I'm still trying to find a gun that'll shoot pumpkin balls accurately.
I just never got too interested at all in deer hunting. There weren't any when I was growing up. I'm still fascinated by the new alloys being used, mostly just out of curiosity, but in part because of the application to wingshooting.
I haven't tried the Hevi-Shot slugs either - too busy - but if they're half as good as the duck and goose loads they'll just crush a target. The question was about penetration and if it's denser and harder than lead it should penetrate better.
Talking about ballistics and penetration, anybody looked at the
www.tungstensupershot.com site? They're putting it on the market for ducks and geese and the stuff reportedly flat out penetrates at unbelieveable distances and doesn't string out. It's nearly $4 a shot, but their #7 shot and a cylinder choke will go through a Mallard at 60+ yards. The #5 shot is good for more and is their goose load. They only make #5 and #7 so far and they're working on figuring out a 20 ga. load. Maybe I'll read a little more on it and start another thread.
Edited to add: It does all this at lower velocity with a 50% reduction in recoil over the typical waterfowl loads.
There are pics and specs on the site, including pics of patterns and tests on ducks.
I'll just keep shooting #6 Hevi-Shot over decoys. The 3" #4 messes the Mallards and Canadas up something terrible at 35 yards or so.
John
P.S. - Speaking of ducks and being busy...
We built a high-rise duck blind in the marsh Saturday. The only boards we bought (12- and 16-foot treated 4x4's) went a good 4 or 5 feet down into the bottom. We wanted something tall enough to let us see over the 7-foot-tall marsh reeds. We used a 3' x 12' section of dock washed up by the last storm for the floor and let me tell you that was fun getting it up overhead out of a 16' Carolina skiff.
We framed and braced the whole thing with treated 10' and 12' planks fished out the Rappahannock after the last storm and those suckers were still damp and real heavy and full of nails. Being too lazy to bother with a tape measure, we nailed it all up and then I trimmed all of the ends off with my chainsaw.
My friend even found a treated set of 5 steps floating in the river, so we have easy access from what passes for solid ground.