Ok Guys....here's some advice that was given to me, I'm going to take the liberty and quote the smart fellow who told me this. Thanks again 6Guns!
"Your problem with steel is the same problem everyone else has. If you
listen to me, you'll do 100% better with ducks. First off, lead kills
with impact because it has weight. Steel does not have weight, but
people try to make-up for this by buying larger size bb (bbb, t's, etc)
thinking the larger the diameter the harder it will hit. Problem is
this, steel was NEVER meant to kill by weight. Steel kills with
pattern. When you use large steel bb to make-up for it's lack in
weight, you are shooting with a horrible pattern. That's why you get
broken wings and wounded ducks because the duck gets hit with a bb here
and a bb there. If you use steel shot in size 4's and even 6's you will
get a thick pattern that hits the duck with many bb's in the head and
neck. The rest of the body remains free of bbs because the #4 and #6
sizes are to lite to penatrate the feathers and fat. Take an afternoon
with sevral different size steel shotshells (2's,4's, 6's, bb, bbb,
T's), and shoot each one into a 30" circle on paper at 20yards. You
will see exactly what I'm talking about. I've told this to soo many
duck hunters., and some say I should go onto a hunting show to explain
it on t.v. And I would do it if I knew how. There's more to
know....steel travels very fast in the loads today. Some people over
leed the duck. At 10 to 15 yards as a duck flys over the decoys as he's
making a pass at a casual flight speed, all you really need to do is
place the beed just in front of his bill and follow your swing through
(matching the flieght speed of the duck as you follow through is vitally
important), and you tap the trigger. Also, place yourself in a position
where your back is at the wind if it is windy. If you can not do this,
then have the wind come at you from left or right, and adjust your leed
to componsate. NEVER shoot into the wind with steel (unless at close
range), because a strong wind against your pattern will screw it all up
for sure, because steel has not the weight to buck the wind. If you're
hunting the big waters out in the lake, get your decoys around your
boat, set holes in the decoys so a flock of ducks has a spot to land.
If not, the ducks will land outside your decoys and that will be too far
of a shot on windy lake days for steel. Some guys set their decoy
pattern in a shape of a fish hook, and place their boat at the bottom of
the hook. I mostly stay in the marshes. Either way, remember that
ducks land against the wind. If you have a nice hole in the decoys as
the ducks make their pass around you, and get into the wind, they will
go for that hole everytime. If you set decoys right, you don't really
need a to call them at all. I hope this will help you out. Don't waste
your money on Bismonth, you don't need it. Go down to a 2 3/4", 1 1/4
oz load number 4's. Use a full choke. Pattern this at 20 yards on a 30
circles (the center 15 inches of it is the actuall kill zone), and you
will see the light, my friend. I have many photos of shotguns I have
patterned, and it's all the same."
I use #2's for everything, until the season gets a little latter when the geese get a thicker layer of fat, then I switch to BB's for geese only.
