EU ban on lead ammunition for airguns, shotguns and rifles

[Conor O'Gorman]

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has announced proposals for a near-total ban on the sale and use of lead ammunition for airguns, shotguns and rifles.

For a BASC briefing on the proposals see:

European lead ammunition ban proposed

Restrictions on lead ammunition production in the EU could have an impact on UK trade and the voluntary transition away from lead shot for live quarry shooting.

basc.org.uk

For a briefing by the European Federation of Hunting Associations (FACE) see:

Ban on lead in ammunition proposed

Today, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has published its proposal for further EU (and EEA)-wide restrictions on the use of lead in ammunition for hunting, outdoor sports shooting and fishing.

www.face.eu

 

[12gsnapcaps]

What will the alternatives be for rimfire calibres?

 

[palmer_mike]

Thank God for Brexit

 

[Stevie/P]

What will the alternatives be for rimfire calibres?

simple stock up now and screw em all

 

[Crowstalker]

Well thats it, it was nice to enjoy shooting while it lasted....

 

[andyk]

Bad news but we may stand a chance to either avoid or get slightly more sensible regulation than our European cousins.

Whilst I’m not keen on a ban on lead rifle ammunition for hunting and I’m sceptical as to whether it’s as good as lead, there is an alternative for deer stalking.

Target shooters will be b*ggered by these proposals. Without some as yet invented alternative, solid copper target bullets will just make target shooting uneconomic.

 

[DVS1]

Why is it for more years than I care to imagine lead has been used for shooting and although I understand it can be a toxic substance how many people have been proven have suffered ill health or death from it? You'd have to eat a hell of a lot of lead for a detrimental effect surely!?

I appreciate there's a difference for wildfowling and lead shot eaten by other species...yes we should protect these...but otherwise things like lead bullets or pellets just stop trying to re-invent the wheel!? Sometimes its like organisations want to change things just for the sake of changing things.

 

[andyk]

Sometimes its like organisations want to change things just for the sake of changing things.

I always thought that was the precise point of the EU...

 

[Crowstalker]

Why is it for more years than I care to imagine lead has been used for shooting and although I understand it can be a toxic substance how many people have been proven have suffered ill health or death from it? You'd have to eat a hell of a lot of lead for a detrimental effect surely!?

I appreciate there's a difference for wildfowling and lead shot eaten by other species...yes we should protect these...but otherwise things like lead bullets or pellets just stop trying to re-invent the wheel!? Sometimes its like organisations want to change things just for the sake of changing things.

Even with the banned lead from wildfowling surely the other birds would just eat steel shot and suffer as a result too?

 

[Stevie/P]

Well thats it, it was nice to enjoy shooting while it lasted..

it aint over yet but i do think we have had the best of it just more obstacles to climb over we may fair better in the UK wont stop me shooting.

 

[User00040]

What will the alternatives be for rimfire calibres?

Send the pests and predators a repelling odour aura through a strict vegan diet and intense periods of mediation.

 

[25 Sharps]

If we follow suit for predator and pest rifle ammo we have been well and truely stitched up

 

[The Singing Stalker]

Even with the banned lead from wildfowling surely the other birds would just eat steel shot and suffer as a result too?

No, there is a big difference.

 

[DVS1]

Even with the banned lead from wildfowling surely the other birds would just eat steel shot and suffer as a result too?

In my very limited if not zero experience I can imagine lead shot being spread over a wider area increases the risk to other animals whereas a lead bullet that retains greater mass would reduce the spread of risk...however, if that 1 lump of lead was ingested then the chance of greater toxicity is increased I admit, but a greater chance of finding scattered shot than just 1 lump? Obviously there are exceptions but as I said I have a limited amount of knowledge/insight.

 

[john_little]

Dodged a ‘lead free’ bullet there then

 

[andyk]

@DVS1 I’d tend to agree with you (although like you, I can’t claim to be an expert).

The volume of lead from shotgun ammunition must cause the amount from hunting rifles to pale into insignificance and, unlike rifle bullets which will either be in the carcass or bury themselves into the ground, shot will simply lie where it falls.

 

[Liveonce]

Why is it for more years than I care to imagine lead has been used for shooting and although I understand it can be a toxic substance how many people have been proven have suffered ill health or death from it?

Especially target shooters or clay pigeon discipline shooters.

Yet another example of highly paid do gooders thinking up something to justify their jobs and pensions.

 

[Pedro]

Soon we will not be able to use lead to shoot, coal to keep us warm, internal combustion engines to get about, we have to wear masks to go into banks now (we're all bank robbers now, although the opposite is true really), can't hug anyone or even shake their hands and kissing someone will be imprisonable. We can't go further than your own village/part of town/city. In 20 years, we'll all be vegetarians or vegans and wearing man made fabrics because the animals we get our natural fibres from will be all protected. New Meindl boots will be made out of compressed cabbage leaves. Our speech will be so bland and stunted through fear of invoking laws on insulting people and any sort of humour on the telly or in any company will fall foul of some law.

 

[hedge hunter]

But we aren't in Europe any more....will Brexit make a difference????

 

[timbrayford]

What will the alternatives be for rimfire calibres?

Copper monolithics