Man, buddy and me yesterday shot at a bluebill 30 yards away 5 times, and the bird wouldn't drop. Using Remington magnum 3" steel #4. One guy told me you got to use #1's and to throw away #4 unless for maybe teal and wood ducks. Does this sound right? I have had it with not dropping birds that you can see in water behind them that you are aiming right.

We've switched mostly to 2's and 3's. If you are shooting divers, I'd definitely go bigger than 4's. Divers are tough and need to take a pounding to be brought down. I still have 4's and even some 6's for teal shoots and water swatting.

I use 3's with pretty good luck on bills. They can be tough little critters. If they're decoying nice it's not as bad because you can wait for them to get in nice and close (15-20yds). If you were to switch to something else, like Hevi-Shot, you wouldn't have nearly as much trouble. It is alot more expensive, but your average number of shots needed to kill a bird will be much less.

Thanks guys, if this keeps up, I might have to try 00Buckshot

I bet ya somebody out there has tried it.

In heavy shot, #4's are all we use. they flatten any duck we shoot at. As far as steel goes, we use #2's. They seem to work pretty good on ducks. The bad part about going to bigger shot is that you get a lower number of individual pellets.

Use the Hevi shot!!! more up front $$$, but the shells you save by not having to shoot 10,000 times at one duck will make it pay for itself. i use 6 and 4 shot with AWESOME results on Ducks. 2 works good on the geese.

I'm a new duck hunter and I have been experimenting with 4s, 3s, and 2s. I have not had to swat a bird yet when using 2s. They die immediately or very soon after they hit the water. When I use the 4s I seem to have to swat a lot more birds. Also, one thing you might look into is which choke you are using. I had started with IC, but after patterning switched to M. The pattern I was getting with IC seemed to have a lot of holes in it and since myself and my hunting buddy switched to M, we have been knocking the birds down with less crippled ones.

This is just my limited experience between the different sizes.

I shoot Remington and Winchester #2s for ducks and BBs for geese. 2s seem to do the best for big ducks like mallards which are the norm in my area. My bro and I took 7 yesterday morning in about 30 minutes. One hen we brought down, then she took off again. It took us 3 more shots to hit her again since she was flying away.

I use #2 for duck and geese.

#2 steel for ducks.............that's all I use!