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The landscape of waterfowl ammunition is rapidly evolving with new technologies designed to enhance hunting efficiency. This article explores the latest advancements and provides insights into making informed choices for waterfowl hunting.
Understanding Modern Waterfowl Ammunition
Manufacturers are increasingly blending high-quality shot with more affordable steel to keep prices competitive. This mixing of materials allows for effective performance while reducing costs, making quality ammunition more accessible to hunters. Notable products on the market include Hevi-Shot and Hevi-Metal, which are recognized for their quality and effectiveness in waterfowl hunting.
Hevi-Shot: This is considered the best load for waterfowl hunting.
Recommended sizes:
Hevi-Metal: A mixture of different loads that provides a longer trail and a more forgiving lead, while also being more affordable.
Lead Shot: Mentioned as a comparison for practice, as it has more downrange energy but is slower.
Mixed Shot Types: The article suggests that mixing different sizes or types of pellets in the same cartridge can improve the “trail,” making it easier to lead moving birds.
If you are just getting started at waterfowl hunting or are limited to a few days a year, chances are you are going to have a little trouble hitting flying birds no matter what type of ammo that you are using. Some of the super loads can get pretty pricey and hunters have been killing waterfowl with steel for years. Hevi-Metal has a mixture of 2 different loads, which will give it a longer trail and you a more forgiving leed. It is also more affordable.
One of the most commonly asked questions that I get from hunters is “what choke should I use?” My answer is and has been, “you can’t choke steel.” Chokes were designed to compress lead, which is a soft metal. The only person able to compress steel, is Super Man. When steel first came out, it was wearing out barrels and chokes. Choke manufactures started producing chokes made for steel loads. These chokes are made of hardened metal to hold their diameter and labeled for “steel”. This doesn’t mean that they can compress steel, it just means that steel won’t distort or wear out the choke. The steel shot does not touch the barrel, or most chokes,because it is encased in a plastic wad. When you try to choke steel shot, it is just compressed into the plastic wad. When and if it comes out of the wad is anyone’s guess. Often, some of the pellets never come out of the wad. Steel should be shot from Open Cylinder, or at most Modified or Improved Cylinder.
Another commonly asked question is “how far should I leed the bird?’ That’s a great question, because it shows that they realize that they have to do it. Unfortunately there is no good answer. Your leed on a flying bird depends on many factors, all of which change on every shot. These factors include the speed of your shot, the speed of the bird, the angle of flight, the distance, weather conditions and your method of leeding. It can be summed up by saying, PRACTICE! Sporting clays or any form of shooting clay pigeons can be helpful, but it is important that you shoot the same or similar loads as when you go hunting. Shooting lead at clays and steel at birds can be worse than no practice at all. The 2 loads travel at different speeds. Steel is faster in close, but falls off quickly. Lead is slower out of the barrel, but has more down range energy. Ballistically, Hevi-shot is very close to lead, or at least close enough to use lead to practice with. If you are going to shoot steel in the field, you need to shoot steel in practice. Speed is important, your shot must be able to travel faster than the bird that you are shooting at. No matter how fast your shot is traveling, you are still going to have to correctly leed your bird. All other things being equal, the only way to make your shot travel faster, is to make it lighter. The amount of powder that your gun can handle is limited. To make the load lighter you either have to remove some of the shot, or use a lighter weight metal. The lighter the weight of the metal, the less down range energy (killing power) it has. Less shot, means less pellets in your pattern. Find out what you are sacrificing to get the speed, in my opinion, that you really don’t need. One of the most deceiving statistics is the advertized speed of ammo, its measured at the end of the muzzle. A lot of the birds that we are shooting at are a bit further out than that. The most important speed is that where “A”, (the duck) and “B”, (your shot) are supposed to come together.
Pick a good quality shot, stick with it, don’t choke it, practice your leed and good things will happen. ?
