lead days and have since made the switch, to much dismay. I now shoot almost exclusively Hevi-Metal and now ITX reload's in both 12ga and 20ga.
Shooting lead 1400fps is not quite realistic, at least if it's not well plated. I am quite sure that you didn't shoot with shots like that in the "good old days". 1200fps sounds more realistic.
If you put them on the same line otherwise, lead is of couse better as it's surface area is smaller, as already mentioned. But putting them on the same line requires plating lead heavily, so it's not just lead anymore. Same is with steel compositions, you can add all sorts of things to steel, like tungsten. Without plating lead shot is/comes more ununiform and thus has more air drag and more "odd flyers" those affect pattern performance.
What's the point putting them on the same line, as they have different charasteristics and you should use those to your benefit. If you really want to compare those, you need to put each shot to it's best use, not hinder it. That's why you should give steel shot higher velocities, as it can take those.
Also the aim is to shoot the duck, both can well do it in this scenario.