Hevi-Hitter Waterfowl Loads: Deadly and Affordable

With a “whoosh” of wings flapping overhead, the duck-shaped silhouettes buzzing the decoy spread in the pre-dawn light was a sight to behold. Being a lefty, I opted for the far-right side of the lineup of layout blinds meticulously covered with copious amounts of fallen corn stalks. Filling the other blinds were our good friends from Hevi-Shot and Federal, a pair of guides from Flatland Flyways and their trusty young black labrador, Banks. Legal shooting light finally made its appearance and the first of many “kill em!” calls were made as a mixed bag of mallards, gadwall, wigeon and teal made their way in and out of the spread. Backlit by a stunning sunrise, the ducks put on a hell of a show that morning but they weren’t the only show in town. Mixing work with pleasure, we were there to field test the brand new and unreleased-at-the-time Hevi-Hitter loads from Hevi-Shot. They did not disappoint.

Continual Innovation

Innovation in the non-toxic shotshell world has come a long way since the lead ban in the early 1990s, and thankfully so. Vast improvements have been made to wad designs, pellet conformity and propellants that have all increased the efficiency and lethality of standard-steel shotshells. Other deadlier non-toxic shot elements such as bismuth and tungsten have both been around for many years but seem to have really caught hold in the past decade, pushing the capabilities of non-toxic shot to what many deemed as unimaginable limits 20 years ago. But those new-found capabilities come at an extreme price with bismuth and tungsten loads often pushing $3-$5 and sometimes even $10 dollars per shell. For most waterfowl hunters, myself included, that is out of my financial reach.

Fortunately, manufacturers have taken notice and made drastic efforts to bridge the gap between performance and cost. It was this mindset that laid the groundwork for Hevi-Hitter—the newest offering from Hevi-Shot.

The Tungsten Advantage

Before we dive deeper into the impressive performance of the Hevi-Hitter loads, let's first wrap our heads around exactly why tungsten kills so efficiently and why Hevi-Shot is able to produce “budget-friendly” tungsten offerings. Tungsten Super Shot, which has taken the turkey market by storm in recent years, totes an incredible density of 18 g/cc. For contrast, standard steel sports a density of 7.8 g/cc while lead comes in at 11.34 g/cc. Simple physics tell us that the denser the shot, the more “oomph” it carries down range and transfers into our intended target. In a real-world scenario, if you are shooting at geese beyond 40 yards with standard steel loads, you have likely heard the disheartening thuds of your pellets bouncing off their chest while they fly away unscathed or worse, crippled. I promise you, that would not have been the end result had you been shooting tungsten. That same goose would have folded like a spring-loaded lawn chair as the tungsten powered through the armor-like layers of down and fat and into the vitals. This sounds great, and it is, but again, this kind of performance comes at an extreme monetary cost.

However, Hevi-Shot’s tungsten is not a “pure” tungsten. Rather, it is a proprietary tungsten alloy that comes in with a density of 12 g/cc. At 12 g/cc, Hevi-Shot’s tungsten alloy is 53.8 percent denser than steel and slightly denser than lead. While still expensive when compared to steel, this tungsten alloy makes straight Hevi-XII loads exponentially more affordable ($3.50 per shell as opposed to $10 per shell) than straight TSS loads. While I can’t justify the extra money for Hevi-Shot’s Hevi-XII loads when hunting ducks, you won’t catch me dead in a goose field without a box of Hevi-XII #2’s. I have shot that load for several years now for geese and can indefinitely say they are quantifiably lethal on the biggest of late-season honkers. Crippled geese are damn near a thing of the past when shooting these loads.

Cost-Effective Premium Performance

Given my infatuation with Hevi-XII, I was pretty excited when I was invited to put the new Hevi-Hitter loads to the test on ducks last fall in South Dakota. Hevi-Hitter features a stacked payload of 80% precision steel and 20% 12 g/cc tungsten (the same tungsten alloy used in their Hevi-XII loads). This stacked load creates a dramatic price savings to the consumer while still providing waterfowlers with the extended range and knockdown power of more expensive offerings. In theory, this sounds like a win/win, but having shot other stacked payloads with lackluster results, I had my reservations. Those reservations didn’t last long. By 10 a.m. on the first morning our group was limited out and the resounding excitement over the lethality of Hevi-Hitter on ducks was palpable. Based solely off the lack of cripples and my hit percentage, there was no doubt this new load was displaying a large, uniformed pattern and hitting birds with authority!

The next day brought the same results with a pile of dead ducks, a worn-out bird dog and cheesy grins all around. But it was our third and final morning hunt that, while unconventional, was one of the most fun days I can recall in a layout blind. Fog and spitting rain prevented us from hunting the cut corn field we had intended to hunt, pushing us to plan C, hunting a small, secluded bay of a large lake. The mallards were few and far between but the shovelers, scaup and teal hit with sporadic passings, providing sporting shot opportunities that really tested the limits of Hevi-Hitter. The mixed bag of ducks and a lonely snow goose that filled our straps by mid-morning was concrete evidence of the new load’s capabilities. While not the mallards the guides had hoped for, our morning in what we comically dubbed “Trash Duck Bay” was fast, furious and downright fun.

With nearly 100 ducks shot over the course of three days, and even a few pheasants mixed in, the new Heavy-Hitter loads were a unanimous success across the board, delivering flight-stopping knockdowns and very few cripples. Circling back to Hevi-Shot’s ultimate goal with the Hevi-Hitter line of producing a premium offering at a fraction of the cost, I can attest that they passed that test with flying colors. Hevi-Hitter is advertised on their website at $50 for a box of 25 3-inch 12-gauge loads but a quick search on Rogers shows them available at $320 for a case ($32 per box). At that price, they compete and in some cases beat, even full-steel shotshells. Do yourself a favor and give them a try this fall. You, and your bird dog, will not be disappointed.

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