Northern zone opens tomorrow, southern zone next week. I've been hearing from a few local hunters that they may sit this one out, as they cannot find any ammo. WTF? Why are they out of ammo to begin with, boggles my mind. But it is what it is...

I started researching this a few days ago... they seem to be correct. Nothing on any local shelves, nothing available online at any of my usual sources in 3" 12ga steel... Cabelas, Midway, Natchez, Macks Prairie Wings, etc. Some 20ga, and a little bit of 3-1/2" 12ga. , and some $3-$4 per trigger pull  high priced bismuth stuff is all I could find.

So, does anyone know of a source, online or otherwise, for 3" 12ga steel shot?

Like most other ammo, I myself am "well-stocked" in waterfowl ammo. I've got several boxes each of Rem Hyper Sonic (my fav), Hevi Metal, Black Cloud, Blindside, SuperX, Kent and even some HeviShot bismuth (which I save for shooting cripples in the water, as it penetrates below the waterline much better than steel). I've got BB, 1s, 2s, 3s 4s, even some #6s for teal. I like to try different ammo.

Steel 4s.  Some are 3 inch.  Pretty expensive.

I had 15 boxes of it at the Eagle River show, mostly Remington and Hevi, but the majority of folks walking around were completely ignorant of the ammo situation this year.

Ignorant of the ammo situation or informed about crazy pricing?  Not accusing, just wondering.

$15/box for 10 shells. Not bad, considering most of it disappeared around here last fall.

Cheaper than retail a month or two into COVID. The only other table that had it was at $3/shell.

There has been a consistent lack of awareness in our area, so I wasn't terribly surprised.

I was there, I saw that. I was there early Saturday, I assumed it would've sold by the end of the show.

I didn't need any, I'm well stocked.. as always. Every year (except last year) I'd stock up at reduced prices on whatever Fleet Farm in Antigo had on sale after hunting seasons ended. Example. .. today I'll be using Hyper Sonic that was $15 per box.

The opening weekend of the northern zone was the usual clusterfuck of severe overcrowding with "down south" hunters because they can't hunt by home and cannot wait that extra week. So they migrate up north and our season is fucked after the first day.  You cannot "work" any flocks of ducks without the assholes who set up 100 yards away 10 minutes before shooting time "skybusting" them as they fly past. All the extra pressure and shooting drives the local ducks south prematurely. All because of the asinine split season the dumbfucks at the DNR brought back. I'd much rather have a 53 day season up north instead of 60 and sacrifice those first 7 days, if it meant the north & south zone opened at the same time, and the north stayed closed until the south opens simultaneously to ease up the crowds. They did away with the split opening for a few seasons (2018-2019) then brought it back again last year. 2018-2019 without the split were the only decent seasons we had up here in the past 10. Now...it's back to same old bullshit.

Anyway... we had ZERO shots at ducks all weekend thanks to the crowds of skybusters (saved on ammo is the only bright spot ) but I did manage to bag 2 Canada geese late saturday morning ("late" being about 9:45am) after the skybusters moved on.  

Can anyone tell me where a popular public hunting area in the southern zone is located? So I can go there next weekend and "return the favor"... by showing up right at shooting time with my $10,000 mud-motor equipped camo-clad-yacht, and blow an untuned duck call like a New Years Eve party horn at everything with wings (including gulls, crows, and eagles), and shoot at ducks 100-200 yards away that have just set their wings to land in someone else's decoys?

I hear ya. I thought about that too. But fuck it, I love the sport too much to let the crowds drive me away. Instead, I'll be part of those crowds at every chance I get. Hopefully it will be others who will leave because I refuse to, leaving it less crowded for me.

On the plus side... I tried this goose recipe below today. I cooked 2 breasts for dinner for the wife and I. She doesn't care for wild game much, but she liked this. She said it tasted more like a good beef steak than a bird. Best waterfowl dinner I've ever had, hands down.

https://youtu.be/ZiqK5P5LCx4

Definitely trying this!  
Did you grill or broil?

Grilled it on a Charbroil 3 burner gas grill, all 3 on high, for about 10-12 minutes. We didn't use any horseradish sauce after cooking.