Lead ban date announced

Bleak Ridge is a family-run business, selling country clothing and workwear
tackb said:
may i ask where you HAVE to shoot lead?
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You may.
Given that I don’t actually have to shoot, it’s a hobby for me, here’s the rationale.

I use lead where I have no choice or it’s just very impractical to use anything else,
.22 for small game and competition. There is no alternative.
Centre fire, no competition and not much range work. I have been using copper for a few years and I’m perfectly happy with it, but I can’t get it. I spent the last 8 months trying to buy a couple of slabs of .270 and 6.5 copper, no success, a few weeks ago I caved in and stocked with what I could get, because I think that ammo of any kind is going to be scarce and expensive very soon. So no alternative at the moment.
Shotgun, I use lead on the clay ground, but I also use it for some game shooting. I use steel and bismuth where required, but I have a full slab of lead I’m trying valiantly to run down with no success. Last season I started with half a slab, I won another half slab, so I have more than I started the season with .
I’ll probably use them for the clays, just as soon as I can source a constant supply of something else.
I don’t shoot many game cartridges, I bought 50 bismuth and 50 steel, I still have 40 of each, and maybe a box and a half of lead 28Gm 6’s went down range.
I’m doing my best to be good, but it’s not easy.
 
MightyPlank said:
Well clay pigeon shooting then. Basically I just don't think trying to get people who've never shot before interested by taking them to a shoot with live targets is a good idea. I think its much easier to get say a left wing person into shooting as a hobby that does not require anything to be killed then building the rest of it from there. I know plenty of left wing shooters but most of them never do any game shooting and some of that is not feeling welcome and some of it just isn't seeing the point of game shooting. Id rather we get politicians with some interest in firearms even if it isn't stalking or game shoots than politicians who are scared of firearms or compliantly ignorant of them.
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A gift of oven ready pheasants or wild venison sausages tackles the matter from the other end!
 
Dunwaters said:
You may.
Given that I don’t actually have to shoot, it’s a hobby for me, here’s the rationale.

I use lead where I have no choice or it’s just very impractical to use anything else,
.22 for small game and competition. There is no alternative.
Centre fire, no competition and not much range work. I have been using copper for a few years and I’m perfectly happy with it, but I can’t get it. I spent the last 8 months trying to buy a couple of slabs of .270 and 6.5 copper, no success, a few weeks ago I caved in and stocked with what I could get, because I think that ammo of any kind is going to be scarce and expensive very soon. So no alternative at the moment.
Shotgun, I use lead on the clay ground, but I also use it for some game shooting. I use steel and bismuth where required, but I have a full slab of lead I’m trying valiantly to run down with no success. Last season I started with half a slab, I won another half slab, so I have more than I started the season with .
I’ll probably use them for the clays, just as soon as I can source a constant supply of something else.
I don’t shoot many game cartridges, I bought 50 bismuth and 50 steel, I still have 40 of each, and maybe a box and a half of lead 28Gm 6’s went down range.
I’m doing my best to be good, but it’s not easy.
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I understand that lead bullets are now not proposed to be banned in the EU.
 
dryan said:
I understand that lead bullets are now not proposed to be banned in the EU.
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Correct, it looks like the ban will be limited to shot.
I would prefer to use non lead in my stalking rifles, but I just can’t source it. Should it become available, I’ll change back.
I have non lead shotgun ammo for game, it works fine, I still use lead on the clay ground.
 
enfieldspares said:
Note the abject failure of BASC in regard to .243 Winchester. The authoritave voice of shooting?

23. Paragraph 12(b) does not apply to other projectiles which are—

(a)a calibre of less than 6.17 millimetres and used in, or placed on the market for use in, live quarry shooting, including related zeroing;

(b)used in, or placed on the market for use in, indoor target shooting; or

(c)placed on the market for use at an outdoor shooting range.

Yet being spun by BASC as somehow a success. Please, Alice, pass the sick bag:

BASC’s deputy director of shooting operations, Terry Behan, said: “In 2020, BASC and other shooting organisations took the initiative by announcing a voluntary five-year transition away from lead shot and single-use plastics for live quarry shooting, knowing that regulatory change was likely. Our priority was to uphold the shooting community’s long-standing commitment to high environmental standards while protecting the future of shooting in the UK.

“We’re pleased to see that the exemptions BASC successfully argued and lobbied for – including for small calibre rifles, airguns, shooting on ranges that meet mitigation requirements, and elite athletes – have been included in the Government’s plans, reflecting the practical realities of pest control, target shooting and competitive shooting.

“We are disappointed that the Government has not listened to the advice of the shooting sector on the inclusion of .243 within the definition of larger calibres.

Maybe it's time for BASC to just pack up and fade away. All puff and promise like ten year certificates. But never mind still good deals to be had on red wine in the quarterly magazine. Should come with a punched hole on the top left corner and ready perforated to make its use easier in the outhouse.
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If only they would pack up. GCWT & CA too.
 
lotuseater said:
I predict the cost of copper ammo will drop as the demand and production rises in anticipation of the ban.
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Hardly, a market price has been established so why would they reduce it; manufacturing costs are what they are; the UK is a tiny market so it isn’t going to have any effect on global volumes
lotuseater said:
I predict that lead ammo will get increasingly less available at the same time as manufacturers transition along with shooters.
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Lead ammo will be available to target shooters. There will be more people joining target clubs to get practice in with affordable ammo
lotuseater said:
I predict that projectile and load development will result in a workable .243 copper cartridge in the coming 2 or 3 years.
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Or England could just change the law like Scotland had and allow 80gr copper as a minimum. It has more to do with twist rate to stabilise the long bullets - speed can help but only a little bit
 
MightyPlank said:
I know plenty of left wing shooters but most of them never do any game shooting and some of that is not feeling welcome
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I've been shooting for 60 years. I've never asked anyone about their political, sexual, or nutritional leanings while out stalking or shooting. So why would a politically left leanings person feel uncomfortable out shooting unless they insisted on tell all and every one about it.
 
andyk said:
There’s no minimum weight in England and Wales, so any of the 70-80gr offerings are also fine.
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And in Scotland the min weight fir Roe is 50 grains, so again all the 70ish grain offerings work as well.

In reality, for the vast majority of deer legal cartridges there will be a non toxic option available. Admittedly some of the almost obsolete cartridges, you will almost certainly have to handload, and you will have to hunt around for bullets if they are an oddball diameter bore.

And before those English hunters who like to use Muzzle loaders all start shouting, in the US there are plenty of muzzle loading lead free options already there. You might have to persuade the importers, or do a private import or speak with a UK maker of such bullets to runa batch, or indeed buy copper rod and borrow some time on a lathe and make your own.

Sadly in Scotland we have a min muzzle velocity of 2,450 fps for deer legal which pretty much precludes muzzle loaders.

MUZZLELOADER — Sporting Lead-Free

Learn about the benefits of lead-free muzzleloader hunting!
www.sportingleadfree.org www.sportingleadfree.org
 
Liveonce said:
That’s good, I am 110% for made in the U.K., how many steel shot manufacturers do we have ?
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I haven’t a clue. We did once have one of the worlds leading steel industries, along with leading shipbuilding, gunmaking, car making , aerospace, banking, life science, petrochemical, agriculture industries, but successive governments have allowed our leading companies and entrepreneurs to move most of those companies to other parts of the world where those companies can all trade and do business internationally. There was a referendum in the UK a few years ago, supported by a majority of vocal SD members in Englandshire that resulted in another wave of our skills all being shipped elsewhere.

And then lets not forget that it was the same administration that then initiated all the bans on lead.

It would be good to think that we could set up a steel shot industry, but the vast majority of steel shot production is for large scale manufacturing processes (shot blasting), and what will be used in shooting, will be a small proportion of that production.

I suspect a large portion though of steel shot cartridges used in the UK will be loaded here in the UK by the likes of Hull, Gamebore, Eley etc.
 
Heym SR20 said:
I haven’t a clue. We did once have one of the worlds leading steel industries, along with leading shipbuilding, gunmaking, car making , aerospace, banking, life science, petrochemical, agriculture industries, but successive governments have allowed our leading companies and entrepreneurs to move most of those companies to other parts of the world where those companies can all trade and do business internationally. There was a referendum in the UK a few years ago, supported by a majority of vocal SD members in Englandshire that resulted in another wave of our skills all being shipped elsewhere.

And then lets not forget that it was the same administration that then initiated all the bans on lead.

It would be good to think that we could set up a steel shot industry, but the vast majority of steel shot production is for large scale manufacturing processes (shot blasting), and what will be used in shooting, will be a small proportion of that production.

I suspect a large portion though of steel shot cartridges used in the UK will be loaded here in the UK by the likes of Hull, Gamebore, Eley etc.
Click to expand...

Indeed are steel industry is in decline, all steel shot to the very best of my knowledge is made in China, so will matter not where the shot is actually put in the cartridge, be that U.K. or EU.

I doubt shot blasting for engineering purposes is a significant user as the shot is reused, it also does not need to be the same quality as that required for cartridges.

The very fact that the EU has recognised the economic reality and global challenges of moving away from lead shot to non toxic shot by moving from the original three year to a five year transition period with a review process should be ringing alarm bells with the shooting organisation, but no they are more concerned about the .243

Bismuth, Tungsten based, copper, zinc based shot is no longer a viable alternatives for most purposes or users due to significant price increases.
 
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