It's not the ammo you asked about--but it is Remington . . . . .
I have 6 Wingmaster HD shells (12 gauge, 3 inch, 1 3/8 oz #6's) that haven't gone off in my gun this year. Strong firing pin marks on the primer, but the shell didn't fire. Had the same thing happen at least twice last year, maybe on shells out of the same box. Given that the damn things sell for around $2.50 a shell, it's annoying. I'm pretty sure it's a box I've had around since last season--maybe even the season before.
I don't think it's a firing pin issue, as every other shell I feed the gun fires just fine. When I'm feeling crotchety I'm inclined to mail the damn things back to Remington and ask for my money back. I have another 10 shells or so of the same stuff, and now I don't want to put it in my gun for fear it won't go off. Those are expensive shells to use for finishing off cripples or any other situation where a click instead of a bang won't mean a lost bird.
I've also had a couple of other Remington HD shells that went off but with a muffled pop. In one case the wad and shot went out the barrel and I saw it fall in the marsh in front of me; it the other case the wad ended up stuck in my barrel. Fortunately I did not pull the trigger on a second shot!
All of this is just ranting, since it looks like Remington is no longer selling any heavier than lead shells.
As for its effect on ducks, I really like both the Remington HD and Hevi shot for hunting hard-to-kill birds and/or taking longer shots. I tend to hoard it for late season goldeneyes on the salt. It seems to give me fewer cripples than steel. For puddle ducks over decoys, steel seems to work just fine for me when I do my part and hit the bird.
For smaller birds, the heavier than lead shells can be overkill. I pretty much vaporized a sora rail on a close range shot with a load of #7 Hevishot out of my 20 gauge last year. I suspect a close shot on teal might have a similar result.
