re: Horrible accident

quote:

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Help me learn - is lead shot illegal?

Why choose lead over steel? Just curious, thanks.

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Lead use to be the standard for waterfowl hunting, but in the mid eighties??? feds mandated a switch to "non toxic" shot (not for killing the birds you shoot, but the ones that eat grains etc where lots of hunting takes place and either digesting the lead bb's or eating lead contaminated byproduct), which the most economic was steel. Steel is much lighter than lead and therefore not as effective and much more expensive than lead. Other choices include bismuth and other alloys "heavy shot" that have similar characteristics of lead, but are VERY expensive. It is a big no no to use lead when hunting waterfowl, but does still happen, especially in places that are outside of your typical duck hunting meccas.