Heavy Buckshot... Hard on your barrel?

[Garcut]

Im not new to shooting, but am new when it comes to owning a shotgun, and I recently heard that heavy buckshot loads (#4-00) can wear on a barrel more so than lighter birdshot. Is this true? and if it is true how much do heavy loads hurt a shotgun barrel? Is it enough to keep one from shooting a couple heavy loads for fun every now and then?

Thanks for the replies,
-G

 

[nitesite]

First, Welcome to the Forum. You're invited to say "HI" to everyone over in the New Members sub-forum.

Good question, but you've been misled by somebody.

The majority of buckshot loads are encapsulated within a soft plastic tube inside the outer shotgun hull. As the buckshot travels down the bore only the plastic wad makes contact with the barrel. So no wear whatsoever.

Some of the really crappy foreign-made cheap buckshot has a cardboard or plastic disk separating the powder from the buckshot pellets and there is no protective tube to encapsulate the shot. This ammo does see buckshot pellets actually contacting the bore as they travel down the barrel. But lead balls are far softer than a steel barrel. Other than depositing some streaks of lead in the bore, there is no chance to create even minor wear in the barrel.

 

[RyanMac]

Nitesite is dead on. My 40+ year old 20ga has seen several thousand rounds through its barrel more than 1000 which have been 00 buck. That barrel is still polished and perfect on the interior as when it was new. Have fun and shoot what you like.

 

[Garcut]

Thanks for the quick replies, it should be mostley used for shooting skeet, but theres definitely something about shooting some high brass buckshot that helps one to de-stress.

 

[RyanMac]

Agreed.