Speed Kills

by Bill Mays
Wing and Clay Editor

Through my photography, videographer, and writing, people see the many successful days of waterfowling throughout the season and want to know what shotgun shells I shoot. I have been on Kent Cartridge Pro Staff for many years and it’s the only shotgun shell I have shot in the field for the last 15 years.

In my early years of waterfowling, I experimented with other manufactured shotgun shells and even reloaded my own shells, when a hunter could shoot cooper and nickel and that tells you how long I have been shooting a shotgun.

When steel shot became mandatory for waterfowling, I struggled so bad, I almost quit waterfowl hunting. At one time I considered myself a pretty good shot, then steel shot came on the scene, and it was like learning to shoot all over again. Then I read in a magazine about Kent Fast Steel shells and how the speed of this new product would compensate for the lead and the kill ratio. I shot one box and could see an immediate difference in my success. Kent Cartridge found out from the very beginning of the steel shot era that speed kills and they put together a shotgun shell with the best components to reach that goal of excellence. If I had not tried that first box of Kent Fast Steel shells I probably would have quit waterfowling.

Over the years I have tried 11/4 ounce 2’s and 3’s, but when I went to the 11/8 ounce #2 shot load, it was the load that best patterns’ in my shot gun. What I like about the 11/8 #2 shot is; I can kill that late season greenhead, or that honker that fly’s in unexpectedly. Later in the season when the down on the ducks and geese are in full plumage, I bounce back and forth with the Kent Fast Steel and the Kent Matrix.

If you are a hunter that struggles with all the loads and is still crippling birds, go to the Kent Matrix loads, in my opinion, it’s just like shooting lead again. With today’s window of opportunity getting smaller and smaller, don’t worry about the cost of the shell, be successful. Hunters spend big money on their shotgun, clothing, boats, and duck clubs and then they skimp and cut corners on the one thing that makes them successful, the shotgun shell. Have fewer cripples flying off in the closed zones of the State and Federal Refuge’s and put more birds on the water and on the ground with Kent Fast Steel and Matrix loads.