Fiocchi Golden Pheasant Loads incorporate nickel plated shot to help make any hunt more successful. Nickel plated shot gives the hunter such benefits as denser, more consistent patterns with fewer stray pellets and increased range and penetration than non-plated shot. Nickel plating helps the shot pellets retain their original aerodynamic spherical shape during firing and passing through your shotgun's choke. Rounder pellets (as opposed to deformed, out of round pellets) have truer flight characteristics and give the benefits listed above. Nickel-plated shot pellets are rounder and therefore fly through the air with less resistance, helping to increase their velocity at impact. This increased velocity, combined with a resistance to deformation on impact with your game, contributes to deeper penetration. This is loaded ammunition.