Is a steel shot harder than lead?

Steel Shot vs. Lead Shot: A Comparison of Hardness and Ballistic Performance

Steel shot possesses significantly greater hardness than lead shot, fundamentally impacting their ballistic behavior. Lead, with its low Mohs hardness of approximately 1.5, is exceptionally soft—easily scratched or deformed, even by a fingernail. In contrast, high-carbon steel shot typically exhibits a Rockwell C (HRC) hardness ranging from 40 to 50, placing it orders of magnitude harder than lead.

This dramatic difference in material hardness leads to distinct performance characteristics:

1. Deformation:

   • Lead Shot: Its inherent softness causes it to deform readily during the firing process itself (due to set-back forces in the shell and barrel friction) and significantly upon impact with the target. This deformation alters the individual shot pellet's shape.

   • Steel Shot: Its high hardness makes it far more resistant to deformation both during firing and upon initial impact. Steel pellets tend to retain their spherical shape much more effectively.

2. Shot Pattern:

   • The tendency of lead shot to deform contributes to a wider, less consistent shot pattern downrange. Irregular shapes increase aerodynamic drag variations and pellet-to-pellet interactions.

   • Steel shot's ability to stay round allows it to maintain a denser, tighter, and more uniform pattern over distance. This characteristic enhances the probability of hitting the target effectively within its effective range.

3. Penetration:

   • Mechanism: While lead is denser and heavier, its softness causes it to "mushroom" or flatten dramatically upon striking tissue or barriers. This rapid deformation creates a wider wound channel but dissipates energy quickly, potentially limiting depth, especially against resistant materials like bone or heavy feathers.

   • Steel Advantage: Steel's hardness allows it to resist deformation upon impact, enabling it to cut through feathers, hide, or light bone more effectively rather than flattening immediately. This results in a narrower but potentially deeper penetration channel for a given pellet size and impact energy, particularly important for waterfowl hunting where feather penetration is critical.

4. Weight & Compensating Strategy:

   • Steel has a lower density than lead (approximately 7.8 g/cm³ vs. 11.3 g/cm³). Consequently, steel pellets of the same size are lighter than lead pellets.

   • This lower mass, combined with the same powder charge, results in lower muzzle velocity and retained energy downrange for equivalent pellet sizes. To compensate for this reduction in kinetic energy per pellet and achieve similar terminal performance, hunters often use steel shot that is one or two sizes larger than the lead shot size they would traditionally use for a given application (e.g., using #2 steel instead of #4 lead for ducks).

In essence: Steel shot's superior hardness promotes roundness, tighter patterns, and better cutting penetration through resistant surfaces, while lead shot's density provides more mass per pellet but suffers from deformation leading to wider patterns and rapid energy dump upon impact. The weight difference necessitates the common practice of using larger steel shot sizes.