Lyalvale Express Ultimate Steel Cartridges

Lyalvale Express never really blows its own trumpet, but instead, continues on developing and innovating behind the scenes to produce some really impressive and consistent shotgun cartridges. They have now manufactured some new steel cartridges to keep all the eco-friendly bods happy. The new Ultimate Steel is a 65mm (2½”) cartridge designed to be used under the Standard Steel CIP proof regulations, so those guns chambered 2½” and above can use these safely. Lyalvale Express has achieved this sized casing in steel shot by using a rolled/turnover closure as opposed to a star crimp. The cartridges are priced at £478 per 1000 at Just Cartridges.

Spec

Ultimate Steel is a high-quality, non-toxic cartridge that has been primarily developed for game shooting, as it is only available with a 30-gram loading of No.5 steel shot. You can, of course, opt for the high-performance version (32-gram, No.4) which comes with a 3” case and incorporates Baschieri & Pellagri’s Green Core wad technology.

The standard pressure, 30-gram load on test (2 ½” length) has a nice grey/silver coloured casing that’s made from high-density polymer. It shows ribbed sides and purple lettering. It also has a large 16mm nickel head, so loading and ejection are made that much easier.

What is most striking is the rolled-over closure that is used instead of the usual star crimp. It’s made of a very thick card and helps to keep the case at the required 2½” length, plus it is more than good enough to create enough back pressure to ensure consistent powder ignition and velocity, which on this loading is 1378 fps.

Eco-friendly

Lyalvale has now produced its own version of a wad system to encapsulate the steel pellets. It’s called the ‘Earth Wad’ and it is 100% bio-compostable in nature, which should keep everybody happy. More important to us shooters is the fact that it will protect our barrels from repeated steel shot use that might cause erosion to the inner surface of the bores.

The wad is brown in colour with a smooth all-in-one construction. There is no vented rear section to absorb pellet set back, just a deep cupped rear where the powder sits. It’s quite hard but conforms to all the bio-diversity and bio-degradable compatible standards for compostability.

In order to further protect your gun’s bores, Lyalvale has made sure no pellets slip through the wad’s petals when travelling down the barrel. This wad has four petals that are cut slightly diagonally for ¾ of the length of the wad itself and these slits fit very closely together with no gaps, hence the additional barrel protection.

The steel pellets themselves are No.5 shot size only and measure 3.0mm in diameter. They are made from a custom iron alloy that conforms to the CIP softness tests, so will not deform like lead shot. With the correct choke fitted, this should result in tighter patterns at longer ranges and less barrel wear. On closer inspection, you will notice that they are very well made and concentric in construction, plus each pellet shows a nice polished surface.

The uniform pink flake powder was packed securely between the cartridge head and the Earth Wad cup, helping to produce that 1385 fps velocity from a 28” barrel.

Field test

Again, using steel instead of lead produces some interesting results on the pattern boards when using different chokes. The ¼ choke was far superior to the ½ choke with these cartridges, as more pellets hit the 30” board with the ¼ choke than the ½! Here we go again!

With the ¼ choke, we had a total of 182 strikes on the pattern board, which is pretty healthy. These were distributed with 49 inner hits within 15” and the remaining 133 around the borders. Nice and evenly spaced with a few holes but still a decent pattern, so good for most flighting game in the field.

Using the ½ choke, we had 42 inner hits (not far off the ¼ choke), but only 115 outer strikes. Unusually, there was a lower shot bias, so some pellets must have gone off the board for a total of only 157 pellet strikes. Again, this is a classic case of blowing the shot pattern with steel on ½ choke. The test was repeated and showed a total of 162 pellet strikes, which is a bit better. There were 45 inner hits and 117 outer strikes within 30” at 30 yards.

Conclusions

Lyalavale Express offer a good range of steel shot cartridges, both in standard-pressure and high-pressure loadings. I bought mine from Just Cartridges and they stock the full range. The Ultimate steel in this standard pressure form is safe to use in your nitro-proofed gun and being a true 2½” case will appeal to classic and modern game shooters alike. Again, just take note of your choke choice with steel shot, as it can make a big difference to the shot pattern.