Copper load of Eley's eco-friendly Zenith Pro Eco cartridges

There’s no denying it - the race between the cartridge manufacturers to bring eco-friendly loads to market is in full swing. You may recall that Eley Hawk were first out of the traps last season with their biodegradable wad system, the “Pro Eco Wad.” To jog your memory, the Pro Eco Wad is a water soluble wad that has been certified as 100% compostable, non-toxic and biodegradable ensuring that no trace is left in the field.

 

Eley have now added to their eco-range. We’ll take a look at some of the other new products in articles in the future, but for today our subject matter is the Zenith Pro Eco. The product takes the already popular Zenith range of copper-coated lead cartridges and combines it with the improved ballistics and green credentials of the Pro Eco shot cup.

 

Let’s start with the shot. Copper is electroplated to the lead. The idea behind this is that the slightly harder outer shell helps to reduce pellet deformation as the shot travels down the barrel and through the choke of the gun. This means that the shot stays spherical, resulting in more consistent flight and a superior pattern: more shot on target = an improved shot:kill ratio. Furthermore, The copper plated shot also results in increased striking energy on the quarry at a greater distance.

 

 

Thanks to this, the Zenith cartridges have a good following among high bird shots. Duncan Thomas, Northern Director for BASC, said: “Zenith excelled on the grouse and high pheasants. It is particularly obvious on long range birds which fold with a very high level of completely clean kills.” adding, “I’ve passed a few boxes of Zenith around on Game shoots to let fellow guests try them and the feedback has always been very positive. On every occasion Guns have asked for more. Zenith is real quality.”

But now the performance is improved yet further by the incorporation of the Pro Eco Wad. The biodegradable wad includes a shot cup. This means you’re getting the benefit of a plastic shot cup - improved patterning and ballistics - with none of the guilt.

 

These shells haven’t been on the market for very long, but there’s one noted gun who has been using them for a while - Gerwyn Jones. I asked him how he’s been getting on with them. He told me that he’s fired several thousand Zenith Pro Eco on both high pheasants and late season grouse in the Pennines.

 

 

“Everyone knows that late season grouse are notorious for not coming over the butts. The 32g 5s Zenith Pro Eco enabled me to get very clean kills at long range, and they didn’t cause any damage to some of the birds shot at closer ranges.”

 

When it comes to the high pheasants, the 36g 4s “are truly amazing” says Gerwyn. “Shooting down at some of the West Country’s best shoots I was able to consistently kill pheasants at 60 yards. They pattern every bit as well as any plastic wads that we used to use.” Even with a big 36g load, Gerwyn told me that the recoil is “less than some of the other well-known brands out there.” So far as he is concerned and based on his own experience, Gerwyn says that “these are without doubt the best cartridge on the market for high birds’, adding: “The shoot managers where I’ve used them have been mightily impressed and all agreed that these have to be the way forward.”

If you’ve been reading this thinking “but what about Pro Eco wads for my old gun - well, that’s the topic of our next article. See the full range of Pro Eco cartridges from Eley Hawk.