BBC attack article on lead as ammunition

[oldbadger]

2 stroke outboards are alive, well and readily available, the Evinrude E-Tec for example! Do try and keep up old chap!

Fair enough......
Well, down here small 2-strokes 30-40 years old are going for very good money...
Everything new is 4-stroke........ almost.....!

Keep up? How can anybody keep up at the rate of change, these days?

[cjs racing]

The idea of banning lead, has been muted for years, and before I always said they would never ban it, but, I feel I can no longer say that.

However, for us that shoot indoors, there must be some sort of arrangement where the lead can be recycled, and turned back into pellets.

The lead is no danger to wildlife if indoors, and recycling would be easy, as regular cleaning of the floors, and pellet traps, would ensure very few contaminants in the collected lead.

I have never tried a none lead pellet, that I would be happy to hunt with. They never have the consistent accuracy required.

I really hope I am wrong about a possible ban, but forward thinking now, prevents hastily thought ideas, if it does happen.

[oling]

I don't think it's necessarily fair to say that just because this is an attack on lead that it is by extension, a tacit attack on airgunning or hunting either. Like it or lump it, the fact is that lead is highly toxic and that isn't going to change any time soon. Lead paint, lead petrol et al. have all been 'phased-out' over time not because people disliked colourful objects or people driving cars but because there is a genuine public health concern. On the face of it, 100,000 birds poisoned annually does seem a bit over the top but until anyone reads the study it's not fair to start pointing fingers. There are alternatives to lead it's just that given a lack of urgency until now, there was no need for the industry to put their proverbial thinking caps on. I'm sure that if pressed, we won't have a problem finding an alternative that works but I have to agree that I don't think single shot airguns are the principal problem here, I think it's shotguns.

[RFCII]

Won't somebody think of the children



That was an error. The bbc meant to publish that sentence in the Charley sheen article.

LOL!! Well done!

[oldbadger]

......here are alternatives to lead it's just that given a lack of urgency until now, there was no need for the industry to put their proverbial thinking caps on. I'm sure that if pressed, we won't have a problem finding an alternative that works.......

... I agree...... when pushed, we find answers, just as answers to valve-wear in four-stroke engines was sorted after leaded petrol was phased out.

For the first time ever I purchased a tin of Prometheus .22 pellets today. At low speed (2 pumps) they were horribly inconsistent, compared with excels,,,,, but at full power they grouped, and their penetration is fantastic when compared with excels. The plastic carriers remained at the surface of the (old and boring ) hardback book whilst the 'bullets' just carried on going. The excels impacted and spread themselves on the cover and went no further.

More research into pellet 'carriers' and 'bullet' profiles could produce amazing results, and rifling might develop to optimise results from nylon, pvcu and other plastic carrier 'possibilities'.

In five years we might be wondering why we hung on to lead for so long.....