HUNTING : TAKING THEIR BEST SHOT WATERFOWL HUNTERS RAVING ABOUT TUNGSTEN LOADS.

Byline: Jim Matthews Special to the Daily News

The group of six mallards wheeled out of the south and banked back into a breeze from the north that carried the first snow of the season. Shotguns barked and one of the greenheads dropped into the water, but a second - hit with a few pellets in its backside - struggled to gain altitude and rejoin the group.

All the shooters trained on the wounded bird, not wanting it to escape to suffer a lingering death, but it was already out of range. Or was it?

Jim Carmichel, shooting editor of Outdoor Life magazine, gave a desperation shot and killed the bird cleanly at 50 or more yards. There were shouts from the other hunters gathered here. It was what they had come to see - the impact of a newly developed tungsten shot.

The Federal Cartridge Corp. of Enoka, Minn., has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to allow its tungsten shot for use on waterfowl, claiming it has passed the initial battery of non-toxic tests needed to qualify. The company is claiming the new shot is superior to steel, bismuth and even lead shot in the field.

It was this new ammunition Carmichel was using to drop the duck in Canada, shooting in a zone where any shot - including lead - is still allowed.

Currently, only shot made of steel or bismuth is allowed under USFWS regulations in the United States. This was mandated after it was discovered that waterfowl digesting spent lead shot while feeding in marshes often died of lead poisoning when their gizzards ground the shot into toxic dust. Steel or iron shot was mandated by the feds several years ago for waterfowl hunting because the birds could eat the spent shot without harm.

Hunters have been complaining about steel shot's performance on game ever since, longing for the results of lead shot on waterfowl.

Because steel is so much lighter than lead (about 30 percent lighter for a pellet of equal diameter), it didn't have the same killing power as lead, and many hunters said it wounded far more birds than lead killed through plumbism, the eating of spent shot. Hunters had to adjust to shooting steel shot sizes several times larger than lead to get the same pellet energy, and, even then, the shot slowed down so much faster that its ability to kill birds cleanly at longer ranges - ranges where finishing shots are often taken - was simply non-existent.

Companies began loading the steel shot at much faster velocities than lead loads to compensate for the difference and extend its effective range, and today's loads are much better than the early loads. But hunters still had a bad taste in their mouths.

``It will be put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is for a lot of waterfowl hunters who have complained about steel,'' said Bill Miller, executive director of the North American Hunting Club and editor of North American Hunter magazine. ``This new shot could prove to be better than lead.''

The tungsten shot is actually a combination of tungsten, which is 60 percent heavier than lead, and iron, which is 30 percent lighter. By using a process called ``centering,'' the two metals are mixed together under high heat to form a joined molecule. The mixture is 40 percent tungsten and 60 percent iron, and the finished shot is only 6 percent lighter than lead.

Engineers have done several things to make the ammunition arguably superior to lead loads. First, the velocity of the new tungsten loads is faster than old lead waterfowl loads, meaning pellet energy is greater at all ranges. Second, the shot is hard, like steel, meaning it will pattern denser than lead. Third, it will penetrate better because it does not deform like lead and has more mass than steel.

Dave Longren, Federal's vice president of engineering, said the new shells will function in any shotgun that will handle steel shot, and a new six-pedal wad helps deliver tight patterns while protecting the shotgun barrel from damage.

``We're constantly working to advance the state of the art,'' he said. ``Tungsten has the pellet energy of lead and the velocity of steel, but offers better penetration than either of those materials.

``We've been shooting these loads for two years (in Canada), and the comment we've most heard is that it knocks them stone, cold dead, which is what a waterfowl load should do,'' said Longren.

The USFWS approval process for tungsten shot began in late September, and Federal is confident the shot will gain temporary approval as early as this winter and complete approval in time for use in the fall of 1997.

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Photo: (color) On hunting trip to Canada, Jim Carmichael, left, and Mike Larsen were impressed with new tungsten shot.

Jim Matthews / Special to the Daily News