Salopian, when you say that the UK is "total nontox for waterfowl", are you including Scotland, or have the laws changed since I was there in 2001? Back then, lead was still legal for waterfowl in Scotland but not in England, as I understand it.
There are barrel-friendly (and even some loads that are also pressure-friendly) nontox alternatives for vintage guns. And they would probably work OK for most vintage shooters' hunting needs--unless he shoots a 28 or .410, for which there really aren't any good alternatives at present. However, many of us like to shoot our vintage guns at targets as well, and there are no barrel-friendly, pressure-friendly reasonably priced alternatives to steel when it comes to target loads. Likewise, if one has to shoot nontox at birds like grouse, woodcock, and quail, where the preference is for open patterns and small shot . . . not even currently-available steel loads work all that well, and there aren't really any other nontox options.
So . . . yes, we can all shoot steel, if we can all live with tighter patterns and larger shot sizes, and if our guns can handle it. Otherwise, our vintage gun alternatives are far more limited and/or expensive in comparison to currently-available lead loads.
