A freind and I duck hunt from a boat in the Cheasapeake bay here in MD. The way you get places to hunt is to go to this big drawing. Well this year we got a bad number, and have to hunt in this cove. The MD rules is you have to be at least 150 yards away from a dwelling. That includes boats. So we hunt in a cove with houses on one side and a yaht club on the other side. We are about 200 yards away from the house and boat club.

I don't feel comfortable hunting here this year. What do you guys think steel shot will travel if shot from an 45 degree angle? Do you think it could pepper those houses or boats. Or even have enough to maybe kill someone? I am shooting 3" mag Remington steel shot number 2's. About 1400fps muzzle velocity.

sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me, but if there are actually rules/laws or whatever then go for it. i doubt it would kill someone, but the risk seems high. i may be totally wrong though.

find some big cardboard boxes....(go to appliance dealers) and set on up somewhere at a paced off 200 yards and commence firing at it until you've covered about every five degrees from 30 to 45 and go look to see if you have hit the box.....

I frankly don't know, but this way you will!!!

My guess is that 3" mags would carry real close to 200 yards shooting at a 45 degree angle. I know this year during dove season I hunted at a friends farm. I had shot falling on the tin roof of his barn which was roughly 150 to 175 yards away shooting 8 shot from a 2 3/4" shell.

I seriously doubt it would be enough to hurt anyone outside of a piece of lead (or steel in your case) hitting someone in the eye. I've been hit by number 8 shot while dove hunting many times and it feels like it's raining. Never been hit by number 2 shot so it may be worse. Falling shot has very little velocity so at worst the #2 might sting a little. If I were the one living in the house I would have no problem with it however the person who actually lives there may be some anti-gun, anti-hunting freak which could result in a major problem for you.

I remember somewhere reading that the longest fall distance for a duck load was somewhere in the 400 yard range, no kidding! But, I'm not sure where I got that from, or if it's even correct (I'd love to find out though if it's correct to settle a duck blind argument if anyone knows). I wonder if you could figure it out on a ballistics program? I haven't really fooled with one so I don't know. What I do know is that it almost seems plausable for a shot pellet with an initial velocity of 1400 fps to go 1200 ft (400 yards)even with the rapid decelleration of steel shot it still wouldn't have to be in the air that long, but that doesn't make it possible. However I really don't think that it could cause any real injury at those distances (200 yards or more) it might be like getting shot with a red rider BB gun at the worst but I really don't know.

Gordon

Well it looks like I was a bit optomistic with 400 yards, if you'll follow the attached link to a forum I frequent, it looks like less than 800 ft with #2's

How Far

Gordon

Well, I emailed the "experts" at Federal and they said it would carry about 980ft at 1400fps. So I will just pick my shots if they are close to the water or on the bay side. I have a safe 80 degree sweep of open water and the rest I will just have to let the birds go. Worse things have happened.