Steel yourself

Twenty years ago, when restrictions on the use of lead shot on the foreshore came in, the steel shot cartridges commercially available to wildfowlers were not good enough. Steel shot has been playing catch-up ever since and still struggles to slough off its poor reputation. But there was a small band of committed shooters who started experimenting by loading their own. Is it possible that they might have some insights into the future of shooting live quarry with a shotgun over the next few years?

Graham Howse is secretary of Wells & District Wildfowlers Club and has been home-loading steel for 20 years. “I use it for fowling, of course, but also for game shooting and pigeon shooting without any problems, but you do have to experiment to find what works for you,” he says.

To get the best out of steel, he adds, you have to get it going as fast as you can. It’s important to remember that