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For what it is worth, a few unrelated observations:
1) Several years ago when there were actually huntable numbers of wild pheasants around the rice fields near our Sacramento Valley duck club we would go for the birds with lead #6 or #5 shot when exclusively hunting them, but we would also push a ditch or two when coming in from the duck blind and would then use steel shot duck loads, usually #3 or #4. Both knocked them down about the same, but it seemed like the lead stoned them a bit better and the steel left more running when they hit the ground. The dogs certainly got more cripple chasing workouts when using the steel.
2) We hunt snipe a few times when we stumble on to a muddy field with a bunch of them. One of our group uses #7 steel as he thinks they are "waterfowl", the rest of us use dove loads, usually #8 lead because we know they are actually "upland game birds". The steel seems to kill the snipe just as well as the lead.
3) For turkeys after July 1, I am going to use #4 steel through, I think (but subject to yet to be performed pattern tests), an improved cylinder choke tube. The issue with turkeys is pattern density as you are aiming for the head and neck, actually a very small target. Within reasonable range, the inferior terminal ballistics of the steel shot should not be a problem as long as you have sufficient pattern density to put several pellets into the head and neck.
1) Several years ago when there were actually huntable numbers of wild pheasants around the rice fields near our Sacramento Valley duck club we would go for the birds with lead #6 or #5 shot when exclusively hunting them, but we would also push a ditch or two when coming in from the duck blind and would then use steel shot duck loads, usually #3 or #4. Both knocked them down about the same, but it seemed like the lead stoned them a bit better and the steel left more running when they hit the ground. The dogs certainly got more cripple chasing workouts when using the steel.
2) We hunt snipe a few times when we stumble on to a muddy field with a bunch of them. One of our group uses #7 steel as he thinks they are "waterfowl", the rest of us use dove loads, usually #8 lead because we know they are actually "upland game birds". The steel seems to kill the snipe just as well as the lead.
3) For turkeys after July 1, I am going to use #4 steel through, I think (but subject to yet to be performed pattern tests), an improved cylinder choke tube. The issue with turkeys is pattern density as you are aiming for the head and neck, actually a very small target. Within reasonable range, the inferior terminal ballistics of the steel shot should not be a problem as long as you have sufficient pattern density to put several pellets into the head and neck.
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