Description
Stars and Stripes 12ga Steel 3 Shot is the decoy hunter version of this steel load. The 3 inch hull carries 1 1/8 ounces of number 3 steel at 1500 fps, and Cheddite of Italy loads it under the Stars and Stripes label. Twenty five rounds to the box, which is a generous count for waterfowl ammunition.
- Why Number 3 Steel for Ducks
- Stars and Stripes 12ga Steel 3 Shot Specifications
- Honest Notes on Budget Steel
Why Number 3 Steel for Ducks
The standard advice to size steel up two numbers from lead pushes a lot of hunters toward number 1 and BB for everything. That is right for geese and pass shooting and genuinely wrong for mallards dropping into a spread at twenty five yards, where pattern gaps cost you far more birds than a shortage of pellet energy ever will.
A 1 1/8 ounce charge of number 3 steel holds substantially more pellets than the same weight in number 1. On a duck folding into the decoys, that density is what puts several pellets into the vitals rather than one. At 1500 fps each pellet still carries enough energy out to about forty yards, which covers essentially all decoy shooting.
Speed is how a budget 12 gauge steel waterfowl load makes up for what it gives away to premium shells in pellet plating and wad design. The pellets arrive faster and with more energy, and the lead you need on a crosser is shorter. What you pay for that is recoil, which is firmer than a 1350 fps shell of the same payload.
Stars and Stripes 12ga Steel 3 Shot Specifications
Cheddite has been manufacturing hulls, primers, powder and loaded shotshells in Italy since 1901. These are standard 3 inch shells requiring a 3 inch chamber and a barrel proofed for steel shot.
- Line: Stars and Stripes steel
- Gauge: 12 gauge
- Shell length: 3 inches
- Payload: 1 1/8 ounces of steel shot
- Shot size: number 3
- Muzzle velocity: 1500 fps
- Shot material: steel, non toxic
- Quantity: 25 rounds per box
- UPC: 8033343363770
- Manufacturer: Cheddite, Italy
Honest Notes on Budget Steel
Check your barrel is proofed for steel before anything else. Fixed choke guns from before steel became standard, and older full choke barrels especially, can be bulged by steel shot because the pellets do not deform through the constriction. At 1500 fps that risk is not theoretical. If the gun is old or its history is unknown, ask a gunsmith.
Be realistic about range. Number 3 steel loses energy faster than number 1 or BB, and past about forty yards it starts wounding rather than killing cleanly. If your setup produces regular fifty yard shots at geese, this is the wrong shell and Stars and Stripes 12ga Steel 3 Shot should stay in the truck. Inside forty yards on ducks it is excellent.
Budget steel means unplated pellets and a straightforward wad, and patterns will be slightly less uniform than a premium shell at three times the price. That is a fair trade for most hunters, because the ability to shoot enough of it to actually practise is worth more than a few percentage points of pattern efficiency.
Pattern your gun and start with improved cylinder or modified. Fast steel patterns tighter than people expect, and a full choke often gives you a dense core surrounded by very little, which is the opposite of forgiving on decoying birds.
We also stock this shell in number 1 shot for bigger ducks and BB shot for geese. The manufacturer publishes its background on the Stripes and Stars Shells website.
Stars and Stripes 12ga Steel 3 Shot suits duck hunters shooting over decoys with 3 inch chambered guns who want pattern density and a sensible price per shell. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Boxes ship where state and local law allows.
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