Gamebore Black and Gold Dark Storm

Carrying on with my steel shot adventure, today we are testing the new Gamebore Black Gold Dark Storm Precision Steel (12-gauge). These Dark Storm cartridges are game loadings but swap lead shot for steel. The non-toxic shot is used in conjunction with Gamebore’s new Bio-Wad Gen II system, which is made from a 100% environmentally safe material that makes the cartridges eco-friendly. The wad offers ultimate performance, featuring a Quad Seal design for an excellent gas seal and at the same time, it fully encloses the steel shot, making it very barrel friendly. There is a choice of only one pellet weight (32-grams) but there are three pellet size choices that consist of No.3, No.4 and No.5 (3.5, 3.25 and 3.0mm, respectively). The cartridges retail for £508 per 1000 from Just Cartridges. Also, importantly, the No.4 and No.5 steel shot sizes are standard pressure loadings for nitro-proofed guns and a choke size of up to ½. The cartridges that use No.3 shot are high-pressure ones, so your gun needs the Fleur de Lys proof marks. Oh, and ½ choke max, too. Lecture over!

The details

The case measures 70mm in length and shows a quality six-star crimp. The black case shows green lettering and is made from high-density polymer, specifically for stiff steel loads, to help achieve easier loading and smooth ejection. There is a large 20mm nickel head that helps provide fast, consistent and reliable ejection in higher-performance loadings. All in all, a very fine and well-made cartridge. Look closely and you can see that Gamebore uses a CX2000 primer. These are really consistent and are very reliable in all weather conditions and temperatures. They also use double-base (nitroglycerin) powders, which means high-performance loads without excessive recoil. These Alliant powders are perfect for this premium steel/non-toxic cartridge. Velocities are 1400 fps for the No.4 and No.5 shot sizes and 1490 fps for the larger No.3 shot size. To seal the gases from the powder combustion, you have the new Quad Seal that elevates consistency due to its excellent four-ring design. This new seal reduces recoil and increases striking energy. It’s quite innovative, as a traditional fibre wad that uses a powder card obturator can allow gas pressure to leak past upon ignition, so you need more powder to compensate for this. The Quad Seal is far superior and fully retains the energy, so there is no need for more powder and therefore there is less recoil. You can tell it seals well, as it was a bugger to get out of the case for the pictures, which is more evidence that the bio-wad grips like hell, which is just what you want in the barrel. It’s 100% green, non-toxic and biodegradable and will fully dissolve within a shooting season, plus it conforms to the CEN 13432 European standard for compostability. The wad features four petals with unique 45º overlapping edges to protect the barrel when pellets are set back on firing. Cleverly, the ribbed sides reduce surface friction and offer extra barrel protection. I like the fact that the bio-wad is brown in colour so it is less conspicuous in the environment whilst it biodegrades. This unique wad features only in this Black Gold Dark Storm Precision Steel load and the Regal steel game load (12-gauge). When it comes to the steel shot, Gamebore ensures the absolute precision of manufacture for size and more importantly, concentricity. In fact, they use a soft steel shot that is a bit more forgiving and apparently produces better patterns. Well, let’s see.

In the field

We had the 32-gram No.4 loading on test, which is fine for standard proofed barrels, so we shot it through ¼ and ½ chokes in the Webley and Scott 912B over-and-under shotgun. First up, as expected, the tighter ½ choke showed a more spread-out pattern that was a bit blown when compared to the ¼ choke. This is a trait of steel shot cartridges. Also, the ½ choke pattern was higher, again a steel shot trait. Looking at the ¼ choke results, we had 167 No.4 steel pellets on target, with a nice even spread. These were distributed with 60 inner hits and 107 outer strikes, which is good for steel and the larger No.4 shot size. Now, using the ½ choke we had fewer pellets, with 144 total and a higher bias to the pattern. We had only 47 inner strikes and 97 outer hits, mostly in the upper quadrants. I find it quite interesting when using steel instead of lead to go open on the chokes, in order to avoid ‘blowing’ the pattern. For this load, I would go cylinder or skeet choke and then ¼ or maybe 3/8th to maximise the benefits from this loading.

Verdict

As expected, these new Game Bore Black Gold Dark Storm Precision steel loads are seriously well made, plus they contain new and eco-friendly components. Choose your chokes wisely and this cartridge is a good performer for those wanting a steel load for game out in the field. They are quite pokey rounds but the recoil is not bad at all, meaning the Quad Seal must be working well. Plus, with that total encapsulation of the steel shot column, you will find that your bores are cleaner too.