Shotgun pellet sizes

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Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by Stoney » 10 Jun 2019, 7:39 pm

G'day fellas, Long story short, I have happened onto a new property that has foxes. I have a 223 and all the gear. But I want to take a shotgun as my mate is green as grass to shooting and with his ability a shotgun is a blessing :lol: I have always shot foxes with rifles. I bought a box of 12 gauge BB's to use but in having a look a the pellet size it seems very small. I thought pellet size around .22 would be better?. The shotgun is Side x Side, lead shot, 1/2 & Full, realistic shotgun range hopefully. He would do a flip to shoot his first fox. Any recommendations on shot size? Also, does anyone have a bona fide chart of Australian shot sizes? I googled it and have gotten heaps of variations. Cheers
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by bladeracer » 10 Jun 2019, 7:56 pm

I would go with BB's. Pattern it to determine your maximum range.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by Oldbloke » 10 Jun 2019, 8:08 pm

Yeh, bbs are very popular.
But i use 2s because they flow well in the reloader. Very effective.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by duncan61 » 10 Jun 2019, 8:14 pm

BB is a good size around 50 to the ounce.I used them a lot when I was shotgunning.You can get them in a 3 inch Magnum as well which puts your range out to 50-60 yards on foxes and 60-70 on rabbits
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by flutch » 11 Jun 2019, 1:32 am

For foxes stick to BB, AAA and at a stretch #4 shot, this will result in good patterns and enough of a whack to sort them out, I have taken foxes down with target loads before #7.5 and #9 shot, but I would argue I'm a damn sight more experienced than your mate and know the limitations of such rounds...

Since you have already got BB rounds just stick to those mate, they'll be perfect for the job
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by No1Mk3 » 11 Jun 2019, 7:02 am

G'day Stoney,
BB are .190" diameter loaded at 50 to the ounce. If you want a pellet around .22 you would need to go to #4 Buck at .24 dia and 22 to the oz. Your most common buck is OO which are .33" diameter and usually loaded at 9 to the oz. As the others have stated your mate would be more effective using BB's due to the larger number of pellets he will be throwing at the fox and the BB is very lethal on such game out to 50 meters or so, Cheers.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by RoginaJack » 11 Jun 2019, 3:41 pm

Try BB's in full choke barrel and 2's in the 1/2 choke. Covers fox whistled in close and those that want to hang out a bit further...
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by bigfellascott » 11 Jun 2019, 5:11 pm

BB's is all I use in my 12 Boito SB - works fine on em. :thumbsup:

This one got rolled at around 60m or so
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This one at about 2m
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by Stoney » 11 Jun 2019, 5:41 pm

Excellent responses as per usual. Thank you Gentlemen. I will go with the BB's with confidence. :thumbsup:
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by bladeracer » 12 Jun 2019, 6:00 pm

No1Mk3 wrote:G'day Stoney,
BB are .190" diameter loaded at 50 to the ounce. If you want a pellet around .22 you would need to go to #4 Buck at .24 dia and 22 to the oz. Your most common buck is OO which are .33" diameter and usually loaded at 9 to the oz. As the others have stated your mate would be more effective using BB's due to the larger number of pellets he will be throwing at the fox and the BB is very lethal on such game out to 50 meters or so, Cheers.


BB sizes depend on the market, US BB's are .180" for use in .177" "BB guns", but here they're smaller. I use Aussie-made Winchester BB's to swap into bulk field loads. Made here they measure around .168-.169". They fall through a .177" barrel without touching the rifling.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by Stoney » 12 Jun 2019, 8:03 pm

bladeracer wrote:
No1Mk3 wrote:G'day Stoney,
BB are .190" diameter loaded at 50 to the ounce. If you want a pellet around .22 you would need to go to #4 Buck at .24 dia and 22 to the oz. Your most common buck is OO which are .33" diameter and usually loaded at 9 to the oz. As the others have stated your mate would be more effective using BB's due to the larger number of pellets he will be throwing at the fox and the BB is very lethal on such game out to 50 meters or so, Cheers.


BB sizes depend on the market, US BB's are .180" for use in .177" "BB guns", but here they're smaller. I use Aussie-made Winchester BB's to swap into bulk field loads. Made here they measure around .168-.169". They fall through a .177" barrel without touching the rifling.



That's what I thought as well Blade. It's Winchester ammo. I thought .168- .169 couldn't possibly kill a fox. But after reading the posts it works very well. You learn something new every day. I wonder if the energy of 1 pellet is enough or it's more of a collective effort ? Does anyone know what the average energy of 1 BB pellet @50yrds would possibly be? Couldn't be going faster than a .22lr surely?. Cheers.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by bladeracer » 12 Jun 2019, 8:19 pm

Stoney wrote:That's what I thought as well Blade. It's Winchester ammo. I thought .168- .169 couldn't possibly kill a fox. But after reading the posts it works very well. You learn something new every day. I wonder if the energy of 1 pellet is enough or it's more of a collective effort ? Does anyone know what the average energy of 1 BB pellet @50yrds would possibly be? Couldn't be going faster than a .22lr surely?. Cheers.


There is a point where a shotgun charge transforms from a slug into separate pellets. At close-range you basically blow a huge hole through your target with the massive energy - 1500fp-lbs or more.

Velocity will depend on your ammo, a lot of it will be going faster than most .22LR ammo.
But the energy of each pellet is very low, and spheres dump velocity very quickly, more so if they're deformed from firing. Just the difference between using US BB's and our BB's could be as much as 5ft-lb (20ft-lb to 16ft-lb) for each pellet at 50m range. As the shot charge is also quite long - perhaps a meter or two, not many of the pellets are dumping their energy into the target simultaneously.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by bladeracer » 12 Jun 2019, 8:22 pm

I've got a second barrel coming for my T1000 and then I'm going to do a lot of testing to see the differences between the 20" and 28" barrels with five different chokes, with 7.5's, BB's and slugs. It shouldn't be too hard to do some rudimentary penetration tests as well.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by Stoney » 14 Jun 2019, 6:23 pm

bladeracer wrote:I've got a second barrel coming for my T1000 and then I'm going to do a lot of testing to see the differences between the 20" and 28" barrels with five different chokes, with 7.5's, BB's and slugs. It shouldn't be too hard to do some rudimentary penetration tests as well.


Sounds very interesting Blade. Please keep us informed.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by ThumbNT » 19 Jun 2019, 11:14 am

BB/AAA works a treat, knocks rabbits flat at 30-50 metres.

Winchester do a steel bb load for geese (dry lock i think its called) Great for rabbits you indent to keep.
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Re: Shotgun pellet sizes

Post by Blr243 » 19 Jun 2019, 9:23 pm

Nothing wrong with bbs I have shot a couple of dozen pigs with bbs no problem. And they were all 5-10 times bigger than foxes .....I think bb is a very versatile shotgun load
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