Best waterfowl ammo 2023

The good old days are here indeed. There has never been a better time for hunters to choose from steel, bismuth, or tungsten ammo, as well as a wide range of blended, best waterfowl ammo 2023, stacked, and other specialty loads. Photo By: Chris Ingram.

Follow along as three men set out on a grand adventure to the far north in search of Arctic grizzly bears with the new X-Bolt 2 from Browning. Once proven on paper, take the loads you like on several hunts and evaluate its performance at various ranges, on different birds, under a variety of conditions, then pick what you like the most. When talk of the switch from lead to steel shot for waterfowl hunting started stirring in the s, we all knew what was coming. I bought bags of steel shot in various sizes, even the raw wads, and did my own reloading. The wads were one piece, no petals. I used wad splitters to create the petals and started analyzing petal numbers and the angles and depths of cuts to see how it impacted steel pellet flight. Mind you, back then, most of us used the same shotgun to hunt everything from honkers to ducks, quail to turkeys.

Best waterfowl ammo 2023

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. There are dozens of duck hunting loads on the market today, all with a variety of shot sizes, pellet materials, payloads, velocities, and wad designs. Overwhelmed with options, I think many duck hunters buy their loads in the same way that they might buy a bottle of wine—they walk into a store and go with whatever is on sale or whatever label looks coolest. But there is a better way to choose the best duck loads. Ideally, you would want to pattern all of the top loads to see how they perform at the range. If that sounds like a whole lot of trial and error, trigger pulling, pellet counting, and data crunching, well, it is. There are three key ways to evaluate a duck load: how it performs in the field; how it does on the patterning board; and how much that performance is going to cost you. Most of the time hitting a duck and killing it cleanly has more to do with your shooting ability than the shells you stuffed in your magazine. So for my hunts during the last couple seasons I brought along two comparable loads. I would shoot one load for half the hunt and then switch, taking down notes and anecdotes on performance. After that, I shot totally different loads against each other.

You can find our full review on Winchester bismuth here. All Petersen's Hunting subscribers now have digital access to their magazine content.

As the leading source for news and new product launches, we are excited to bring you fresh coverage from the SHOT Show with some exciting new shotshell offerings and other continued crowd favorites of the new year. Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases. Available in Fall , in four configurations of 3-inch, and gauge options with 4 or 6 tungsten and 1 or 3 steel, respectively. Steel will always have its place among waterfowlers, and now sub-gauge shooters have just as many ammo options as their bigger-bored brethren. Not all bismuth payloads are created equal.

We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Some hunters quit waterfowling when steel shot replaced lead thirty years ago. They were inconsistent in both velocity and ignition. Water got into them, rusting shot and ruining primers. They were slow, and they were made in the same shot sizes that worked for lead. Steel damaged barrels, reduced effective shotgun range, and crippled birds. I have shot just enough lead at ducks—at the tail end of the lead era, and on trips to South America—that I can tell you it kills ducks better than steel does. Those old-timers conveniently forget they lost birds with lead sometimes, too. If you understand how to choose shot sizes and chokes, steel loads perform just fine out to 40 yards or a bit more.

Best waterfowl ammo 2023

With several brand-new shotguns and other top-trending models, here is a sneak peek at the best scatterguns of Photo By: Savage Arms. Introduced last year, the gauge addition to the Benelli SBE 3 lineup was a huge hit. And why not, since the sub-gauge offering weighs in at only 5. It gives the inch and inch 'fowling pieces an impenetrable armor—even when exposed to hours of saltwater—and a year warranty on parts treated in the finish. The old humpback just got even better in This year, Browning is bringing the Wicked Wing design into an all-new camouflage pattern Auric specifically made for waterfowlers. Add in the Burnt Bronze Cerakote finish on the receiver and barrel, a composite stock with textured gripping surfaces, shim and spacer adjustment options, an oversized bolt release, and a fully chrome-plated, corosion-resistant bore, among other things, and this show-stopping, crowd favorite should fly off the shelves this year in the new camo pattern. The recently upgraded smooth-shooting, gas-operated G3 autoloader is a great choice for any shotgunning situation, whether targeting clays or waterfowl. The latest update features a barrel and receiver cloaked in a matte black finish to complement the black synthetic or walnut stock, sleeker ergonomics, oversized controls, a thicker recoil pad, and two removable pistons, one for light-medium loads and one for heavy-magnum loads.

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For the standard steel loads, that meant No. Hunting can be excellent on foggy, drizzly days when birds are flying low, but that moisture needs to be cleaned off your gun, ammo and other gear quickly after the hunt to prevent rust and corrosion. This offers a degree of protection when shells are exposed to high humidity and limited direct moisture contact, whereas non-plated steel can readily rust after being exposed to high humidity, moisture, and especially saltwater environments. For the ballistics gel tests, I shot each shell at 40 yards. With bismuth, go with No. In my review of the best chokes for duck hunting, I was able to get these loads to pattern even better with the Mojo Fatal Shot choke. As you can see in the photo, they formed an even and dense spread of pellet strikes with no big holes or gaps in the core. North American Whitetail Subscribe. So consider my data to be a guide before doing your own pattering with your own set up. Sign In or start your online account. Each handloaded hull features a clean-burning powder and a one-piece, tungsten-grade wad system engineered to deliver the tightest pattern possible with maximum barrel protection. The big story here is the options available. Subscribe Now Log In. Stag Arms continues to cater to the hunter crowd with purpose-built AR and bolt-action rifles. The result is uniform patterns downrange.

As the leading source for news and new product launches, we are excited to bring you fresh coverage from the SHOT Show with some exciting new shotshell offerings and other continued crowd favorites of the new year. Affiliate Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links. We earn from qualifying purchases.

These new bismuth loads are able to pattern tighter and penetrate deeper than steel. A big issue people run into with gel testing is comparing the results from different blocks of gel, especially across different days. Sign In or Start your online account. There is also of controversy around this shell with accusations flying around about alleged plastic beads used as buffer material. Use Current Location. Get Digital Access. There were some massively larger and mutated looking HEVI pellets. Because steel shot is less dense than high-density shot, high winds can blow it off target and disperse patterns somewhat at longer ranges. It has nothing to do with your ability to shoot the shotgun without crying, or even to fire it without discomfort. Almost certainly. This unique, patent-pending payload contains a distinct wad design that maintains 30 percent more pattern retention at greater distances. The bismuth shot is tin-plated and consistently formed, unlike some other bismuth loads on the market. Get Digital Access. Ever since steel, bismuth, and tungsten became players in the world of shotgun shells, engineers have strived to create the perfect wad in order to maximize flight efficiency. Federal Bismuth?