12 Gauge 1600 FPS Birdshot???

[lbmii]

Standard 2 3/4" one ounce twelve gauge shotgun slugs have a velocity of 1600 fps. Why is it that one does not find a 12 gauge round out there that consist of one ounce of birdshot or ~one once of buckshot loaded to 1600 FPS? Is it possible to safely create such a load? Could such a load be safely fired from a full choke barrel? What is the Dram Eqv for a 1600 fps one once slug?

 

[Poodleshooter]

There are reloaded birdshot loads that exceed 1700fps, but they are all steel reloads using Alliant's "Steel" powder which is formulated specifically for steel shot.
They don't make lead loads that fast because there is no way to cushion or sufficiently harden the pellets enough to not blow the patterns and end up shooting tiny crushed blobs of lead instead of aerodynamic spheres.
Perhaps it could be done with hardened nickle plated lead, but I haven't seen anything on that.
If you want light fast shotshell loads that are darn close to that velocity, the powder to do it with is Hodgdon's Longshot (data at www.hodgdon.com ). They get up into the 1500fps range with light loads.

 

[lbmii]

Yes, Thanks for your comments, I suspected that the velocity was kept lower due to the distortion of the lead shot but I was not sure if there might had been some sort of safety reason.