I understand where you are coming from. The fellows I hunt with back east mostly all use the good stuff any more. So many less shells fired. Honestly though most of them are really pretty good shots. One of the guys I hunt with is probably the best field shot I have ever seen. We were both taught by the same gentleman how to shoot in the field. He was always proud of us(he had no kids) because he said we were much better shots than he was.. If that is true I'm really proud cause he was great. Anyway all these fellows went to Hevi shot etc and we all put our extra steel shells in a cripple kitty. Had about 7 boxes of steel 4 yrs ago...still have at least 3. Not many crips in our decoys. Most of the cripples are finished off by the kids we introduce to the sport. About 25 kids over the last 4 or 5 yrs.. Most young kids are kinda bloodthirsty...or they just want to be able to shoot. Gonna take my 11 yr old grand daughter on her first goose hunt this year. My grandson got his start 3 yrs ago at the age of 10..My daughter got her first goose at the age of 8. All on the same place...in the same pit with the same people. Talk about traditions. BTW that one pit on a pond has produced over 10,000 birds over the year..probably twice that many. The 88 yr old farmer has the records on all the 8 pits on the farm. We even got him out 2 yrs ago and he shot his last goose with my gun. Tickled me...and him too.
Billy I heard the same thing about the bismuth shot company. Fellow that owned it died and no takers on buying it. Hope that changes. If not you can use the Tungsten Matrix loads in the old guns. Kill as good as lead too. Not cheap though. I may have a few boxes of bismuth and know where I can get more ..reasonably. What do you shoot??