Laduck,
I just believe in the premium shotgun ammo. I know with the Hevi X and Hevimetal
I can CLEANLY take ducks out to extended ranges if need be. I am not a fan
of crippling ducks or simply breaking their wings.

I guess it depends on your uses for steel shot. If you're shooting close enough, steel will work. But you don't always get those close and just about perfect shots. I'm not talking about skyscraper shots but shots that are at longer ranges. In my personal experience, steel doesn't work at longer distances like lead. So going from lead to steel means having to take shorter shots than previously taken with lead. Unless you use Hevishot or some similar load and then you can go back to lead distances and even a bit further. I guess you could setup your blinds for shorter distances so steel wouldn't be a problem. But that would tend to cut down on some of your opportunities. :biggrin:

I haven't duck or goose hunted in a long time but do hunt turkeys every year. CA switched to no leaded shells for turkey hunting a couple years ago, so I was faced with the same issue of steel shot or some type of premium non-leaded shot shells. I tried steel for my kind of turkey hunting (spot and stalk) but steel just didn't work as well as lead at the longer distances I usually have. Plus, steel costed more than lead so I was less than happy. So I began checking out premium shells.

The turkey specific premium loads were something like $7 a piece which is way overpriced. I saw that Hevishot had a Hevimetal shell for waterfowl which cost around $30 for a box of 25 or about twice the price of steel. That came out to a little over a buck a shell which is still pricey but way cheaper than the turkey specific loads at $7 a piece. I bought a box and was very surprised. I'm easily getting better than lead shot distances out of these shells and way better than steel shot. I'm still on my first box of shells after 2 years of turkey hunting with them. I've found that these shells give 1-shot bang flop performance on turkeys so a box will last me for several years.

YMMV but waterfowl hunting is sort of like turkey hunting when it comes to shotgun shells. It all depends on how you hunt and at what distances you usually shoot. If it's shorter range, you can get by with steel. If it's longer ranges, you'll eventually get frustrated with steel and switch to a premium shell.

dont worry. I checked the length of the shot on the lake. after 190 meters, any ammo falls into the water. I couldn’t shoot farther.

I think you have forget about ballistic.. Shot going down in 70-80 meters in normai shot...

Nothing that I have used compares to how effective the HEVISHOT family of waterfowl loads are.
They retain so much more PUNCH down range. Also, the patterns they provide are amazing

Here's the maximum range of duck loads with no wind from JBM trajectory calculations:

Tungsten-Iron (about the same as lead) @ 1300 fps:
BBs = 423 yds, #2s = 363 yds, #4s = 325 yds

Steel @ 1300 fps:
BBs = 305 yds, #2s = 261 yds, #4s = 234 yds