Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters LC Smith for ducks?

I put this in the waterfall forum , but thought I might get more traffic here:

I gave the LCSmith 20ga SxS that belonged to my mother to my 12yo grandson. He wants to take it duck hunting. Im not up to date on non-lead shot. Is there any lead free shot that would be safe to use in this 70+ year old shotgun? thanks for the help!

Provided you shotgun is in proper working order for modern ammunition, bismuth shot is often recommend for vintage shotguns. Bismuth is softer than lead and is an excellent performer on game.

Shot ducks with my Elsie’s bunches of times. RST ammo is your friend

Discontinued. Ridiculously overpriced anyway. Kent Bismuth will get the job done nicely.

I’d worry more about gun fit and chokes when putting an older gun in the hands of an inexperienced shooter. Be sure the kid can hit with it. Missing gets old real quick, even with a classic gun.

Edited to add: I’m not a gunwriter.

How is it choked?

Have been using bismuth shot, both in factory and handloads, since 1996 in gauges from 28 to 10. It kills waterfowl just as well as lead shot (if anybody else here is old enough to remember those days), even though bismuth shot a little lighter in the same sizes, around 90% of lead, because there are 10% more shot in the same charge.

It also generally patterns much like lead shot in the same chokes, though some of that depends on the wads used in the ammo. Practicing before hunting with lead-shot equivalent loads helps a lot, and costs less.

Bought a case of Kent 2-3/4" bismuth ammo loaded with an ounce of #5s a couple-three years ago (2-3/4" because many of our 20s have that chamber) and it has worked very well on both ducks and pheasants.

BOSS AMMO

Bismuth is your huckleberry.

https://bossshotshells.com/

I've killed a gazillion ducks and geese across the way on Maryland's Eastern Shore during my heyday in the 2000's and teens. 90% of them were brought down with LC Smiths, and all were killed with either Bismuth or Nice Shot handloads. God I miss Nice Shot, but Bismuth is about as good.

While most of my gunning was with an LC Smith Ideal grade Longrange Waterfowl model, a couple field grade guns barked too.

Standard load: 1 1/8oz. #2 bismuth at 1200fps for geese, 1 oz. #6's for ducks, in 12, 16, and 20 gauges. 2 3/4" hulls and target wads. I found that the birds aren't as armor plated as people would have you believe. Good tight chokes to present a dense pattern, and the patience to not sky bust them are key. My waterfowl gunning buddies scoffed at my approach while insisting nothing less than 3" magnums would do. After a few years of me outgunning them they started transitioning to my way of thinking, and everybody's scores went up.

We would get bored with conventional approaches and cooked up a little game: kill at least one Canada goose with every gauge shotgun per season from 10ga. down to .410. I performed that trick five years in a row. The 28's and .410's were a bit dicey but if you kept a cool head and held fire until the bird was around 20 yards or less away down they'd go. Putting out range stakes between the blinds and the dekes helped a lot. For that I employed my 28 gauge O/U skeet gun choked skeet 1 and skeet 2, and a .410 Winchester M42 I borrowed choked full. 10 gauge was another borrowed gun, a pre-1900 Remington double, I forget the model. All done with bismuth handloads.

Good stuff!

41

A 20 LC is going to kick like a donkey shooting waterfowl. Just a thought.

Er, uh, why?

I don't shoot shotgun a lot, anymore - but am waiting on delivery of a 20 ga "Elsie" Field Grade, DOM 1930.
Will I need to stay with 7/8 oz loads, or will the little shotgun handle 1 oz loads?
Any surprises I should be aware of?

My question as well....

Mike S,

Am failing to find any bismuth 20-gauge loads in 2-3/4" shells on the BOSS site. The OP's gun probably has 2-3/4" chambers, unless somebody had them lengthened to 3", which would be a pretty dumb thing to do--though am sure it has happened.

Looks like 7/8oz 2-3/4” #5,#6, and #7 in BOSS now

This is the way.

Thanks, finally found it.

But dunno what it would do that the Kent loads wouldn't--and as noted earlier their 1-ounce 2-3/4" load of #5 Bismuth has worked great on both ducks and pheasants for us. Bought a case for $225 not long ago....