Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Any states soon to follow CA in lead free ammo?

I think that both environmental regulations and market forces will move shooters towards less use of lead ammunition, but it will be uneven state-by-state.

- market forces are already making non-toxic ammunition competatively priced with lead ammunition;
- the continuing documented and widespread accounts of birds (some rare) being poisoned by lead-contaminated game carcasses convince more people to hunt with less lead;
- target ranges will continue to be an accepted outlet for lead ammunition, as will most private lands, so ammo manufacturers are willing to diversify their product line with new and old projectiles, rather than just fight transition away from lead;

And there are other market and dietary factors that influence this trend in other countries. Realize that Britain is about to outlaw all game hunting with lead. Why? Because much (and in some cases the majority... i.e. pheasant) of the harvest is sold into the human consumption market. Processors and consumers want birds shot with steel because it is easy to detect and remove from carcasses during processing, whereas lead is much more difficult to detect and considered a dangerous contaminant when left in the food chain.

Right. I caught poachers shooting deer at night from $40-50K 4WD trucks with state of the art firearms and scopes that said they were just trying to feed their family.

Wrong

Right. You keep following the laws of those that wish to destroy the country, I'll do as I wish.

I hope you charge right out to Oregon and citizen arrest all those breaking the Federal pot laws.

You are another useful idiot for the government

What 'cha gonna do when they come for you? Shoot 'em?

Maybe after spending all that cash on trucks and toys, they could not afford groceries?

I guess you'd call the authorities if your local government mandated masks, right? Gathering sizes? I hope Anne Frank doesn't set up shop in your neighbor's attic


Sieg Heil, Adolf.

When I heard that Sierra bullets bought Barnes bullets, the first thought that came to my mind was that they see the writing on the wall and are diversifying.

I have a few hundred rounds of shot shells containing lead shot, From 00 buck to #10s, in 410, 20, but mostly 12.- mostly pheasant/duck/goose loads, and thousand of square miles to shoot it in, with nary a game warden in sight.

I don't hunt waterfowl anymore, or I'd use them up - the environmental impact would be so close to zero as to be indistinguishable. Only occasionally do I hunt grouse or hare with a shotguns. If I fished much with rod, I'd make some sinkers....

In heavy use waterfowl areas, yeah, lead shot ban makes sense.

Unless I can come up with a cheap 410 - those shot shells will get used. I did score a couple boxes of 7 1/2 (lead) for the 20 a few months ago - those will last me several years. Mostly I shoot grouse with the pellet rifle or a .22 RF(lead ).

I get sufficient accuracy and performance from BG cup and core bullets to continue using them almost exclusively. The price and terminal performance differential to the premiums is such that, tho I've tried them, aren't in my repertoire for the most part. Novelty, mostly.

A slight increase in copper ppm in streams can really ef up the salmon, and maybe some other species, by the way. One of the reasons the Pebble Mine Project is such a bad idea. Will that be used to next ban mono bullets? I wouldn't be surprised.

If mono get to near the same price as c&c, I'll use them even tho I understand copper fouling is somewhat increased, but then I don't shoot enough for it to likely make much difference.

Call me cheap.

Because I am.

It’s just matter of when lead bullets will be banned. There was a lot of hollering over the ban on steel shot 30+ years ago, but ultimately steel shot works fine for waterfowl and other bird hunting.

The feds manage migratory birds, and have been keeping a database on migratory birds that have been diagnosed with lead toxicity—especially raptors.

Whether prohibiting lead bullets starts with specific federal lands, or with state hunting regulations remains to be seen.

The USFWS proposed a ban on lead bullets on federal wildlife refuges during Trump’s era, but was dropped. I fully expect it to be revived with Biden.

A proposed ban on lead bullets was being proposed in one of the upper midwest states (Wisconsin?) recently, but It appears the legislature didn’t pass it.

I think it is likely Colorado will prohibit lead bullets in the near/mid term future, and won’t be surprised if some of the other western states follow suit.

Any new hunting rifle I acquire is getting a “alternative” mono bullet hunting load, just in case…….

So true…….

According to the rumor I heard that is indeed one of the primary reasons they bought Barnes.

Actually Trump overturned the EO by Bam Bam banning all lead bullets for use on federal lands.

WASHINGTON— On the last full day of the Obama administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued an order phasing out the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on national wildlife refuges by 2022.

Just look at the 2020 presidential election map . The red states won’t and the blue states will. Here in NYS they are talking about banning gas lawnmowers, ATV’s, chainsaws weedwhackers, banning wood stoves and fireplaces and banning oil or gas furnaces in new construction. These people are bat schitt crazy !

Oregon's ODF&W was pushing heavily about 5 years back. While still encouraging use today, the push has lightened up a bit.

I've not jumped off that bridge yet and am curious if the technology is such now that lead free functions well in things like 22 LR's, muzzleloaders, and BPCR units that folks really each out with?

Swiftly,
You are correct, but it didn’t happen until later in 2017, because USFW republished the proposal on fed wildlife refuges in the Federal Register in early 2017.
There is nothing to stop that proposed rule from being proposed again, and I half expect it to happen.

And how many lead bullets are in that river from the Civil war too!

Some of these people seem to forget lead come from the earth, otherwise known as the ground.

Same, I started seeing it is an eventual inevitability several years ago. I develop a non-lead load for every rifle I get and stock up on the bullets once I dial it in, just to be ahead of the curve whenever it drops. Still use lead for my plinking, though.