Roger Cormier gets some tips on choosing the proper shotshells for fall waterfowl hunting from industry insider, Jeff Barry.

Bird hunters know the importance of shotgun shells that deliver pattern uniformity and consistent performance in a variety of wind and weather conditions. Getting a maximum pellet count down range and on target ensures more success afield, rewarding hunters with limits of birds at every opportunity. MidWest Outdoors connected with Jeff Barry of Kent Cartridge to learn more about choosing the right load for hunting waterfowl and upland game.

MidWest Outdoors: Let’s talk first about Kent’s flagship product, Fasteel, and why shooting a load with higher feet-per-second produces better results afield.

Jeff Barry: Fasteel combines innovation and affordability to bring a premium shotshell to hunters. Features like zinc-plated shot to deliver an element of corrosion protection, as well as precision steel that’s ground to an ultimate uniformity, are some keys to performance. The consistent “sphericity” of the pellets produces consistent patterns, shot after shot. The loads also feature a premium base-wad, and notably for your upper Midwest readers, they don’t fracture in cold temperatures despite the high velocities that we push our patterns to. The high-performance base-wad we use is built into the hull so it doesn’t leave the barrel during firing. It regulates head expansion and contraction, providing more forgiving functioning in semi-auto firearms. This differentiates Fasteel from some other products on the market that don’t produce as consistently in cold weather. Hunters have an expectation that a shotshell delivers the same results during early-season hunts as well as when temperatures get cold, and if the base-wad is fracturing in the cold, it won’t be a good day of hunting.

MWO: Articulate for our readers the importance of speed technology in a shotshell.

Barry: Fasteel pushes the envelope as far as velocities and pressures in a shotshell. It’s designed to be an effective, all-season load that produces results at both short and long range, but anything above 1600 fps range and you get a diminishing return as far as pattern performance. Back in the day, early incarnations of steel loads on the market were comparatively ineffective compared to current technologies, because of lower speeds. You just don’t get the knockdown power of dense lead shot, but higher speed compensates for that with steel. And generally speaking, there’s a lot of wiggle room in fps at higher speeds where you still achieve good results at ethical hunting ranges.

MWO: Let’s talk about how this technology provides an early-season teal hunter some advantages when dealing with the close-in shots and fast action on those hunts. Hunters need to knock the rust off their shooting skills to start the season, and there’s no substitute for actual hunting scenarios.

Barry: TealSteel was born from Fasteel technologies and designed specifically for certain scenarios. It is a purpose-built load that addresses the unique challenges that early-season hunts with steel shot present, including a lot of fast action at close range, warm weather, and the fact that some shooters will be lacking recent shotgun trigger time. TealSteel delivers a dense, forgiving pattern downrange via a 1 1/4-ounce payload in #5 or #6 steel, and both of those shells put over 300 pellets into the pattern. That volume of pellets in an accurate load means more knockdowns. And whereas Fasteel is at 1500 fps, TealSteel is 1350 fps, so a hunter in a t-shirt during an early season hunt isn’t beating up a shoulder as much. You also don’t need as much velocity at close range. Between the two 12-gaeug offerings and a 20-gauge load that’s 1 ounce of #6 shot, we have those early-season scenarios covered. Consumers are recognizing the quality of performance these days that comes from pairing modern firearms and a premium 20-gauge load, based on which loads are selling the best right now.

MWO: How does this technology dovetail into Kent’s Ultimate Fast Lead?

Barry: Fast Lead was born from the same speed technology that Kent developed for Fasteel. Those early-era loads on the market were packaging steel shot in a shell built to the specifications of lead shot, which is why hunters didn’t like shooting them back in the day. You couldn’t expect steel shot in a lead payload to produce the same results, but increasing the velocity of less-dense steel shot increases its performance. A key for Kent was working with our powder supplier to manufacture custom-blended material that allowed us to push that velocity envelope with steel at safe pressures. With this powder developed and performing so well for steel, that technology translated well to lead upland loads. Traditionally, you could choose either higher payloads or higher velocity, but rarely could you incorporate both into a shotshell. However, our line of upland shells provides hunters with both heavy payloads plus high velocity. The results speak for themselves when hunters are afield.

For more useful hunting insight, check out the fall issues of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.