APEX Ammunition
Drew Palmer for SPLIT REED
When does the shell you shoot matter? Every time you pull the trigger. With all the work you put in to make a hunt successful, don’t let it all fall apart when you squeeze the trigger. Hunt with reliable ammunition, hunt with APEX.
35˙ and a bone-chilling rain backed by a Northern wind sweeping across the Alberta prairie, not the kind of day for the faint of heart. Life is full of opportunities and those chances are only seized by those ready for them; waterfowlers dream of bands, hybrids, and rare birds alike. That happened to be me on a miserable and dreary morning in a pea field in early October.
Duck junkies and goose getters are obsessed with gear, guns, and ammo. It’s an industry largely fueled by trends and tech bred with fluff and feathers. There are only so many ways to skin a cat and great waterfowlers can kill birds with any call and any decoys. Any nit-picking detail fanatics that have a bone to pick with that need to spend a day hunting over the tarred pop bottles on the lakes of Mississippi or Tennessee. On the contrary, we all wish we were still hunting and shooting lead shot that has the knockdown power that Uncle Larry talks about at Thanksgiving every year.
I was so cold and shivering from sweating on the inside and rain crawling in every crack on the outside, I had fallen oblivious to the wave upon wave of geese migrating and working our spread. That is until a black-headed black-billed goose wheeled out of a flock and pumped his gray wings 50 yards from me on the left end of the spread. I’ve been waterfowl hunting for two decades; I’ve been insanely lucky to shoot two different hybrids and a handful of other bands and oddities. This was an Atlantic Brant that just landed in the middle of a pea field in the Central Flyway and I sure as shit saw it. I sat quietly and worked the next flock of birds and when a pair of specks drifted over the spread, 8 guns rose up and dumped them. I sat up and plucked this lost migrant out of the sky with one smooth crack.
APEX Ammunition Waterfowl Shells
There was no doubt about it, and this happened for two different reasons. Reason number one, I was paying attention. Reason number two, I had been shooting APEX TSS/S3 Steel blend loads. It was a long shot in less than favorable conditions, flying away, with a crosswind. A wind stiff enough I’ve seen veteran goose hunters simply puff puff and pass on many birds failing to bring them down with hot buy steel loads. Sometimes, it pays to carry a big stick and a hammer too.
APEX Ammunition is a veteran-owned company out of the rich hunting roots of Mississippi. As much as they might be dedicated to spending time in the woods or water, as much could be said about their nerd’acious obsession with the science of shotgun shot. They brought the light to the knockdown power of TSS, Tungsten Super Shot. The reports first came in of turkeys getting vaporized with .410 loads out to 50+ yards. Then came the rumors of 12ga. kills out past 80 with dialed in turkey guns. All ethics aside, this was a game-changer of a shot load.
The APEX Ammo company has put science first and quality at 1A. Marketing and fancy celebrity duck pro endorsements down around last on the depth chart. The product doesn’t need a sales pitch. You either get it or you don’t. The range of APEX loads from their original TSS waterfowl loads as the best you can get your hands on all the way to their new premium S3 steel all come with the same freakishly good testing. They test it in house and they send it off to multiple 3rd party testing groups who quite frankly, don’t give a rats tail about who is sending them what; only putting together an accurate scientific analysis. It’s all designed and blended with the right harmony of shot sizes, powders, and hulls. There couldn’t be a greater difference in what APEX puts together and what a silver box of redchester metal slag is.
If you want to get really deep into the guts of shotgun ballistics, Nick from APEX can explain it to you. Their blended loads are not just an “oh that might pattern good” kind of mix. Their duplex stacks of steel + TSS are put together on a variety of factors. One of which is the mass and energy of TSS mated with the specific premium steel shot size to arrive on target at the same time with consistency. What the heck does that mean? Well if you slapped together a random TSS shot size with a #2 steel, you might hit the target with a uniform pattern or you might blow some crazy barrel pressures and the pattern might look like rock salt and nails. Their testing and data have given them the recipe to match a super small shot size of TSS mixed with a standard steel load. This gives you a pattern that has incredible density all the while packing a crazy amount of energy with the size of the steel pellet and the kinetic force of the TSS hitting the target. It is damn close to rocket science.
What advantages does this give a hunter? Several things come in to play here. One of the most sought-after is knockdown power. TSS is heavier than lead and thus carries a ton more energy in a smaller shot size. Another factor is wind resistance and that’s key out here on the central flyway. The wind doesn’t blow the shot with a heavier mass weight around like it’s steel relatives. Shooting regular steel shot on a 30mph crosswind is about like throwing sand in a snowball fight.
Why are these shells worth the price? You’re killing your birds consistently. That’s the main goal. You put a tremendous amount of work and money into making a hunt happen; do yourself a favor and take the last step to make sure you accomplish what you set out to do. They don’t put general tires on a Nascar Daytona 500 winning car and expect to end up in victory lane, folks.
APEX Ammunition
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