I felt like Hernando Cortez, burning my ships, eliminating all of my options when I headed out on a Canadian waterfowl hunt carrying only my old Model 12 duck gun, no backup, nothing to turn to if I didn’t like its results on big Canada geese. I’d gotten used to shooting 31⁄2-inch guns, semi-autos, which delivered big payloads at high pressures and rocket-like velocities. Now I was heading into the wilds where the 23⁄4-inch chambered pump gun would be my only recourse, like it or not. There was no going back.

Yep, I felt anxious as I walked to the truck with what felt like a too-light gun case; like I’d forgotten something but couldn’t recall what it was. All is well I told myself as I glanced in the back seat and saw the case and my duffle, but I still had that pit in the bottom of my stomach.

This was all too simple, and something this simple had to be wrong. Not only was my gun case light, but I carried no ammo. I’d packed light, and anyone who knows me knows that’s not my style. I normally bring the equivalent of a sporting goods store on a hunt. But this hunt was going to be different. A return to simple; and I had good reason.

President, What President?
I met Ralph Nauman, president of Environ-Metal, you know, that company that makes a load called Hevi-Shot, at the Edmonton airport just after clearing customs. Ralph was my host on this hunt and as it turned out we would be roommates and blind partners for the duration of the trip. We were headed to what we hoped would be the killing fields with the new HS Classic loads, what might be called a replacement for the hole Bismuth had once filled with its softer, no-tox loads and lower pressures for classic fowling guns.

Ralph doesn’t really fit the “president” mold. Oh, he’s plenty business savvy and all that, but what sets him apart is his involvement in the product. You see, Ralph also is one of the designers of the heavy loads himself. There’s no white-collar smoke and mirrors here. He’s chief cook and bottle washer in a highly competitive business, never mind that he’s also the boss. A highly trained metallurgist and engineer, Ralph can tell you every component of the loads, especially the advantages of the composite metals, their relative hardness, density, and how the guts of the load were developed to carry better pattern to the target. Cool stuff.

I quickly came to understand that Hevi-Shot is not just a bunch of guys dropping high priced tungsten into any old hull and lettin’ fly. Each specific load is highly engineered and tested, tweaked, and tested again and again and again. Even the alloys that make up the pellets themselves have received the highest scrutiny, the most sophisticated development and testing imaginable. Once you’ve spent any time visiting with Ralph you realize, this IS rocket science!

As Ralph and I negotiated the miles and turns toward camp, he related that the crew at Hevi-Shot like to say, “Everyone has a Hevi-Shot story. So I told him mine.

Setting up in the thistle ditch in a worn pea field.