Federal's new Black Cloud steel shot loads feature a new wad and shot that give a new meaning to the term "dead duck." Flitestopper steel shot incorporates a belt around the pellets that acts as a cutting edge to enlarge wound channels in birds. Black Cloud loads include 40 percent Flitestopper pellets and 60 percent regular steel pellets. The diameter of Flitestopper No. 2 steel pellets at their belt is .17 inch, which is nearly the width of BB pellets.

Federal's new Black Cloud loads include 40 percent Flitestopper pellets, which feature a cutting edge, and 60 percent regular steel pellets.

These steel pellets are held in a Flitecontrol wad that Federal has used in its turkey loads for several years. The wad has no slits down the walls of the shot cup. That keeps the shot charge inside the wad for a farther distance from the muzzle. Federal claims this provides tighter patterns and retains more velocity downrange.

I was going to include a professional-looking chart with pattern percentages of the Black Cloud 12-gauge 3-inch load of 11?4 ounces of 2s. But the full, modified and improved cylinder chokes in a Beretta Model 391 all printed patterns of 80 to 83 percent in a 30-inch circle at 40 yards.

Before shooting the patterns, I wondered if the belt on the Flitestopper pellets would cause them to flare due to increased air resistance. Instead, the Flitestopper pellets cut holes in the paper like the tip of a knife (compared to the round holes of the regular steel pellets); most of the Flitestopper pellets were well within the pattern circle.

But ducks aren't pattern paper. One morning my son and I shot nine greenhead mallards with the Black Cloud 12-gauge 3-inch loads of 11?4 ounces of No. 2s. We jump-shot a creek and our shots ranged from 20 to 40 yards. Every duck we hit folded up dead. Dressing the ducks, I noted holes in the carcasses that were just holes. However, there were also quite a few nasty-looking bloodshot holes all the way through the dead ducks.

The Black Cloud Flitestopper 12-gauge loads will be available this summer in 31?2 inch (1 1/2 ounces of No. 2, BB, BBB at 1,500 fps) and 3 inch (1 1/4 ounces of No. 2, BB, BBB at 1,450 fps).