It is definately better than steel. Anything is better than steel! Personally, I have only had two experiences with it. A buddy left a half a box in the boat, so I did an impromptu field test. It killed the two birds I shot at.

I think it will allow you to have similar results to steel, but step down a size or two, giving you a denser pattern, or allow you to keep shooting #2s, but have more energy.

My MO is to load one Hevi-SHOT and back it up with two steel loads. That way you will never shoot a cripple with a $3 shell, and if you pull a shots fired in anger triple miss, you didn't just shoot a 12 pack of beer into the air.