Are lead pellets being banned

I fee like a number of states in the US banned lead shot in shotguns about 30 years ago.. but maybe I misremember and it was just talk..

Actually, it was all of the North American migratory bird treaty countries, USA, Canada, Mexico which required non-toxic shot for all migratory bird hunting. Early steel shotshells were horrible, wounding lots of birds but non-toxic shells are so good now and hunters have learned how to shoot them so there is no reason not to use them, where required.

The non-toxic shell requirement has now extended to all federal land and to many state owned hunting areas to hunt any species. I’m not sure of state-wide requirements for other species other than on specific government land except maybe California.

Having said that, other than HeviShot, tungsten or other formulations which have the same or better weight as lead, nothing else kills a bird DRT like lead.
 
Our education system is failing at a rapid rate so the govt needs something to blame it on. You will notice the drop in childrens education results are beIng blamed on lead pipes, lead paint and anything else with lead in it. Not saying that lead isnt bad, we just need to look carefully at how it is blamed for our own lack of educating our children properly. Todays high school graduate cannot pass a high school exam from the 70's or 80's. Todays grads require a college degree to get the education that we used to get from high school. Now the govt wants to blame this lack of education ability on lead rather than look at how our education system is failing. Having taught community college for 25 years, I saw first hand how our education system has dumbed down society but our govt wants us to believe it is due to lead contamination!! So....yep...they will probably start banning lead from everything, but....not until they find another something to blame the dumbing down on. Once lead is gone and we still see a serious lack of education in our schools, the govt is goig to need a scapegoat that lead now covers. So its going to be awhile before it is gone completely!!
 
Our education system is failing at a rapid rate so the govt needs something to blame it on. You will notice the drop in childrens education results are beIng blamed on lead pipes, lead paint and anything else with lead in it. Not saying that lead isnt bad, we just need to look carefully at how it is blamed for our own lack of educating our children properly. Todays high school graduate cannot pass a high school exam from the 70's or 80's. Todays grads require a college degree to get the education that we used to get from high school. Now the govt wants to blame this lack of education ability on lead rather than look at how our education system is failing. Having taught community college for 25 years, I saw first hand how our education system has dumbed down society but our govt wants us to believe it is due to lead contamination!! So....yep...they will probably start banning lead from everything, but....not until they find another something to blame the dumbing down on. Once lead is gone and we still see a serious lack of education in our schools, the govt is goig to need a scapegoat that lead now covers. So its going to be awhile before it is gone completely!!
 
Our education system is failing at a rapid rate so the govt needs something to blame it on. You will notice the drop in childrens education results are beIng blamed on lead pipes, lead paint and anything else with lead in it. Not saying that lead isnt bad, we just need to look carefully at how it is blamed for our own lack of educating our children properly. Todays high school graduate cannot pass a high school exam from the 70's or 80's. Todays grads require a college degree to get the education that we used to get from high school. Now the govt wants to blame this lack of education ability on lead rather than look at how our education system is failing. Having taught community college for 25 years, I saw first hand how our education system has dumbed down society but our govt wants us to believe it is due to lead contamination!! So....yep...they will probably start banning lead from everything, but....not until they find another something to blame the dumbing down on. Once lead is gone and we still see a serious lack of education in our schools, the govt is goig to need a scapegoat that lead now covers. So its going to be awhile before it is gone completely!!


Anyone over 40 years old that drank tap water from the local water works got it through some lead pipe. The connection from the main iron pipe to the water meter was soft lead all over the country back then. Most places started swapping them to copper around 35 years ago but it took many years to change them all.

So it's not lead dumbing down the young people, it's their educators. Maybe they will see the light over the next few years as their country suffers under incompetence.


 
Arg. They probably will ban lead in projectiles depending on which regime is in charge of the current dictatorship.

As have seen the "rules set forth" make little sense now. An example is that in other to hunt water fowl we must use steel shot to avoid lead contamination of water. However, think of all the fisherman who have lost a sinker in lakes and rivers. They were made of lead yet it is still legal to use lead sinkers. Until that changes as well.

My point is that you can almost always guarantee that "management" will make the most ass backwards non sensical decision. Which makes me wonder if they are the ones that are exposed to high levels of mind altering lead.

So yes expect it in the future as someone stated California is already legislated non-lead projectiles for hunting in addition to mandatory background checks for buying ammo. Welcome your new age of liberalism.

Ultimately of course none of these silly laws will matter. With current political events being live way they are I anticipate a failure of the global power grid next will come the water supply subsequent wars and anarchy which will render all these silly well-meaning rules null and void.


 
JSB is already working on lead free slugs.

I was on various websites last week looking for pellets. I have a barrel that supposedly shoots the GTO pellets well so I sorted by lead free when available. These slugs came up on one site. I wasn't interested in slugs so I paid no attention to price or if they were in stock.

If I find them again I'll post the link. I assume it was pre order only.
 
@Scouty: the only reference I saw regarding lead free slugs from JSB/GTO is that one: 





Then COVID 19 happened...

The guy in the video thinks tin is heavier than lead when tin is only 2/3 the weight of lead. He must be confused.

I thought the same thing when I heard him say that. He’s blowing smoke. 


Being so light they would shoot from most guns tuned for heavier pellets at super sonic speeds. My understanding is as they transition from supersonic to subsonic speeds they will experience buffeting and become inaccurate. Sure at 10 yards depending on their mass they will maintain super Sonics speeds to target but what about hunting at 40-50 yards? They would arrive at the target subsonic and undergo buffeting along their trajectory. Also, using a more lightweight alloy would yield lower fpe and make these pellets and slugs less effective. Am I incorrect in these statements and assumptions?

 
For anyone who has shot lead free pellets, what is the fouling like compared to lead pellets (or slugs).

I shoot GTO’s only out of a modded P’rod and LW barrel. Ive found that after about 75-100 shots I need to run a dry patch but after a tin (200) a wet patch is definitely needed. The pellets seem to flake which seems build up and cause some inaccuracies. The wet patch where is interesting because it comes out really nasty looking ( worse than lead) but is totally clean after only two dry ones, unlike lead which takes a few more. Using Napier pellet lube helped too. Before it was about 60 shots before needing a patch. Just got a borescope, might get some pics before/ after a tin of gto’s. 


 
@Scouty: the only reference I saw regarding lead free slugs from JSB/GTO is that one: 





Then COVID 19 happened...

The guy in the video thinks tin is heavier than lead when tin is only 2/3 the weight of lead. He must be confused.

I thought the same thing when I heard him say that. He’s blowing smoke. 


Being so light they would shoot from most guns tuned for heavier pellets at super sonic speeds. My understanding is as they transition from supersonic to subsonic speeds they will experience buffeting and become inaccurate. Sure at 10 yards depending on their mass they will maintain super Sonics speeds to target but what about hunting at 40-50 yards? They would arrive at the target subsonic and undergo buffeting along their trajectory. Also, using a more lightweight alloy would yield lower fpe and make these pellets and slugs less effective. Am I incorrect in these statements and assumptions?

That's what I was asking in a previous post because I was pleasantly surprised at the grouping I saw by shooting a few 11,75gr JSB Exact Lead Free from my RTI Prophet which is tuned to shoot 25,39gr JSB Exact Monster Redesigned at 1000 fps. I was shooting at 50m/54 yards. I could not retry the experience because of the noise. I wish that someone could do more testing with the pellets already available. For slugs I wonder what the results will be for expansion at the POI because the alloy is probably much more resistant to impact than lead.
 
The purpose of banning lead shot for migratory birds is protecting the birds, not people. The theory is that the shot builds up on the bottom of the pond or lake and the birds eat it. Maybe there is some data to support the theory.

I don't think there is even a theory to support banning rifle projectiles made of lead. I can understand people not wanting to leave lead projectiles in dead animals eaten by other birds or possibly other animals. But using a heavy enough projectile from an adequately powerful airgun would seem to pretty well solve that. There is just a huge amount of space for projectiles to land in if hunters miss or the projectile exits the animal. Any animal or human eating the projectile is a near zero probability.

I believe current non-lead pellets are made of tin. It melts at a little higher temperature than lead and is less dense. I don't know a lot about Bismuth but Tungsten is very hard to form. It wouldn't just be the cost of the tungsten to deal with, the manufacturing would seem to be much higher too.

Sometimes there is talk about banning lead sinkers for fishing too. Need to buy a mold. Need to find a pellet mold my guns like, I guess. Hard to tell what crazy lie our politicians will use as a basis for another harmful law. We need to consider the risk of legislation when we vote this fall. Risk seems to be higher for one party than the other.