Lead is serious stuff, I worked for an abatement company for quite a while and blood testing was regular thing for us.
We still have die offs from lead shot in swans here in the Skagit Valley. Being large white birds they are very easy to spot when they die.
Originally from MN we started using steel in the late 1970's and even with the old slow loads of the day we had no problem with it. Our go to load for ducks at the time was an ounce of lead 7 1/2's over decoys and an ounce of 5's jump shooting so an ounce of steel 4's worked for us. My ex father in law killed 23 ducks with a box of steel shells (he had to swat two cripples)with his old Rem 31 skeet gun. If you just shoot at the ducks you KNOW you can kill and not at the ones you HOPE you can kill steel works just fine.
And yes all our waterfowl hunting was and is still on public land.
Last edited by oskar; 05/23/15 11:57 AM.
