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Boss Shotshells

Unmuzzled

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WHO ARE BOSSMEN

Mad scientists. Hopelessly obsessed waterfowlers with serious turkey problems. Honest, pro 2A, red-blooded Americans who don’t hunt for likes and followers, we hunt because that’s all we’ve ever known. That’s the #unmuzzled Bossmen, in a nutshell.

EXPERIENCE SUPERIOR SHOTSHELLS.

SHOP SHELLS

The latest addition to our growing list of ultra-high performing shotshells.

BOSS TOM strikes the perfect balance of pattern density, down range performance and value.

SHOP TOM

 

BOSS LIFE.

  • NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION.... The Bossmen had an interesting conversation today with an old-timer who was reminiscing about the days of lead shot, the birth of the first generation of nontoxic waterfowl loads and the newfound appreciation for iconic 2-3/4” 12 gauge shotshell we have obsessed over for 4 years. It didn’t take long before the conversation focused on our copper-plated Boss and the parallels it has to the old Winchester Lubaloy shot that was developed in 1929. You see back then wads were made of natural fibers and had pretty poor gas sealing characteristics. As a result of the heat and gasses blowing past the wad during ignition the lead pellets would fuse together and cause erratic patterns and negatively impact field performance. Winchester came up with the idea to try and plate copper onto the lead shot since copper had a higher melting temperature than lead. As it turns out that barrier layer of copper, albeit thinner than a piece of paper, proved substantial enough to eliminate the fusing issue and was later discovered to deliver improved patterns and less feather pull when birds were shot. Fast forward 90 years and the Bossmen were hard at work trying to make a kick-ass product even better and pattern densities were on our mind. After we developed the process of electroplating copper onto bismuth we found out that our new plated shot delivered insanely denser patterns. After hunting with this stuff in Argentina we noticed that birds were getting hit harder than they were with lead. We went back to the lab, shot some ballistics gel with some vintage lead shells alongside our new stuff only to discover that we just came up with a non-toxic shot that delivered better performance than old school lead. Accidental genius it may be but trust this - Our commitment to the birds, their habitat and the great folks who support our cause is nothing less than intentional. #bossmen
  • GAME ON Snap out of it “Coupe” it’s finally here. We heard thru the grapevine the other day that one of the bossmen was actually trying to talk some sense into his old black male “Coupe”. Ya see the boys been in a deep state of depression and we all know there’s only one cure. This state of mental health can only be understood by bird dogs and the hunters who love them. I’m talking 12 step fuck’ep here. You know that whole powerless and unmanageable thing. You see, Coupe’s been in this state-of-mind since last his last retrieve and he can’t comprehend why it stopped, after all he did nothing wrong. Well, that’s all about to change and things are going to become righteous once again. Today signals the opener of the 2019-20 waterfowl season as it gets tipped once again in the prairies of the great state of North Dakota By the way, the early Canada Goose limits are 15 daily and 45 in possession. I remember hearing stories back in the day of ol’ timers getting their picture taken in the local rag if they shot a honker. My how times have changed. The Bossmen wish you all good luck and good shootin’ #bossmen
  • #repost @cory_loeffler ・・・ Giant Giveaway. Original post. Tag 5 buddies and let us know why you should win! #mansbestkennel #loefflercustoms #wildear #bossbismuth #sitkagear #therealboone #drccalls #coryloeffler #giveaway #gunnerkennels #brokenwingwaterfowl #northernskiesoutfitters #swiftriveroutfitters #dakotadecoy #publiclandbus #keepitpublic #gamefair
  • Game Fair, Anoka, MN - Aug 9, 10 & 11 - 16, 17 & 18. The upcoming season has most of us understandably antsy and on edge to say the least. Nothing new there really, it happens every year around this time. Pattern shells, check! Practice shooting, check! Tune the dog up, check! Decoys readied, check! You get the drill right? But if you’re like us pegged at ten and pinging wondering what the hell to do next there’s hope in the very near future. How about heading to @gamefairusa in Anoka, Minnesota this weekend or next to talk all things hunting with the Bossmen. We’re more than stoked to talk to all of you potential new customers and for those of you that have spent your hard earned dollar on Boss shotshells this past year please stop by so we can introduce ourselves proper and say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It’s because of you we’re still able to be pumping out diabolical copper-plated innovations one by one in Blue-Collar, U.S.A. We’ll be easy to spot. We’ll be hangin’ by the shooting range in the BOSS bus with our good friends from the wildly popular @runandguntour @sitkagear @yeti @rigemright bread truck and @samsoholt and his tricked out vintage @publiclandtees bus. So, if you’re anywhere near Game Fair please stop by and introduce yourself. We’d love to hear your story and get to know you and I’m sure we can find some common ground somewhere. After all, it’s almost duck season. See ya there. The Bossmen.
  • The Legend of “Bo Whoop” and the birth of the 3” shell. In 1926 waterfowling legend and writer Nash Buckingham commissioned a Super Fox custom-made by the A. H. Fox Gun Company in Philadelphia. The nine-pound, nine-ounce gun was a side-by-side 12-gauge with bbls bored full and full by the famed gunsmith Burt Becker. The iconic gun (on permanent display at @ducksunlimitedinc Headquarters in Memphis) was chambered 3” and was designed for the hot new duck load of the day, The Western Cartridge Co.’s Super-X load of 4 drams powder and an 1-3/8 oz. payload of #4 copper clad shot. The extra length (1/4") was needed for the increased shot load. Sometime in the late 30's, Western shipped the 3” shells out to distributors. However, they did not catch on very quickly as the gold standard of the day was a 12ga. 2-3/4” 1-1/4oz. of #5s (give or take a shot size) and very few shotguns were chambered for the longer shell. Of course the badass of all was the Winchester Model 12 Heavy Duck. Both L.C. Smith and A.H. Fox also made early 3" guns, as did a few others. Later Western/Winchester found that the 1-5/8 oz. payload gave better center core % pattern densities than either the 1-3/8 or 1-7/8 oz. loads. Now dig this. We’re talking about almost a century ago and at The House of BOSS we think they had it right. Actually we know they did. The narrative hasn’t changed. We’re still talking about pattern densities and the go-to duck (and pheasant, more on that coming) is still a 2-3/4” 1-1/4 oz. of #5’s. and for those that want the extra pellets in the 1-5/8 oz. load that our 3” shell offers, well, we got that for ya too. Here’s to good shootin’ this fall. #bossmen
  • ‘1991 - THE BAN. Headline from 1985 (as I remember it) - “Lead Shot Poisons Bald Eagles.” As evidence of poisoned eagles mounts, conservationists, hunters and the Federal Government take their case to court. One of the #bossmen remembers a die-off of bald eagles on the famed Lac qui Parle WMA in western Minnesota after the birds ingested lead shot from eating crippled geese. Stories like this continued to be told and the debates raged on like grease fires. A little backstory here.... Lead poisoning became a major issue in the hunting community in the mid-1970s after a USFW study estimated that between 1.6 and 2.4 million waterfowl died annually from swallowing lead shot.  Fast forward to 1991. The UFWS answered the hunters' petition with a ban on the use of lead shot for waterfowl. That paramount decision ladies and gentleman is when it all changed. Since then it has largely been the goal of shotshell manufacturers to come up with a nontoxic equal to lead in both ballistic performance and cost. Or was it? Fact is that didn’t happen. Steel was inferior in every way (other than price) and the spendy designer loads that came along as a result cost a small fortune. Sure bismuth shot emerged as an alternative to steel in the early 90’s but market pressures, mediocre performance and high metal prices never generated much acceptance within the industry.  Here we are almost three decades later and at the House of BOSS solving this 30 year old problem defines our narrative and fuels our motivation. Conservation of habitat and the continued efforts required to minimize the loss of millions of waterfowl each year due to crippling are paramount to the birds, their habitat and our survival as a community. Become proficient with your shotgun, set personal limits with shots you will take and only pull the trigger if you know you can make a clean harvest. You do your part and we will keep doing ours.
  • Giving Thanks.  We’ve had our doors open for a whole whopping nine months now and we are rolling along. There’s been a few things that we missed on here or there but for the most part we got the big things right. Customer satisfaction and the consumer experience seems to be high. Killer product. Mind blowing customer service thanks to @meg_at_the_shop and a real felt value all the way around. That said, none of it matters or happens without the helping hands and support from family, friends, industry peers and most of all, you, the customer. When all these ingredients come together and stew for a while you never know, you just might wind up front and center on The Giant Gear Guide issue of @wildfowlmagazine Can you imagine that? Thank you when used in it's true form (not merely out of obligation) it is an expresion of respect and appreciation to another soul (and simultaneously to all beings) for the unconditional kindness that has been bestowed upon you. The #bossmen thank you all.
  • THE MATH DON’T LIE.... A few weeks back the world traveling duck boss Ramsey Russell @ramseyrussellgetducks reported from Argentina that our Copper Plated Boss loads were laying down the law on the ducks. Lead shot is legal in Argentina and he decided to switch to our stuff and compare the results. It didn’t take long for his cameraman @jfeltovich311 and the Argentine guides to take notice of cleaner kills and harder hits. Some IG buzz ensued and drew the attention of fellow #Bossmen @cory_loeffler. He offered up some well received criticism about making such bold performance claims such as our albeit slightly lower density pellets delivering improved performance vs. lead. We went to work... Our initial thought was that the lead being used in Argentina could have been of sub par quality. That’s when we decided to pull out all the stops and go full old school.... @meg_at_the_shop ‘s grandfather Fagan had some vintage shotshells laying around his workshop and donated ‘em to us several months back, and after much consideration we decided to put those old shells to good use. Sacrilege it may be to destroy a 60+ year old shotshell and even worse to waste them by shooting into a chronograph to test their speed and consistency prior to shooting ballistic gel after resting dormant in their paper hulls for 6 decades. After proving that these old relics were still just as capable as they were back in the 1950’s we took these bad boys on the road with us to test alongside the @soknorth boys at their Southern Oak Kennels North Training Weekend in Three Rivers, MI. What better way to back up field reports from one of the most respected duck killers than to run our Copper Plated 4’s alongside old school lead 4’s in front of an audience of fellow duck hunters and prove it? The end result.... near identical performance to lead (actually a tick better) and 40% deeper penetration than UNPLATED BISMUTH. When we say that Copper Plated Boss is as good as the old school lead that the old cats used to shoot we mean it. Photo cred: @ejshaeff
  • OUR FLAG IS FLYING HIGH. First century Americans had it right. If you won’t give us a flag, we’ll make our own. Seems Betsy’s hard earned flag which is the symbol of the greatest country in the world has landed in the hole of another for-profit marketing manipulation by NIKE who claims to inspire athletes everywhere. Nike's decision not to release its Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July shoe reportedly came in response to objections from Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL star and company endorser, who made headlines during his football career for kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality. Now Kaepernick says he finds that version of the flag offensive and racist because of slavery during the period. I suppose Francis Scott Key was a racist because he glorified that flag while he watched Ft McHenry, from a British prison ship. If history repeats itself, Nike may well ride its latest politically charged and contrived controversy all the way to the bank. At the BOSS headquarters and all across America flags are flying high today! fu*kneeling #bossmen #america #usa