ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS: POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES EXIST WITH ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE BISMUTH SHOT

When a waterfowl hunter pulls the trigger on an incoming bird, he wants maximum whoomp.

When he touches off a round, he'd be pleased for the sky to turn red and for windows to rattle in farm house two miles away. Most of all, he'd like to see the object of his gunnery pelted with an instantaneous jolt of death-inducing payload. He wants shocking power, the ballistic equivalent of Thor's hammer, a thunderclap of doom.

Aside from what's depicted in Hollywood action movies, this sort of swatting potential isn't within the realm of the garden variety shotgun. Short of that fictional sort of force, the typical hunter at least thinks he would like to have the whoomp that he recalls from the pre-ban days of lead shot.

For the past several years lead shot for waterfowl hunting is verboten. It's banned as a potential poisoning agent of the food chain. Since its legal demise as fetcher of ducks and geese, there has been but one alternative, non-toxic steel shot ammunition.

Until now.

The U.S. fish and Wildlife Service in recent weeks granted conditional approval to the use of ammunition loaded with bismuth pellets. The ammunition, legal for the rest of the current waterfowl seasons and likely to be OK'd for the subsequent ones pending more tests, is packed with shot that is 97 percent bismuth and 3 percent tin.

There is only one manufacturer of the bismuth shotgun fodder, Bismuth Cartridge Co. of Dallas, Texas.

In a nutshell, the primary gripe about steel shot has been that, lacking the density of lead, steel pellets must be larger for the same job -- and the perception of many is that even appropriately larger steel shot doesn't kill as well as lead, especially at the outer ranges for waterfowl shooting.

In a similar nutshell, the selling point for bismuth is that this natural element is similar to lead in density and performs as flying pellets almost identically to the once-standard lead missiles.

"The idea was to duplicate the performance of lead," said Bismuth Cartridge Co. spokesperson Elizabeth Stearns. "We had a lot of people test it and most people who shoot it can't tell the difference between bismuth and lead."

Bismuth shot is sized in all the old standards like lead. The largest size presently made is BB, matching the former largest legal size for lead pellets in waterfowling. There are also options in No. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 shot sizes that cover the range of shotgun hunting.

Head to head, bismuth BBs match up with steel T shot, the largest legal size in that pellet material. BBs would be the popular choice for goose hunting.

For duck hunting, bismuth shooters likely would opt more often for No. 4 or 6 shot, corresponding to larger steel 2 and 4 shot respectively.

A look at the straight ballistic numbers may give the best grasp of whether bismuth does offer advantages.

Comparing two appropriate goose hunting ammunitions, each bismuth BB pellet fired at a muzzle velocity of 1,300 feet per second hits with 10.42 foot-pounds of energy at 40 yards. That measures up to a slightly greater 10.85 foot-pounds of energy at the same distance for a single steel T shot pellet which leaves a shotgun likewise at 1,300 fps.

At the outside range of 60 yards, the bismuth BB strikes with 7.01 pounds of force while the steel T pellet gets there with 6.75 pounds of energy. The steel pellet would seem to have the slight edge at 40 yards, but be overtaken at 60 yards by the bismuth.

The other big factor, however, is that more of those small pellets of bismuth will go into an appropriate fully-loaded shell.

In overall effect, multiple hits add up in shock value, so it seems probable that more energy could be imparted to the target from the bismuth load at any range if it is struck with a larger number of pellets.

Regardless of ballistic table numbers, there are drawbacks to bismuth, chiefly limited supply and expense.

In the first place, there isn't a huge amount of bismuth material available with which to manufacture shot pellets. If everyone wanted to switch to bismuth ammunition for waterfowling, they simply couldn't because of the finite quantity of the material.

Bob Knopf, a spokesman for Federal Cartridge Co., a leading manufacturer of steel shot ammunition, said there isn't enough bismuth to be had to warrant Federal pursuing the material for making shotshells with it.

"We're always looking for other options, but there's not enough of it (bismuth) to work," Knopf said. "If we went to bismuth, we'd burn up the world's supply in one month."

Dave Longren, Federal's vice president for engineering, said his company examined the properties of bismuth for non-toxic, but found that it wasn't a cure-all for waterfowling.

"It's difficult to manufacture, making it expensive, and difficult to form into perfectly round spheres, so it's hard to get good patterns from it," Longren said. "It's a very brittle material and when it hits bone, it shatters, so its penetration capabilities are not good.

"Steel shot ammunition is much improved from the early versions, and new steel products are coming out. The wads are improved and people can use tighter chokes effectively without damaging their guns.

"Steel is effective at longer ranges than people think, if they'd just learn to shoot it. I think it's the best product for the money."

Mike Jordan, technical services manager for ammunition maker Winchester, welcomes the federal approval of bismuth as a non-toxic shot, but he doesn't think it's going to make a radical change in the world of waterfowling.

"It could fill a niche, but it's in short supply and very expensive," Jordan said.

"We have to continue to look for alternatives, and we'll look at anything that makes sense, but right now nothing comes close to steel. Steel is much more affordable, and it's tremendously improved. We're finding that with better steel loadings, we're able to come down on shot sizes and get better patterns with smaller shot.

"In the foreseeable future, we still think steel is going to be the way to go."

Where bismuth ammunition is available, the price tag could become the bottom line. The suggested retail price for the top-of-the-line buffered magnum shotgun shells in 3-inch 12 gauge magnum breaks down to about $1.60 per shot, $16.11 for a box of 10 shells. That's roughly three times the cost of steel shot ammunition.

When and where it's available, bismuth could be a hot alternative for a shooter who's convinced the properties of the shot material make it the medium of maximum whoomp for swatting down geese and ducks.

For someone who doesn't fire a great number of shells each season -- or for someone who's not suffering a shortage of disposable income -- the added expense might be a factor that can be comfortably swallowed.

Only now are the real-life comparisons of steel and bismuth shot starting to be made as bismuth begins to show up in blinds and shooting pits. It may be while before hunters make up their minds about the best ammunition choice between the two for waterfowling, but at least at present there is a choice.

~Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor of The Paducah Sun.