Kent Bismuth #5
I waited until duck season was over to review these shells, it was my first year hunting with them. They are marketed as an upland load, but I used them exclusively for early to mid season duck hunting and loved them. I talked to someone at Kent, and was told it’s the exact same shell as the waterfowl loads. As it got later in the season, I switched to Kent bismuth #4s. I had zero cycling issues with either load in my Stoeger M3000. I like the lighter recoil with the 2.75” shells, and noticed no drop off in performance. From what I’ve read, the shorter stack should pattern better than a 3” load. I finished the season with my most ducks ever, including my first triple (wood ducks). From teal to mallards, the 5’s were really solid through October before i switched to 4’s in November. I wish Kent would offer these in #2, the 4’s and 5’s just don’t have the knockdown power needed for late season geese, unless you were maybe at 15-20 yards. I do also disagree with Kent dropping their bismuth offerings down to 200 shells/case like Boss does. As far as I can tell, the price (Expert Voice and other online retailers) has stayed the same, but you get 50 less shells. If the price per shell works out to be the same as Boss because of this, you may want to consider Boss since their shot is copper plated. I did see some fracturing of shot with the Kent bismuth loads this year as I cleaned ducks. Overall, these performed really well for me.
I use this load for waterfowl mostly. Sometimes also on pheasant when they are flushing farther out. Good penetration on 40+ yard shots, anchoring birds, even ones flying straight away from me. Useful for mixed bag waterfowl/upland hunts as it's non-toxic shot. Cycles well in my semi auto. Also works in my BPS and O/U. Seems to pattern well in all of them.
