Federal Steel Shot

[BrowningCitori]

First, let me state I am probably in the minority. I shot all steel shot for pheasants. I used #6 early season and switch to #4 about mid-season. The load I am using is 11/8 #4 at 1375fps. I have shot a lot of roosters with this load. However, my question is about Federal Steel Shot in cold weather. I have had two shells that sounded like 'duds' for lack of a better word. The one hit the bird but the bird acted like it had been hit will a handful of sand (it was shot that should have been an easy kill). The shell did have enough recoil to reset the trigger on my Citori, but when I looked down the barrel later it was very dirty with big powder chunks. These shells seem to burn very dirty in cold weather. They also don't 'open' very clean, the edges of the empties are all rough and missing pieces. I am just wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences?

 

[VZWman]

I can't reply to the way the edges look, but I've shot federal in both steel and lead, and the cheaper federal shells always seem to lots of grime left in the barrel IMO. Now the Blackclouds do as well so maybe it's just the gun powder they are using.