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Joined: 21 May 2015 Posts: 128

From guy who loaded steel back when the big manufacturers couldn't produce squatt for quality...

#7 steel is pushing it for waterfowl, especially at lower velocity. And, it has low down range energy.

The rule of thumb was to size up not down and 1500 fps minimum (I actually had some 1700fps stuff that killed stone dead and patterned for $#it).

Larger nominal bores help too (think Remington vs. Beretta).

At any rate for ducks (actually) up to swans #3 steel at 1500 fps was my go to reload until Kent finally equaled the recipe.

I don'r know if this helps but this is my experience with steel.

Joined: 16 Jul 2015 Posts: 2126 Location: Hudson,Wy

My experience with #7 steel, and I've used a lot of it, is that it's hard to beat for teal. I've also killed a lot of mallards stone dead with it out to about 35 yards when they slipped into the teal spread (we don't have a separate early teal season). For wood ducks it does pretty well too, under 40 yards of course. My ammo runs 1,300- 1,400 fps.

I started doing this stuff in 1993. I tried faster velocities too, but did not notice better performance other than helping a tad with my lead angles on days I was a bit behind. A lot of the illusion of improved performance with ultra high velocities is actually a matter of hitting the bird up front instead of toward the tail. Most folks shoot behind and the extra speed does reduce leads a bit. Past 50 yards, the extra velocity has been shed due to higher atmospheric resistance, thus offering no actual boost in killing power out where it would be most beneficial. But...past 50 I'm not shooting a 16 ga. either.