BASCHIERI & PELLAGRI DUAL STEEL 70MM — 32G NO 2 AND NO 3 COMBINATION STEEL AND ZINC-PLATED STEEL

These look like a premium product. An olive green plastic case and high brass covers a fully biodegradable Green Core wad. The 187 pellets are a combination of size 2 steel and size 3 zincplated steel. The idea of dual shot is not a new one and is supposed to provide an even shot pattern and strong killing performance at distance.

Curiously, the box we took to the marsh must have been a bad batch. Darren shot at a hen mallard at a range of no more than 25 yards. I saw the bird well hit, but it flew back on its tail and dropped into a dyke. Looking at the carcass, much of the shot was lodged in the breast feathers with no more than bruising of the skin. It had a broken leg and a head wound showing that the pattern was correct. Two further cartridges produced similar unsatisfactory results, with plentiful unburned powder in the barrels.

The next day, Darren pattern tested a second box by shooting pigeons over emerging rape. He found this box to be totally different to those we had taken to the marsh. They gave a heftier recoil, a nearperfect pattern, clean barrels and killed birds stone dead at prodigious distances. Cutting open the disappointing box, the powder seemed to have stuck to the outside of the wad. Cartridges from the second box revealed no such leakage. The Green Core wad is new technology and may explain this mistake, but it casts shades of doubt over what could, and should, be an excellent cartridge.

The cartridges on test came from Eley, Baschieri & Pellagri, RC and Fiocchi The first box of B&P loads left plentiful unburnt powder in the barrels