From what I understand the Black Cloud shot is a gimmick.. Seems that the shape of the pellet is trimmed in other shots, but forBlack Cloud Federal does not trim it.. They save the money of not trimming the shot, but charge you more for the ammo..

Federal Steel has never really impressed me.

As I wrote on another thread, I'm going to be doing a Field Journal here on HNI about some of the new non-tox stuff.

I have a box of the #4 black cloud. Couldn't find #2s like I wanted, and I figured that if they stuff isn't any good, I can use #4s to shoot cripples on the water... the only other offering was BBs, and I almost got those as I was goose hunting that afternoon... but I don't want to hunt with an unproven load.

As it was, I ended up using my normal #6s hevi shot backed up by Win Supreme BBs. All 3" loads. Dumped my limit of 5 in no time and helped out on two cripples. I was very impressed with the Win Supreme BBs, they flat hammered those residents out to 45 yards. I killed two birds dead in the air that landed close to 70 yards away... both I shot with BBs, not the hevi. Very impressed. I was using my old 870 Wingmaster Mag and I Briley Extended Mod choke.

I'll post up when the article is done on the non-tox. I'm hitting the range tomorrow.

Looks like a nice pattern. That's what I have been wanting to see. Thanks for sharing.

I don't know, but #2 steel for geese sounds a bit on the small side.
I always use BBs with the 1500-1550 ft/sec. loads and 3 and 3 1/2 consistently drop all types of geese (e.g. Snows to Canada Giants).