Why Hevi-Shot?

You all know how much we love Hevi-Shot here at The SHO, but here is a good article that might give you some insight as to "why" we use Hevi-Shot. This article was written by Joe Balog's "The Duck Blog" at www.realtree.com/.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HEVISHOT AND SPEED BALL

Published by Joe Balog  |  March 25, 2013

Speed Ball is the new load from shotshell icon Environ-Metal

Waterfowlers seem divided on HeviShot: they either use it and love it, or won’t pay the money for it. Today, we investigate what makes HeviShot, and its new little brother Speed Ball, so incredibly effective, yet quite costly. We then let you decide on your own.

Over the past several weeks, we’ve explored the benefits and weaknesses of a number of different shotshells (Black Cloud, Blind Side, Fasteel,HyperSonic). This week, in our final installment, we explore the load that may have the greatest cult-like following of them all: HeviShot. In addition, we’ll look into SpeedBall, the new load offered by HeviShot’s parent company, Environ-Metal, Inc.

My investigation began with a candid conversation with HeviShot’s VP of sales and marketing, Kelly Sorensen. This lady knows a lot about ammunition. I asked her questions until she seemed annoyed, which is usually the case with my investigative press work, then reviewed a plethora of informative articles that she sent my way. Not being an avid user of HeviShot or the new products, primarily because I don’t like spending money, I had a lot to learn. And learn I did.

According to Sorensen, HeviShot was the first non-steel commercial waterfowl load on the market, at least that had positive results. In 2000, when HeviShot was introduced, your choices as a duck hunter were round steel or round steel, all of which had slow velocities by today’s standards. Performance on ducks was less than stellar, especially in the eyes of those who remembered the effectiveness of lead. So Environ-Metal looked into alternative metals that would pass government standards of non-toxic, but perform like lead. What they found was tungsten.

Now, if any of you are bass fishermen, you’ll remember this as being the time that the tungsten sinker craze hit the market as well. HeviShot was created out of a patented tungsten / nickel / iron product, with the goal of producing a pellet that held its energy to longer ranges, and therefore increased knock-down power. And that’s exactly what they did. HeviShot continues to be advertised as retaining its energy and knockdown power to well beyond 50 yards. Steel loses its effectiveness around 35 (based on the test loads).

The fact remains: send a denser pellet out there, and it will hold its energy longer, increasing range and knockdown power. HeviShot pellets are denser than lead, and much more dense than steel. A No. 5 HeviShot pellet weighs the same as a No. 2 steel pellet. And of course, many more of them will fit in the same shotshell, making a load of HeviShot ballistically superior to steel in every way. Win-win-win. There’s only one potential wrench in the plan: tungsten comes from China, and that has the potential to be an “epic fail.”

China is the top producer, and consumer, of tungsten. We have tungsten here in the US, but do not mine or produce it due, primarily, to environmental reasons. Therefore, the market drives costs, and the product is imported from a source that can be a volatile partner, to say the least. Sorenson claimed Environ-Metal had “a good relationship with the people at the mine”, and assured me they were “first to the market, and will be the last in the market.”

HeviShot was never cheap, and didn’t claim to be. It claims to produce results. It’s no wonder this load has such a stringent fan base. But tungsten prices have dramatically increased twice since 2000, and continue to rise. The main question becomes: is it worth the money? I guess that’s the call of each individual hunter. I mean, we can justify $1500 shotguns, decoys that surpass $300 a dozen, and pouring four-dollar gas in our trucks. When it comes down to it, is shell choice the most important consideration of all? I’m not sure…

To help combat some of the cost, and to offer consumers a product that satisfies their never-ending quest for muzzle velocity, Environ-Metal introduced Speed Ball. Speed Ball is a shotshell loaded with both HeviShot tungsten and copper-coated steel, producing a cartridge that patterns more effectively than pure steel, with increased downrange knockdown power. The load clips along at 1625 FPS, due, in part, to the incorporation of the “Speed Ball”, which is actually a small cork ball (coined the “pellet accelerator”) within the load that helps absorb breach pressure. Loads designed to push pellets this fast undergo tremendous pressure within the gun, and manufacturers are finding ways to eliminate or absorb this in order to keep cartridges fast, but safe. The Speed Ball is a new way to do this, also dampening the recoil somewhat, but blazing the pellets out the other end of the gun. Once again, don’t ask me who in the world thought of this.

Speed Ball is taking HeviShot to the next level, producing blazing velocities that require less lead and send a bunch of pellets downrange that are heavier than steel and can kill to a greater distance. I’m sold. But, to be fair, I must comment on the fact that, although they’ve incorporated some less costly pellets in the load, price still averages over $3.25 per shell. Original HeivShot comes in around $4.70 per round. An economy popular steel load shell can be purchased for about ninety cents.

One of the best duck hunters I know only shoots HeviShot. To him, there’s no question it’s worth the money. I guess it’s something we all have to decide on our own. In any case, the product is there, the results are published, and the proof is positive: HeviShot works.

 

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