Lead Ban Proposed...Bullets, Shot and Fishing Tackle

[Paul in Nevada]

We battled this for years in CA. One of the most vocal opponents was CA's own agency the CA-DFG. Fish & Game officials were adamant that a lead ban would result in a huge increase in wounded game animals.

Obviously upsetting. But when I googled it it appears to be banning lead on federal lands.

Am I missing something?

West of the Rockies, those are pretty much the only places to hunt. The Feds own something like 90% of the land here in NV.

 

[CALREB]

When I worked in the Firearms Unit the city would have our lead exposure tested every six months. We would always be 20-40 parts per DL or whatever the measurement is . I got up to 60 once and they kept me off the range for a while. Otherwise we were always told oh you are fine.. I started having my own DR. monitor mine.
Then I see the state screaming because condors have a .005 per DL amount or something like that. Just another excuse to harass gun owners.

 

[John Patrick]

….

Just another excuse to harass {legal} gun owners.

This is what it is. Another hurdle, another cost…

 

[scooter123]

Seems like everybody is too busy screaming and pulling their hair out to notice the details of the proposed rule.

"The USFWS announced new proposed hunting and fishing opportunities for game species at 19 national wildlife refuges on approximately 54,000 acres nationwide. Slipped into that proposal, though, is a phased ban of traditional ammunition by 2026." The article further specifies the ban currently only applies to the newly opened lands, but does suggest strongly that it is likely to spread to other federal lands in time.
Here again, it's an article that echos a few others I've seen but is NOT primary source material. If someone would care to post a link to the pertinent sections of the rule, I'm sure we would all benefit from seeing what's actually on the table.

Did you happen to notice this little tidbit. Slipped into that proposal, though, is a phased ban of traditional ammunition by 2026

Yeah, nothing to worry about in that statement. ONLY A FOOL would regard this as a good thing. BTW, I shoot 4 gun Skeet and costs for reloading shotshells has nearly doubled in 2 years and it's causing a huge decline in practice and competition matches. So much that the Shotgun Sports may disappear. While Skeet can be shot with steel use of that type of shot is a lot more expensive and high density shot (Bismuth, etc) is so expensive that Sporting Clays and Trap would not exist.

 

[Brooks]

Last time I tried to read the hunting regulations in CA. I kept coming up with you can't hunt with a 22LR. So you have to hunt those rabbits with a shotgun. Rabbit was wounded with a #4 shot, and ran off and died. Mountain lion got the rabbit and carried it for miles before eating half of it. We know this because the lion had a $60,000 tracking collar on it, and someone was getting 6 figures to track the lion, a protected non-game animal.....so prolific now they are coming into neighborhoods and eating your pets... but you cannot shoot this magnificent animal. Mountain lion drops rabbit and the Condor swoops down and eats it.. #4 shot and all, and now the Condor has lead poisoning. "Condor" .... sounds beautiful, but have you seen these things... nothing but a *******' vulture, that probably snacks on barbed wire when it cannot find roadkill. SAVE THE VULTURES!
Can't wait until some gangbangers shoot each other and then one gets a lawyer and sues the other for shooting him with a lead bullet.
What is happening to us?

 

[Protocall_Design]

What about all the soldiers that came home from a war with lead bullets still in them and lived another 50 years? They didn't get lead poisoning.

 

[stansdds]

What about all the soldiers that came home from a war with lead bullets still in them and lived another 50 years? They didn't get lead poisoning.

The body will often form a cyst around things like that and then the lead cannot leach into the blood stream and be deposited in muscles, nerves, and other organs. The theory about lead shot is that lead pellets land in the water, fish eat the pellets and as the pellet is digested, the lead gets into the fish's tissues. A bird comes along and eats the fish, now the lead gets into the bird's tissues. That's the theory.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

I hope someone will please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that lead is all natural. How can that possibly be bad?

 

[teletech]

I hope someone will please correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that lead is all natural. How can that possibly be bad?

Arsenic and uranium are also all-natural.

 

[NFrameFred]

To those whose knickers get in a twist over the use of lead this way . . . my sincere (not really) apologies . . . from my point of view their concerns are a tempest in a tea pot . . . sound and fury ginned up by folks with nothing else to do, too much time on their hands, and an elevated sense of self worth, signifying nothing except their need to virtue signal. In the scheme of things the 'damage' done by this use of lead is minuscule and not worthy of the time, money, effort, and grief expended . . .



Huurrruummmph!

 

[stansdds]

To those whose knickers get in a twist over the use of lead this way . . . my sincere (not really) apologies . . . from my point of view their concerns are a tempest in a tea pot . . . sound and fury ginned up by folks with nothing else to do, too much time on their hands, and an elevated sense of self worth, signifying nothing except their need to virtue signal. In the scheme of things the 'damage' done by this use of lead is minuscule and not worthy of the time, money, effort, and grief expended . . .



Huurrruummmph!

I think you are correct. Much ado about nothing of consequence.

 

[Private Bailey]

What difference does it make if your fishing weight is made from something besides lead.

 

[Yaworski]

My old shooting club is on the watershed for the county reservoir. On the same road are the police range and the public range. The state monitors the water quality and there was never a problem with lead.

AFIK metallic lead doesn't cause many issues. However, the greenies hear "LEAD!" and start crying.

 

[Chubbs103]

What difference does it make if your fishing weight is made from something besides lead.

If you notice, very little has been said about the fishing side of this.

There are lead substitutes for sinkers that offer little to no difference in performance. Currently, if buying online, steel fishing tackle can actually be cheaper than lead.

Lead-free bullets and shot are a completely different story. Lead-free projectiles are often considerably more expensive.

Performance can often suffer as well. 22LR lead-free options have questionable accuracy in many firearms. POI in my 10/22 is 9" higher for lead-free. Accuracy isn't great, but it is passable. I have to keep a firearm sighted in specifically for lead-free. My son is in hunter education right now. I guess I will have to keep a .22 set up specifically for him to hunt with lead-free. Lead-free .410 bore exists, but usually only in 3 inch magnums. Availability for any small game choices is almost non-existent right now.

I hear the .17 rimfires do well lead-free. I might just have to go that route. I just hate to buy a gun just for lead-free.

Lead-free works really well in a number of center-fire applications. My 30-06 shoots Barnes copper solids very well. They are 4x as expensive as lead-core.

I haven't cracked the code on pistol calibers yet. Barnes coppers solids shoot very well in my .41 magnum rifle and in my 657. They are really expensive. I have been waiting to hear back from Sinterfire on load data for 38 SPL. Their reloading data does not include any of the common powders I have on hand. If I can get a Sinterfire load to work well, I can start hunting small game with a handgun again. Powder selections are slim right now. I probably can't find specific powders just to match the published data.

 

[GypsmJim]

When I worked in the Firearms Unit the city would have our lead exposure tested every six months. We would always be 20-40 parts per DL or whatever the measurement is . I got up to 60 once and they kept me off the range for a while. Otherwise we were always told oh you are fine.. I started having my own DR. monitor mine.
Then I see the state screaming because condors have a .005 per DL amount or something like that. Just another excuse to harass gun owners.

I have been shooting lead bullets for about 60 years. Many of those years have been in indoor ranges with sometimes minimal ventilation.

I have been casting my own lead boolits for 47 years. Mostly in my basement with NO ventilation.

Three years ago, after reading about horrible possible consequences on this forum, I had my doctor include a lead scan on my annual blood test regimen. The results came back as so low it could not have been detectable.

I say BS on fed regs to curtail lead.

I also grew up in an inner city house built at the turn of the century (1900). ALL the paint was lead, as was the schools I attended. My only excuse is that I never licked the walls.

 

[vt_shooter]

What difference does it make if your fishing weight is made from something besides lead.

Then move away from lead fishing sinkers is to protect water birds like loons. Loons die horrible deaths from ingesting lead when they ingest lead sinkers along with gravel they swallow.

 

[JMalone]

Could we still cast our own?

WR

I doubt you'd be able to find any. It's getting more difficult every day.

 

[Private Bailey]

Then move away from lead fishing sinkers is to protect water birds like loons. Loons die horrible deaths from ingesting lead when they ingest lead sinkers along with gravel they swallow.

Thanks. That's really what I meant with my question but probably didn't word it right. But my point was why NOT use something besides lead? It's part of a simple solution to a complex problem.

 

[Private Bailey]

Going all the way back to the post that started this thread, it sounds like it's going to affect everyone and every place. That's not true. It won't affect all the little backwater fishing holes and ponds and it won't affect private land used for hunting. That isn't saying your state or municipal governments can't adopt similar rules, but that's not what this is about. This is federal.

Like I said before, this has been on the table since June 9. The feds gave people 60 days to comment on it but looks like people here just noticed it days ago. It's not a done deal yet but it's probably to move on to whatever's next.

 

[tops]

It won't affect all the little backwater fishing holes and ponds and it won't affect private land used for hunting. That isn't saying your state or municipal governments can't adopt similar rules, but that's not what this is about. This is federal.

It will affect everyone after this step. One step was steel shot for waterfowl wherever one hunts. Next is steel on Federal land and then steel everywhere. It's done one small step at a time. Game Wardens can come on private land too check for fishing and hunting violations so hunting on private land and fishing in backwater fishing holes and lakes does not make one exempt from the rules. Larry