I've shot two birds with them this year with good results. (Granted I don't know if they are any more dead than if I would have shot them with lead.) I bought 2 boxes of 5, and out of the ten shells, one of them was not sealed properly and the packing material kept falling out, and it wouldn't cycle in my gun properly. It's not the end of the world but at $8 a shell it would be nice to not have to scrap one.