Article 10 – 2024 (November)
Australian Shooter Magazine
Question and Answers
Article 10 – 2024 (November)
Question: I am curious to hear your thoughts on shotshell velocities. It seems every time I go into my local gun shop there is another brand offering loads that travel beyond the speed of light. Is faster better? Is it worth spending the extra money on these high velocity loads?
Jake Keller, Parramatta NSW
Answer: I could just answer this one by saying “no”, but the answer needs a little more of an explanation. I have no idea what you are using your shotgun for, so I am hesitant to give one answer to cover all situations. For example, if you were using your firearm to shoot Trap targets from the standard distance of fifteen metres from behind the trap house then any shotshell of a high velocity is a complete waste of time.
By high velocity I am talking above twelve hundred and fifty feet per second (sorry to use imperial measurements here, but that is still the way the majority of the world still refers to a shotshell’s speed), but when comparing velocities between brands you have to be very careful as some manufacturers measure their loads a metre out from the muzzle and others gauges the velocity directly at the shotgun’s muzzle. This leads to vastly different measurements. That twelve hundred and fifty foot per second maximum load that I was referring to will undoubtably go up by one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet faster at the muzzle as opposed to its speed being taken a metre away.
Both measurements are perfectly fine, but can be misleading. I have seen velocities of some twenty-four gram European shotshells being advertised at hyper-fast velocities of well over fifteen hundred feet per second which sounds astonishing. If this extra speed has the mental persuasion that you will break more targets because nothing can survive being hit by lead thrown at that speed then think again. “Hit” being the operative word here. The user must still supply the distance his or her barrel needs to be in front of the target. Extra velocity at the barrel equates to tiny distances in what lead is required where the clay is being broken some thirty to forty metres away.
If you are a keen duck or geese hunter then there will always be an argument that higher velocity shot shells will deliver a load that will penetrate the skin and organs of a bird with more damage than those that were hit with a lower velocity load. That is like comparing getting hit by a car at a pedestrian crossing that is travelling at five kilometres an hour as opposed to a vehicle doing fifty kilometres an hour. One will bruise you and the other may kill you so in this case you have some sort of an argument, but with a shot shell that is propelling its shot at only ten percent more speed is there any real killing benefit apart to the damage you are doing to your shoulder? It’s a tough question as ducks and geese can’t tell you if they really notice the difference.
In my opinion, if you are a clay buster then what you need to be looking for, above everything else, is shotshell pattern quality. Speed is often the enemy of consistent patterns because propelling the shot down the barrel and high velocities has a tendency to blow shot patterns apart, particularly if the shot payload contains pellets that are soft and not perfectly round.
By far the component of your shot shell that you should be looking to spend your hard earned cash on is good hard round shot pellets. That will bring you home with more prizes, and I am suggesting more game, than cartridges that simply boast more speed. Hardness in lead shot is gained by adding an element called antimony. About five percent antimony is considered the perfect amount for quality competition target loads. More speed means more recoil and if you are involved in a shoot off in a trap event, you may be required to stand on the range for hours on end requiring you to shoot hundreds of shots in a row. The recoil and the fatigue these faster loads will provide will cause issues. Somebody that has a quality eleven hundred and fifty feet a second shotshell won’t suffer anywhere near the pain of someone that is using high velocity thirteen hundred feet per second for hours on end. A clay target only needs to be broken, not destroyed and there is little evidence that faster loads are of any benefit.
My advice would be to spend your money on better shot, not more gun powder.