Dear Technoid,

Another brain numbing question for you.

I read years ago that orange clays are harder to break than black particularly when striking the upper face at a shallow angle due to the effect of the paint on the clay ie weight and natural frequency etc.

Any views on this and would 5% antimony shot help?

Regards,
Steve

Dear Steve,

Don’t believe everything you read. I know because I write a lot of that stuff. That said, I have absolutely no idea whether a painted clay surface inhibits or increases its breakability in certain circumstances. Different target makers use different clay compounds and I am certain that has a lot to do with breakability. I remember when the first of the ecological non-polluting clays came out, they were so hard that I could literally stand on top of one without it breaking.

That said, 5% antimony shot is always a good thing. It suffers less distortion in the barrel due to setback and choke squeeze, so it patterns better. Soft shot patterns open up more due to distortion.

Bottom line: use the 5% hard shot regardless of whether the target is painted or not.

Best regards,
Bruce Buck
Shotgun Report’s Technoid