doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Voluntary lead ban in UK

Brent, I did a lot of running on rural highways when I lived in Iowa. (And for that matter, occasionally hunting "ditch parrots" by walking gravel roads with my dog in the ditch.) Can't say I ever recall seeing a wheel weight. Suppose maybe Iowa raccoons eat them???

No, a Motor Patrol grading the shoulder will hide them or if you live in town, a street sweeper will kick them down the road. I've see them for 40+ years & NEVER have I seen anyone picking them up less some fishermen for lead weights. So they are still there. One can pick up enough coinage for a snack & enough wheel weights for sinkers @ an intersection. If you haven't seen them, you just aren't looking. Maybe it is because you can't run or bike on controlled access thoroughfares?

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Yes we have carriageways, right-of-ways, roadways, thoroughfares, etc. in Alabama.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Larry actually spends his time looking at bald eagles that are feasting on deer gut piles that are laced with lead bullet fragments... that, or looking for another reason to bash our pro-gun President Donald Trump.

BrentD is looking for bugs. If he doesn't see many bugs, that's a clear sign of global warming. And if his windshield is splattered with lots of bugs, well that's a sign of global warming too. He really thinks that the Upland Journal forum is a great place. That's why he spends so much time here.

Shooting and hunting is facing an uphill battle in the UK. With phaesant shooting there are large number of big commercial shoots, where guns are paying upwards of �40 a bird and team of 8 to 10 guns will 200 if not more in a day. These are commercial ventures using marhinal lands / woodlands to bring income into an estate. They employ good numbers of game keepers, dogs, handlers and the vast majority of phaesants shot are reared and released. Shoots are putting down 20 or 30,000 birds a year and shoot several days a week.

Many shoots are now showing high flying birds at ranges of 50/60 or 70 yards high - 36g or 42g duck shooting type cartridges are being used with long barreled modern over and unders. Not many old guns are suitable for such shooting (ok perhaps pigeon / wildfowling guns).

On a typical shoot shot to kill ratio is typically 3 or 4 to 1. So hundreds if not thousands of cartridges are bing fired, and given that it is driven shooting most are fired from the same spots each time.

Hence there is a lot of lead and plastic wads going onto the land.

There is unequivocal evidence that lead salts are poisonous to both man and many forms of wildlife - not only birds of prey eating shot birds, but also partridges and other seed eaters picking up pellets. And the UK is densely populated country.

This is not a legal ban, its voluntary phasing out of lead shot and ammunition for game shooting and deer stalking.

We have had to use non toxic shot on waterfowl for a few years now. Early steel cartridges were rubbish. But modern steel in my experience works well and drop fast flying ducks just as well as old lead shot. Yes a modern Franchi semi auto. Now i don't my 100 year Alex Martin sidelock ribless onto the duck marsh.

I do use it with lightly loaded cartridges of fine days. Will I continue to use it -yes but with light cartridges. Probably with bismuth, but there are plenty older guns in use and with the correct wad, i am sure cartridge manufacturers can produce the right cartridge.

For mainstream shooting, most shooters wont really notice much difference. The main difference is the shot game can be sold and go into the humane food chain.

Sadly in the UK we have very little walked up shooting with two or three good friends a couple of dogs, you cover ten miles a day and you each shoot two or three birds for your own consumption.

Good post and covers the issue so far. There is no proposal for a voluntary ban on lead rifle ammunition however and as clay shooting is not included in the voluntary ban it will be possible post voluntary ban to practice with your Alex Martin on clays. Which brings up the issue of whether you can clay shoot with lead only on designated clay ranges rather on farm land I suspect clay shooting with lead will be restricted to established clay shooting grounds.
Personally the announcement has caused me to rethink the purchase of any British two and a half inch chambered gun as all my purchases are hunted with and shooting bismuth regularly may be too expensive. I will also not be bidding on the 28 bore Alex Martin over and under in the Holts sale this March as I will be a bit cautious until I see how things develop .
It will be interesting to see if the voluntary ban announcement has any effect on the March Holts sale of small bore shotguns and two and a half inch chambered side by sides.

Has anyone in the UK gotten lead poisoning from eating lead shot harvested game? There are probably some people that have eaten this type of game over a long lifetime, has the frequeny of related lead poisoning become more common? Is there a number of victims?

My suspicion would be that a voluntary action may be the result of opinions rather than for a public health problem. It will probably be easier in the future to remove the voluntary aspect of the ban and to expand it to other areas of shooting sports, the common theme being the affect on shooting sport not health problem.

The voluntary ban will become compulsory in five years which is said to allow time for ammunition development of non lead ammunition with non plastic wads.
As far as I am aware there are no recorded cases of human lead poisoning in the UK caused by consumption of game.
One factor is the marketing of considerable amounts of game from commercial shoots as there is no export market for lead shot game and domestic sales to supermarkets are insisting on non lead shot game.
Wildfowlers who have been using non lead ammunition for years now are not so phased by the announcement and are on the whole more optimistic on shootings future here in the UK but I think a lot of game shooters are more resistant to change and feel let down that the the lead ban wasn�t fought a bit harder by the shooting organisations representing them.
It is debatable whether this has been brought about by the large scale deposition of lead shot on commercial shoots or the shooting organisations preempting imminent legislation to cut a better deal for shooters by having a phased ban. The phased ban would give time to allow shooters to adapt their shotguns if necessary and try alternative ammunition prior to a ban and enable cartridge manufacturers time to develop ammunition suitable for the UK market.

Despite the UKs withdrawal from the Eu, the voluntary phase out sets a precedent for the rest of Europe. More so because the phase out is backed by organizations that have scientific staff that publish in journals.

The quesion is how a wider ban on lead will affect shotgun technology. The Danish getleman interviewed on the Youtube video says that they are OK using even old damascus barrels to shoot steel. I wonder...

I�m hoping perhaps naively that an exception might be made for Damascus barrel shotguns . I think there is EU legislation in the pipeline already.