A case of the Blues - is BioAmmo’s new alloy the future of non-toxic game cartridges?

While I hesitate to open the can of worms that is the lead shot debate, it is nevertheless true that most of the alternatives have shortcomings of one sort or another. Steel isn’t currently for some of the very oldest guns out there, or those with greater than half chokes, and many guns are only suitable for ‘standard steel’ loads, rather than HP Steel. Bismuth and Tungsten matrix are expensive. However, a new product on the UK market this season could, it is claimed, go some way to resolving some of them. 

New non-toxic loads for game shooting

The new product - BioAmmo Blue - uses an alloy for the shot. The blend of Aluminium, Tin, Bismuth and Zinc has the advantage of being softer than steel. For reference and for those who like stats, hardness is measured using the Vickers test. Lead has an HV of 45, steel has an HV of 120. This new alloy comes in at 60, so in terms of hardness it comes in far closer to the hardness of lead, reducing the risk of damaging barrels. This means, said Alex Levett-Scivener from Shooting Star, the UK distributor for BioAmmo, that unlike steel shot, BioAmmo Blue can be shot through tighter choked guns. “We have had this confirmed by the Spanish authorities,” he told me.

The new alloy has a similar density to steel, so BioAmmo Blue are available in both Standard and High Performance versions, the former being suitable for Nitro-proofed guns, the latter only for steel-proofed. They will only be available, to begin with, in 70mm cases, though 65mm cases are promised for late 2021 or early 2022. The standard loads will be available in 27g 4s and 5s.

When it comes to price, they look pretty attractive. A quick look on Just Cartridges reveals that BioAmmo Blue retail at around £540/1000. For comparison, Eley’s VIP Pro Eco Steel, which are the most popular of the steel/biowad loads, according to the 2021 Game Shooting Census, are listed at £394/1000. Gamebore’s Black Gold Dark Storm, the most popular game cartridge of all, are listed at £379.00 / 1000. Meanwhile Gamebore’s bismuth load will set you back £1,249.00/1000. “The difference in price between BioAmmo Blue and premium game cartridges is only about a few brace of pheasants,” observes Alex.

Like all of BioAmmo’s products, Blue use 100% biodegradable and compostable cases and wads. The material is a plant-based polymer, so unlike some of the water-soluable offerings, they take a little while to break down (“Think of it like a piece of wood,” say Alex), but since the wads are brown they don’t present too much of an eyesore. Collected cases can be composted in a compost heap.

BioAmmo Blue - tested in the field

This is all very well, I can almost hear you thinking, but how do they perform? Well, reader, I’d love to say that I’ve tried these out myself, but they’ve not been available for all that long, and I haven’t been shooting yet this season. Someone who has, however, is Rupert Blackwall of gunmakers RJ Blackwall, who recently took a few BioAmmo Blue to a partridge day at Doublestones in Yorkshire.

“I took a few boxes along, and shared some out among the other guns, as well as firing about 150 myself,” he told me. “All the feedback was really positive.”

Using his Blaser o/u, with ¼ and ½ chokes, he reports that the recoil was negligible. “I actually thought they were pretty smooth,” he said, “comparable to a fairly light game load, and without the punch of some of the premium game loads on the market.” 

But, were they effective at range? “I was using 27g 5s,” said Rupert, “and while these were early season partridges, so nothing was astronomically high, there were some pretty good birds shot. Actually a couple of the best birds of the day were shot with the Blues.” 

One of the criticisms levelled at steel shot is that even hard-hit birds can sometimes fly on, because the transfer of energy isn’t as great as with lead. This is where the comparative softness of the new alloy’s second advantage comes in. “Because the pellets are comparatively soft, they dump more energy into the bird upon impact,” Rupert explained. “The birds we were shooting didn’t fly on - except when there was ‘operator error’ - they just went to sleep.”

Noticably better performance

If further evidence is wanted, one of Rupert’s friends has carried out a like-for-like test, comparing steel against the new Blues. “My mate flighted some ducks, using a side-by-side no-less, and said that there was a noticable difference betwen the two sets of cartridges. He said that with the steel, about 50% of the ducks he shot flew on some way, and needed to be dispatched when he picked them, where this problem was totally absent with the Blues.”

Another questionmark around steel is the question of damage to the carcass - we are after all, engaged in a protein acquisition activity. “I took six brace home,” said Rupert, “and plucked them all myself. I couldn't find anything to complain about in terms of carcass damage.”

Without actually gushing about the Blues, Rupert was struggling to find anything negative to say about them at all, adding: “The thicker cases meant that they ejected well, there was no fouling of the barrels, and I even collected a few of the wads, and they seemed to have held together pretty well.

Now, as I say, I’ve not given these cartridges a try just yet, so the above is heresay - but it does all sound very interesting. I shall look foward to the promised 65mm cases so that I can try a few through my AYA and see how they perform.