You've gotten alot of advice and most of it sounds pretty good. The patterning of your load, knowing what it will do at known distances out of your gun with certain chokes, etc is all good to know. If the pattern isn't consistent, you definitely need to look at changing loads. Also, if you shoot at birds at various distances, and not all your opportunities are at decoying birds at 25-30yds, then you might want to look at going to something like HeviShot, or HeviMetal. Steel density doesn't change regardless of how fast you push it, so it still needs to have enough lethal energy once it hits the target to penetrate as well. I personally shoot more HeviMetal than HeviShot because its cheaper and gives me good pattern density out to 45-55 yds. That's far enough for me, and I kill birds at those distances. If I get cripples, its because of my aim and where I hit the bird, not because of lack of penetration. Good luck and good hunting.