Rebel -

I believe this was more of an older day steel shot thing. Back when the fastest steel load you could find was 1200fps (if you were lucky). Now that they came out with this super-velocity steel shot, I don't think it is as big of an issue. I know for a fact that old, slow steel had a hard time killing anything (didn't pattern well, and we could actually hear pellets bounce off of high flying geese). The ammo makers always have had the reccomendation of #4 shot (lead)for pheasants, and back in the day the equivelant (powerwise/knockdown) was #2 or BB Steel.

My old man shoots almost all his pheasants with 3" 4 shot steel around 1425fps or so. He doesn't have any problems killing birds, its either a clean miss or a dead pheasant. The only reason I was shooting those 2s last year is because I bought 2 cases of 'em and I needed to burn 'em up.