hey duck hunters

Many of the guys on Duck Hunting Chat Forums do not believe the Federal Black Cloud, EMI Hevi-Metal or Winchester Blindside steel loads are any better than the much cheaper regular steel loads.

They call them gimmick loads. The Federal Blue Box Steel loads are a very popular load and they are much cheaper than the Federal Black Cloud loads are.

Check out Roger's for some good prices on cases of steel loads and some of these cases of ammo have FREE SHIPPING!
http://www.rogerssportinggoods.com/ammunition/federal-steel.html
 
I have used it some but I can't tell if it's much better or not, you've got to hit the SOB's first. I still miss being able to use lead shot it strung out nice, all these years and I still haven't figured the steel shot out. When you only get to hunt them a couple of times a year its hard to break old, old habits. I will say the ones I've hit with it went down in a heap. I did shoot a mallard about 60 yards or so going away from me after missing the first 2 shots sent a hail mary and dropped him dead.
 
IMHO it really isn't worth the extra money. I recall LP Brenzy doing an article somewhere that used high speed photography and doppler radar to get images of shot patterns, Fed blue box was just as good as high dollar alternatives.

It was also interesting that the PatternMaster choke tube, thought to be a wad stripping design, actually balled the shot as it exited the barrel, opposite what the designers intended. The ultimate results are what they were looking for however, so no sense in complaining about success.
 
I can't tell a difference, but you have to take that with a grain of salt, considering that I am a crap duck hunter and equallycrap at hitting feathered critters with a shotgun.


Chupa
 
Gimmick load....I tried useing it and it was no better then my kent steel ...for ducks and geese...,i was never impressed by it..Rusty
 
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Yup iv used them didn't notice any difference. Personal I like the spectra shot. Not that I think it's any better than the others. We just use it bc it works just as good and if a band does show up we can tell who actually shot it.
 

I shoot Winchester Dryloks. Not cheap steel, but not premium either. Both my Browning Gold 10 ga. and my Browning Maxus 12 ga. like the stuff. I hand load Heavy Weight 13(generic Hevi-Shot), for both 10 ga. and 12 ga. I use the HW-13 loads for cripples, on the water, or if shooting stout cross winds, which shred steel shot patterns. HW-13 make a big difference in wind, and also helps if the birds are really spooky, reach out another 10 yards. As far as Black Cloud, or Blindside, I concur...gimmicks.

Squeeze
 
I live right down the road from Rogers. Great mom and pop sporting goods store. I don't duck hunt but everyone around here says you can't beat them for shotgun shells.
 
They spend all this time making shot round and add antimony, buffer, and copper plating to keep it round then tell you that round is no good ??? If you want distance then you want round shot otherwise the pattern WILL fall apart. If you know how to call dux in close then by all means shoot bricks at them.
 
You have to be careful what choke you shoot black cloud through. A lot of after market chokes won't work and that's why they sell a special choke just for it. I dont like black cloud. Its a gimmick. I have shot a lot of ducks and geese over the last 25 yrs with everything from win, federal, estate, rem, kent, and in the last ten years a lot of the premium stuff like hevimetal, bismuth, and tungsten matrix. If you hunt ducks all season, don't shoot the premium stuff cause you'll go broke! My favorite combo for ducks for a long time now is kent fasteel #4 through a pattern master choke. This is in a super black eagle. Hammers ducks! For geese I step up to BBs or #2s if they are finishing inside 20 yards. All 3"s. I don't shoot any 3.5s because if haven't found that its really any better. Knowing where your gun shoots is more important than a bigger shell. Save your money and don't go for black cloud.
 
I shoot 3's for everything these days and ANY ported choke completely nullifies all reason for using black cloud. a ported choke will retard the flight control wad and you might as well be shooting kent(a favorite of mine anyway). briley makes a great extended modified choke that will cost half as much as other chokes and in most of my guns yields better results. hevi-metal is my all time favorite but I will be the first to admit that it may be just like many other products in the shooting world that only give you a sense of confidence but yield no real benefit. all I know is I kill more birds with it. may have everything to do with the fact that I feel good shooting it
 
It's all in confidence!!
If you believe your shooting better, you probably will.
I personally can't put out money like that. Hevi shot is very good stuff but $3 a shot I just cant do that. I reload my own and I di steel but there customized to my kind of shooting and my gun choke system. I get wonderful patterns and range. I also went to a Supper choke a .696 restriction ,extended ported type. That one thing improved my kill 50%. Try that.
 
Here is my $.02. No the Black Cloud is not necessary and is more of a Gimmick to kill hunters wallets than ducks. Where I hunt most is open water and we kill 95% of our ducks between 35-50 yds. With a proper patterning gun/choke/load combo, ducks that are centered in the pattern out to 40 yds. are dead. Now past 40 yds is a different story. The percentage of Dead on the Water Ducks goes down a lot. If any duck hits the water with it's head up, it is shot again. As I said above, we are hunting open water and have 1000 yds of visibility all around. We also jump in the boat immediately to dispatch all cripples and loose very few birds.

Now in the timber, we do not shoot past 40 yds.

I like #2 shot for ducks on open water and #3 for timber hole ducks. I like a dense pattern as head and neck hits are what put ducks down the most consistent. The wings of a duck shield the body and ducks that have their breast exposed are much easier to kill than those that don't. Ex: Cupped with feet down, over head passing shots are a higher percentage shot than a crossing shot. The worst shot is a going away shot with the duck's butt all that is visible as there are lots of feathers and guts that have to be penetrated before the duck vitals are hit.

Take the time to pattern you gun/choke/load combo with several different shells at 40 yds. and shoot the best patterning load. Work on your range estimation. We set our furtherest decoys at aprox 40 yds to help with range estimation.

FWIW. I shoot Federal Blue Box and have found that it patterns the best out of my 870. It will kill ducks just as well as any STEEL shell. Steel does not pattern the same as lead and is harder to get even patterns.

Heavi shot, etc. will kill further, but at $1.50-$2.00 a shell, I can't afford to shoot it.

rth1959rth
 
My hunting buddies act as if its the only way to kill ducks. Ive used #2 faststeel 3in for the last 3 seasons and have killed my share.....less than my 11 yr old with his #2 federal 20ga. The kid is [beeep] on the geese
20121222081146_zpsd9536d52.jpg
 
I hunt a river here in Wyoming most shots are 20 -35 yards. I shoot the cheap stuff experts 2 3/4 inch 2s or 3s. For me it works very well from a skeet choke.
 
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