The newer high speed steel has enhanced waterfowling quite a bit. On the other hand when patterned side by side with Hevi-Shot you will see a significant difference. I was tired of watching birds get hit and then sailing 100's of yards before going down. This was with 3's then 2's and then finally 1's using the cheaper slow speed (older Drylok's and Estate) steel. However if I was shooting small ducks (teal or ring-necks) I was taking birds with no problem. In my thinking those smaller birds are much harder to hit but easier to penetrate.

So I opted to get serious and started to reload on my own after doing A LOT of reading. I chose to make fast fast steel loads as well as Hevi-Shot. Now I've spent way too many hours in front of a patterning board but there have been many lessons learned. You're absolutely right that HS is not needed for good shooters under 30 yards. However if you make a shell with a X-stream spreader and 1 ounce of 6's in the wad, the poorer shooter will be given a minimum of an extra 1.5 feet wide pattern at 20 yards. I like (need) that sometimes, by the way the pattern still looks really good and even wider at 40 yards. I've patterned HS 4's and 3's as well and in my opinion they aren't necessary for ducks under 40 yards. Actually, 40 yards is a long friggin ways once you actually measure it and I rarely take shots that far. However, it (HS 4's for ducks) is a great back-up load. The load is 4's, 1 1/4 ounces, running at 1500 fps (same velocity as 6's load). The 3's were devastating when patterned. Here is why...

One day my father and I decided to pattern all three at a local range. The pattern board consists of a very hard wood frame over treated 4 x 4's. The wood was hard enough that I couldn't sink tacks into it to hold up the paper (reason #4353 to keeps duct tape in the truck). The control (1300 fps) steel would just barely penetrate the board, in fact some of it was sticking halfway out. The # 3's high speed steel (1680 fps) sank in the wood about a 1/4 of an inch. Finally I shot the HS 3's which I had just made. When we got up to the board after the shots we were amazed. You couldn't see the HS pellets period. In fact I couldn't dig them out of the wood, I don't know how deep they went in but it was a long way. At that point I made the decision not to load HS #3's for anybody but me as it is just too dangerous (they are supposed to be able to penetrate human skin well beyond 200 yards). At another patterning session I was patterning #3 steel and #6 HS on a 3/4 particle board. At 40 yards neither the fast, fast steel nor HS could be stopped by the particle board. The fastest Kent fasteel was a close 3rd in regards to penetration. Now all these are just 2 3/4 inch shells out of my SBE.

When it comes to the field... I've never had better pheasant shooting ever, and I've been at it for going on 18 years. Believe it or not I'm using the fast fast steel 3's, and HS as the back up. I've turned quite a few heads without trying and nobody could believe it was non-toxic shot. As far as the ducks, I've had good and bad days. One day in pouring down rain I couldn't hit anything be it 20 yards or 50 yards. That hurt a lot, with the ego severely bruised I went out the next day and figured out my problem. Hello, try wiping the beads of water off the gun and keep your #@*% head DOWN on the gun. Other than that one day it's been a very fun year.

All in all here are my suggestions to those that are still awake. If you're going to shoot steel, shoot the fastest stuff you can get your hands on. Kent fasteel is the best around here for factory stuff. If you have the time to reload try the RSI or BP recipes with STEEL powder and speeds in the 1600 to 1750 fps range. Again 3.5 shells are not necessary. If you have the bucks the HS is really nice, but even nicer if you can roll your own and throw in an X'stream spreader with the 6's. Homerolled HS will cost between $1 to $1.30 per shell depending on how much shot you would like to load. If you have a honey hole where there are tons of birds and all are within 30 yards then I would save my money and get the fastest Kent Fasteel. I'm not so lucky. Best of luck to all.