Lead is gonna be FAR better than steel, and bismuth is better than steel...on flesh/bone/game, for penetration. It’s about density of the shot.....steel is the absolute worst. Testing penetration on a steel drum for buckshot penetration on game was a waste of AMMO, unless your gonna outfit your hogs with some medieval armor. 18gcc TSS #2s would probably take a really big hog to catch one. FWIW, EMI (Hevishot company) is FOS regarding about 90% of whatever they promote with their loads. They’ve flat out lied about shot and load composition on several loads.
Well I agree that testing shot on a steel drum does not equal doing the same thing on a hog. However I did test the Hevi shot #2 load on a hog and it did kill the hog. Shooting downward at less than 30 yards the steel shot penetrated very well. That said the drum testing was to compare the ability of the different shot types to penetrate, steel won.
Hevishot is at best 12 g/cc as marketed. As Rickt300 posted above, Hevi has a long history of reducing the density of the shot they use without notice. Many of us remember and hold it against them.
Some public land near my place is crawling with feral hogs and I can either use a bow or a shotgun but limited to #2 shot. Are any of the non leads better than lead for penetration out 30 yards? Thinking Bismuth from a Hevis-shot factory load 1 1/2 ounces. How does Tungston compare? Penetration being the most important criteria and the ability to pattern tightly. I will be shooting at the head/ neck junction at generally less than 25 yards from a tree.
TSS compared to Hevi is like comparing Hevi to steel. There is a huge difference in density and performance.
TSS (18 g/cc) will out pattern and out penetrate anything else on the market.
