Is steel shot worse for the environment?

[enfield2band]

Lead shot is being replaced with steel because it is supposed to be more environmentally friendly, so we are told. A lot of clay shoots only allow steel shot, but in time will this pollute the ground as it rusts away?

A friend of mine showed me some lead bullets, from what seemed to be from a Martini Henry, that had been that had been dug up by someone metal detecting in a park.
The Home Guard used to practice there during the war so that makes them around 70 years old. They looked as though they had only been shot recently. Still fairly clean, no corrosion and obviously not a problem to the environment.

[Gavlar]

I don't suppose lead bullets are such an issue but lead shot, particularly when deposited over tidal mud flats or water, is prone to being ingested by wildfowl and specifically, swans. Lead split shot for fishing was banned years ago for this very reason.

In answer to the question, I don't think iron oxide or rust is much of a pollutant.

[223AI]

Lead shot is being replaced with steel because it is supposed to be more environmentally friendly, so we are told. A lot of clay shoots only allow steel shot, but in time will this pollute the ground as it rusts away?

A friend of mine showed me some lead bullets, from what seemed to be from a Martini Henry, that had been that had been dug up by someone metal detecting in a park.
The Home Guard used to practice there during the war so that makes them around 70 years old. They looked as though they had only been shot recently. Still fairly clean, no corrosion and obviously not a problem to the environment.

The problem is lead is toxic to humans and other animals, steel (iron) is not, simple as that. When new building sites are tested for 'acceptable' levels of contamination there is a standard suite for toxic metals, steel/iron don't feature, lead does.

[CapnBall]

The evidence of poisoning by lead shot from shotgun or fishing-weight split-shot is questionable.

Of course lead is a poison, but it's very hard to absorb it from occasional pellets in a gut. Looking at the issue fairly is leading the Norwegians to reverse the lead-shot ban. On a personal real-world basis, I have breathed smoke, fumes, smelted, fluxed, cast-with and handled lead for over 30 years, and for a while I was even careless, but blood tests showed not so much as a trace in my system.

There are real anti-gun agendas behind this. Anything to reduce gun ownership, or make ammunition ineffective, will always get the 'right' scientific evidence, especially if you pay them for it sorry, I meant give them a grant - just like 'Man-Made' Global Warming did... like that, there will always be equally qualified scientists of conscience who say, hang on a minute... They are trying to ban lead in handgun and rifle ammo. The idea any creature will be affected by such bullets is a nonsense. This is a mantra.

100% lead-shot recycling is achievable for the Clay-Pigeon grounds. Many of the long established grounds have literally, many hundreds of thousands of pounds of reclaimable shot in the upper soil. Even hiring the big machines that dig the soil, and reclaim it, would leave a massive, healthy profit on today's scrap lead market.

[800jimbo]

On a personal real-world basis, I have breathed smoke, fumes, smelted, fluxed, cast-with and handled lead for over 30 years, and for a while I was even careless, but blood tests showed not so much as a trace in my system.

Everything else you say may be true, but your personal individual experience is not a basis to judge anything. Lead is poisonous - the fact that you have not been poisoned is fortunate but not a reason why the rest of us should disregard the risk.

I recall in the past there were examples of swans being poisoned by fishing lead but was not aware that these examples of lead poisoning had been debunked?

[223AI]

The evidence of poisoning by lead shot from shotgun or fishing-weight split-shot is questionable.

Of course lead is a poison, but it's very hard to absorb it from occasional pellets in a gut. Looking at the issue fairly is leading the Norwegians to reverse the lead-shot ban. On a personal real-world basis, I have breathed smoke, fumes, smelted, fluxed, cast-with and handled lead for over 30 years, and for a while I was even careless, but blood tests showed not so much as a trace in my system.

There are real anti-gun agendas behind this. Anything to reduce gun ownership, or make ammunition ineffective, will always get the 'right' scientific evidence, especially if you pay them for it sorry, I meant give them a grant - just like 'Man-Made' Global Warming did... like that, there will always be equally qualified scientists of conscience who say, hang on a minute... They are trying to ban lead in handgun and rifle ammo. The idea any creature will be affected by such bullets is a nonsense. This is a mantra.

100% lead-shot recycling is achievable for the Clay-Pigeon grounds. Many of the long established grounds have literally, many hundreds of thousands of pounds of reclaimable shot in the upper soil. Even hiring the big machines that dig the soil, and reclaim it, would leave a massive, healthy profit on today's scrap lead market.

The creatures it passes through will be damaged that's for sure, at least while it's still travelling at high velocity!!

Lead did harm swans, that is a fact, lead can and does harm humans that is also a fact. As has been said you are lucky if you regularly handle lead to not have a trace, we recently had a lead worker whose levels were too high so he had to be moved to other duties.

Not that I am for one second saying that lead should be banned but lets not deny that it does harm (though not to the environment just the receptors) or try and suggest steel is more harmful as tha would be daft

[CapnBall]

Everything else you say may be true, but your personal individual experience is not a basis to judge anything. Lead is poisonous - the fact that you have not been poisoned is fortunate but not a reason why the rest of us should disregard the risk.

I recall in the past there were examples of swans being poisoned by fishing lead but was not aware that these examples of lead poisoning had been debunked?

Very fair comments. I was trying to stress the cases of lead poisoning are very rare, and it remains hard to be poisoned by infrequent ingestion by the gut. Some people have very high levels for inexplicable reasons. Who knows why. My Doc' says some people nibble and swallow their dirty fingernails and contents, and are not even aware they do it.

Demanding steel or non-tox shot and split-shot over waterways is one thing, but a blanket ban on access to lead-metal by the masses is the wider agenda and it does worry me. After all, these very clever Big People people seeking to ban lead were very happy to soak our innards with phthalates in bottles and food additives for decades. They forced fluorides from Industrial-Waste into our drinking water, calcifying parts of our children's brains and even major university studies now admit it reduces IQ and raises bone-cancers. They even made us pay for the privilege of eating their waste. They also tend to support mandatory mass vaccination of everyone. My views are coloured perhaps? I once got in a blazing row with what you might call an environmental 'academic'. One of these 'Big People'. He was almost apoplectic with rage at the very idea the masses should own any form of firearm whatsoever, and was a committed Statist. They tend to be. Camouflaged agendas everywhere, the true goals never discussed.

The proposed bans on lead in shot and ammo are far bigger than they first appear.

[Black Beard]

Iron compounds are toxic in big doses. Eg LD50 of Ferrous suplhate is 1480mg/kg. That is less toxic than lead and it doesn’t build up in the same way but iron isn’t non-toxic.

[Muskett]

A wild ducks lifespan is less than 5 years, at best 6. Lead shot isn't going to make a jot of difference to its life expectations period.
Swans live longer but it was the fishing shot and nylon leader material combined that was so dangerous. Leader material still is but thankfully most fishermen take their trash home, and much better educated than ever before.

Steel shot can damage expensive wood processing machinery. It also chips teeth more readily for those eating steel shot game. Steel shot proofed barrels use modern steels and possibly require even more energy to produce.. which adds to the pollution/energy/environmental total!

There are massive natural occurring lead and iron deposits with all their corresponding compounds in the earth. It varies from one place to another.
Industrial pollution from anything, like ships flushing their tanks, extraction methods and ground disruption, plus processing and manufacturing, all add to man made pollution in doses that shouldn't happen. We are just a very selfish species and happy to pillage our only planet at will. The lead shot or steel shot is an erroneous wheeze for those who want to make a stink about nothing because its easier than taking on the real culprits. There is no political will nor general willingness to lower the living standards we now demand. Anything we are doing for the environment is just playing at it. We have got marginally better but a best just not being quite so blatant. Efficiencies was the overriding consideration rather than being good guys.

Lead/steel shot debate is politics. Most politics is baloney.



I shoot lead, except over wetlands, as ballistically it is a superior and therefore a more humane product. For wildlife then its modern farming practices that are doing it in for them. Modern farming practices just don't leave enough food on the ground, or area undisturbed.

[majex45]

I believe that recent research in Australia has shown that lead shot, fired at live quarry rather than clay pigeon shoots, poses no threat to wildlife.
I also believe that they have reversed the proposed ban.