Boss Shotshells

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rjbrooks7

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A close friend recommended Boss non toxic shells. He’s a very accomplished duck hunter, so I ordered 100 of their shells. They were in my marsh bag, but I hadn’t tried them all year, as I have been shooting Black Clouds. Saturday at dusk, ducks are flying in like crazy. Before the action started, here’s the sequence of events:

It’s me and my Super Black Eagle 2, and my best friend with his. We watch geese go down on an adjacent pond. He goes to jump them. I hear a shotgun report some time later. He comes back with a good sized honker in hand. Tells me his gun went “click” and he’s going to the truck to grab the backup gun-a Maxus. As he’s walking the 1/2 mile back, here comes the flight. I had a full legal mag, and approx 4 shells in my wader sling (poor prep on my part). He’s running to get in the action and I unload my gun, drop 2 teals (really odd that teals were coming in at seasons end), promptly reload and drop another. By the time he’s back, I’m out of shells on me, but have more in my marsh bag, and there’s 5 teals dead on the water. All were killed with Black Clouds. Only shells we have left are Boss. That’s what he shot that goose with. As I’m opening the marsh bag, the most birds I’ve ever seen in my life come down on us. I frantically spill all the shells in the bag, and we’re both cramming them in our guns and pulling the triggers as fast as possible. About 2 out of every shell goes “click”, so we cycle the bolts, and keep loading and shooting. This keeps going for a minute or two, until I draw down, pull the trigger and get a puff of smoke out the barrel, but no “boom”. We both looked at each other and said we’re done.

After we settle down from the excitement, we start gathering the dead. It’s dark by the time we’ve picked up birds, broke down the blind and loaded the decoys. I take my SBE apart, and there’s a wad approx 1/3 the way down the barrel (the shot fell out when I tipped the gun over-I knew it would.)

2 Super Black Eagles and a Maxus that had been cleaned earlier that day and had functioned flawlessly all season had issues with the shells. Either “click” or FTEs and then the dreaded squib. I’ve never experienced a squib until now.

We got back to my friends house, cleaned the birds, unloaded and changed, and he fired off an email to Boss. Nothing hateful, just a “hey, thought y’all might want to know...this happened...anyone else having issues?” Crickets. No reply. It’s been almost a week. I’m debating disputing the charge on my card for defective product.

Just a heads up. Don’t know if anyone else has tried these. Like I said, a very accomplished duck hunter recommended these shells, and it was seconded by another and more accomplished duck hunter. Think I’ll stick with the Black Clouds...
 

dlbleak

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I haven’t heard of the Boss shells but I’d like to hear some other reviews. Curious if others have had similar issues.
 

swampratt

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If they were mine and the manufacturer did not get back with me i would want to cut them apart and see what was the issue.
If you are going to toss the shells including the ones that went click I would not mind cutting them apart and see what went south.
 

rjbrooks7

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I usually shoot Federals or Mirage or Fiocchi. I bought the boss shells because that’s about all I could find in stock. I’ll cut one open over the weekend and see what’s up. I’m sure someone at Boss will say I got them too wet, but that’s horse poopy. Waterfowl loads that can’t handle moisture aren’t a marketable product. Black Clouds that sit at the bottom of my gear bucket that doubles as a blind chair always go bang.
 

OkdRooster

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I was actually considering ordering some 12ga,2 3/4 1.25 ox 5s for pheasant use in no tox areas, now not so sure. Please keep us posted on any response from boss.
 

407

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They’re a fad. Don’t get me wrong, bismuth is fine but it’s really not worth it. It’s density is still closer to steel than lead. If you want real penetrating power at longer range...nothing beats Tungsten TSS.

Most waterfowlers don’t even bother to pattern their shotgun. They’ll spend a premium on fad ammo and assume they’re good to go. I’m not putting anyone down, I’ve been that guy. I guide waterfowl hunts every season, steel will kill birds.
 
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OkdRooster

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A close friend recommended Boss non toxic shells. He’s a very accomplished duck hunter, so I ordered 100 of their shells. They were in my marsh bag, but I hadn’t tried them all year, as I have been shooting Black Clouds. Saturday at dusk, ducks are flying in like crazy. Before the action started, here’s the sequence of events:

It’s me and my Super Black Eagle 2, and my best friend with his. We watch geese go down on an adjacent pond. He goes to jump them. I hear a shotgun report some time later. He comes back with a good sized honker in hand. Tells me his gun went “click” and he’s going to the truck to grab the backup gun-a Maxus. As he’s walking the 1/2 mile back, here comes the flight. I had a full legal mag, and approx 4 shells in my wader sling (poor prep on my part). He’s running to get in the action and I unload my gun, drop 2 teals (really odd that teals were coming in at seasons end), promptly reload and drop another. By the time he’s back, I’m out of shells on me, but have more in my marsh bag, and there’s 5 teals dead on the water. All were killed with Black Clouds. Only shells we have left are Boss. That’s what he shot that goose with. As I’m opening the marsh bag, the most birds I’ve ever seen in my life come down on us. I frantically spill all the shells in the bag, and we’re both cramming them in our guns and pulling the triggers as fast as possible. About 2 out of every shell goes “click”, so we cycle the bolts, and keep loading and shooting. This keeps going for a minute or two, until I draw down, pull the trigger and get a puff of smoke out the barrel, but no “boom”. We both looked at each other and said we’re done.

After we settle down from the excitement, we start gathering the dead. It’s dark by the time we’ve picked up birds, broke down the blind and loaded the decoys. I take my SBE apart, and there’s a wad approx 1/3 the way down the barrel (the shot fell out when I tipped the gun over-I knew it would. The
2 Super Black Eagles and a Maxus that had been cleaned earlier that day and had functioned flawlessly all season had issues with the shells. Either “click” or FTEs and then the dreaded squib. I’ve never experienced a squib until now.

We got back to my friends house, cleaned the birds, unloaded and changed, and he fired off an email to Boss. Nothing hateful, just a “hey, thought y’all might want to know...this happened...anyone else having issues?” Crickets. No reply. It’s been almost a week. I’m debating disputing the charge on my card for defective product.

Just a heads up. Don’t know if anyone else has tried these. Like I said, a very accomplished duck hunter recommended these shells, and it was seconded by another and more accomplished duck hunter. Think I’ll stick with the Black Clouds...

i think you should give Boss a call about the shell issue, sometimes emails can get lost in the shuffle. If they are reputable I would think they would take care of you.
 

rockchalk06

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I know nothing about their QC, but they are bullies in the shotshell world. I know two YouTube channels that were hit with orders from their Atty due to posting videos about questioning their established velocities. Tested velocities weren't even close. I know unless you duplicate the conditions to a T, you will have some variations, but these were so far off it was stupid.

For that reason alone, they can keep their over priced ****.

I've always had pretty good luck with Fiocchi and Apex. Apex is generally in stock for me, but a tad on the pricey side. The Apex stuff (duck loads) patterned really really well in my SBE3 and Franchi with Patternmasters
 

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