ORIGINAL: Alsatian
ORIGINAL: SwampCollie
Depends on how good a shot you are.
If you couldn't hit your ass with both hands then you might as well get you a pocket full of rocks and not ring my ears.
I've been shooting (or should I say shot) Hevi for better than a decade. Usually load it as the first shell and back it up with two steel. Before they monkey'd with the formula for that new Hevi-shot duck BS they have now, you'd never have to shoot a cripple. I shot swans, geese and ducks with regular 2 3/4" #6 hevi-shot. When Evironmetal took the loading back over and changed it from just hevi-shot to hevi-duck and hevi-goose... no more. I'm sitting on $400 worth of that hevi-duck junk.
I think that the new HEVI_SHOT DUCK (9.7gr/cc) is one of the biggest waste of money products on the market. Spend another dollar and get the Goose (12gr/cc) which is the REAL hevi-shot.
As for what I'm doing now... shooting up the rest of my hevi-duck... then sticking with Hevi-steel. Basically the same thing as hevi-duck (just a touch less dense) but MUCH less expensive). I shoot too many birds a year to shoot a high density shot exclusively.
SwampCollie: That is some very, very, very interesting information. I confess to having been duped. And I don't think it is just Enviromental Metals that is perpetrating this hoax. I seem to recall having read an article in one of the glossy waterfowl magazines that extolled the virtues of HeviShot and some others. Man . . . that PO's me something fierce. I have bought 6 boxes of 3" #4s and 6 boxes of 2 3/4" #6s since the first of February, stocking up for next year. Talk about feeling like a sucker.
Yeah...... me too.
Environmetal guards this like its a matter of national security. I think honestly for them it is. I contemplated just going back to shooting steel, but thought that to be a bit rash. I'll keep shooting the hevi-steel, its a good buy for the price and performance, but I won't even buy hevi-goose.... I'd rather spend a few dollars more for Wingmaster than give them any more of my money. Thinking about it just makes me mad.
If you look at the boxes, its kinda no duh... but they never come right out and admit it. Now that you know there is a difference Alsatian, go back and read between the lines. The Hevi-duck says "More energy than steel" Hevi-goose says either "Over twice the energy of steel" or "Heavier than Lead". Depending on year of production. Reading over their product specs, you can see how they worded it to be misleading without being a total crock of crap. They didn't break any laws, but what they did in my school of business educated opinion is very unethical and a poor business practice.