Lead Ban Chronicles – Iowa Lead Ammo Ban Discussion And Editorials

Some of you may remember that, in 2011, Iowa legislated their first dove season in decades despite a loud and acrimonious debate from anti-hunters.  What made this even more contentious was the fact that the hunt was supposed to take place using only lead-free ammunition, yet the Governor overturned this piece of the law.  His argument?  There’s no scientific evidence that lead ammo is a significant threat to environmental or human health.  The ban was only temporarily over-ruled, and the legislature is slated to discuss the ban during the 2012 session.  (The discussion runs a lot longer, but you can read up on it yourself.)

Anyway, the Des Moines Register has run several editorials in favor of a lead ban over the last few months, including one last week from a representative of the Humane Society of the US (HSUS).  Today I saw another one from Liz Garst, a former member of the Iowa Natural Resources Commission.  Her commentary begins as follows:

Hunter numbers are dwindling, which is too bad, because hunting controls our deer herd size, funds through license fees most wildlife conservation efforts, provides tourism benefits and more.

One reason why hunter numbers are falling is that we have an image problem. Opposition to banning lead bullets is not helping that image. Plumbers, painters, toy manufacturers, contractors, gas retailers, etc., have mostly solved their lead issues. Hunters should not claim that they alone are exempt.

The scientific evidence is clear. A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources literature review listed more than 500 studies about lead ammunition, showing negative impacts on humans and more than 130 species of wildlife. Hunters who use lead ammunition are not bad, but new evidence is in, and it is time to change.

She went on with some nominally reasonable arguments and counter-arguments, but on the whole, she didn’t say anything new.  Nevertheless, I had to respond… even if I didn’t really say anything new either.  My response was pretty lengthy, but I thought it would be worth sharing here as well.  Read more

Lead Ban Chronicles – Lead-Free Ammunition Trends From SHOT 2012

To be honest, I really didn’t have high hopes of learning anything new about lead ammunition at this year’s SHOT Show.  Of course I knew the manufacturers like Barnes, Hornady, and Nosler would be adding new calibers to their menus.  That’s an ongoing effort, and probably much needed as more and more voices are being raised against lead ammo around the country.

Why is it much needed?

Unless the hunters and recreational shooters around this country get up and start fighting this thing, California-style ammo bans are going to start popping up all over the U.S.  That’s not just pessimism on my part, folks, the machinery is already in motion.  Anti-lead propaganda is running rampant in editorials everywhere and the uneducated are eating it up while almost no reasonable voices are challenging the lies and misinformation.  This is how policy happens.

So, with that in mind, maybe it’s a good thing that a “trend” I thought I saw coming last year is really starting to develop.  I guess it started with Remington a little earlier.  Their initial lead-free ammunition featured the Lapua Naturalis bullet.  They phased that out and moved to a proprietary copper bullet, the Remington Copper Solid (they did something similar when they moved away from Hevi-Shot to their own heavier-than-lead shot pellets).  By switching to their own bullet, they reduced the dependency on a third party, and also reduced the cost to produce.

At the 2011 SHOT Show, I learned that Winchester was releasing their own lead-free bullet in the Power-Core 95/5 (and also in the newer RazorBack XT).  They didn’t phase out the successful Nosler ETip, but if the Power-Core takes off, I can see where their dependency on Nosler will decrease… especially with the price difference between the ETips and the Power-Cores.  Right now, I expect they’ll keep both lines, with the ETips in the “Supreme” (black box) line, while the Power-Core will fall into their standard (silver box) line.

This year I learned that Federal-Premium is now rolling out their proprietary lead-free bullet, the Trophy Copper, which will be loaded in their Vital-Shok line.  I haven’t had a chance to use this one yet, but I’ve got a request in for a few boxes to sample.  From what I hear, though, the engineers at Federal have taken the criticism of other lead-free bullets into consideration and made a concerted effort to develop and deliver a bullet that expands well at a wide range of velocities, and also provides a better ballistic coefficient to enhance longer range performance.

Meanwhile, Barnes is expanding their line of factory-loaded cartridges in the Vor-TX line.  I’ll try some more of these out on game soon, but on paper, I found that the Vor-TX does shoot well out of my Savage.  The point of impact is somewhat different from the 180gr ETips I’ve been shooting, but the groups are pretty tight.  Maybe I’ll get the chance to try these out on a Hill Country hog later this year.

Hornady, of course, has been loading their GMX bullet in the Superformance line.  Those of you who’ve been following the Pig Man tv program have probably heard him rave about the performance of this bullet.  I’ve shot some of my own handloads on paper, and the bullet does perform well at the range.  Unfortunately, I’ve yet to get a chance to put these into the field.  I hope to change that later this spring.

Bottom line, I think it’s fair to start hoping for some more affordable, lead-free ammunition over the coming year.  That may turn out to be a very good and timely thing!

 

Lead Ban Chronicles – Is The Lead Ban Saving The Condors?

In a report a few years ago, the American Ornithologists’ Union (AOU) wrote a fairly extensive report on the state of the California condor.  In it, as many other reports have stated, the writers concluded that unless lead ammunition is completely removed from the environment, the condor program will never be a success.  But what they also said is that even if lead is abolished, the success of the condor reintroduction is a tenuous proposition.  There are simply too many factors aligned against this big bird. (You can read the whole thing here.)

A new report (that sounds an awful lot like the old reports) was recently released by the San Diego Zoo, and suggests that humans are still the biggest threat to the survival of the condor.

Scientific paper shows California condor still threatened by human activities  

A recently released scientific paper authored by San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research scientists shows the leading causes of death of the endangered California condor in the wild are human influenced, with lead poisoning being the primary factor in juvenile and adult birds.

The study documents the deaths of wild California condors at all release sites—California, Arizona and Baja, California, Mexico—from the inception of the reintroduction program in October 1992 through December 2009. The study found that 70 percent (53 out of 76) of condor moralities can be attributed to human influences.   For nestlings (birds younger than 6 months of age), 73 percent of known mortalities can be attributed to the consumption of microtrash, such as bottle caps and small pieces of broken glass, plastic and metal. Lead toxicosis, from the ingestion of spent ammunition, was the most important factor in juvenile condor mortality (birds between the age of 6 months and 5 years) and was the only significant cause of death in adults (birds 6 years old and older). Eight of 23 birds that died of lead poisoning still had metal or lead fragments in their gastrointestinal tract. Condor 422 was in the wild for six months and was exposed to lead four times prior to its death.

“The most important mortality factor for the combined free-ranging populations was lead toxicosis,” states the report. “The evidence that the principal source of exposure is lead ammunition is overwhelming and includes the recovery of lead shotgun pellets and bullet fragments from the upper GI tract where lead is readily absorbed and tissue lead isotope signatures that match lead ammunition and not other sources of lead.”   In addition, the paper cites exposures to lead that coincide with deer hunting season, the condor’s foraging activity in popular hunting areas, high numbers of lead-bullet fragments in hunter-killed carcasses and lack of other lead sources in condor habitat.   “Although lead toxicosis from spent ammunition still threatens the survival of the California condor, one of our most iconic species, the good news is that solutions are available in the form of nontoxic ammunition,” said Bruce Rideout, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVP, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research director of wildlife disease laboratories. “We can make this a win-win situation if we choose to.”   Additional human-influenced deaths included 11 power-line collisions or electrocution. However, no fatal collisions or electrocutions have occurred since 2007, when power-pole aversion training was introduced for condors being prepared for release into the wild. During the study period, four birds died by gunshot and one by arrow. Two birds ingested zinc-core pennies, which led to zinc poisoning.

Parent feeding of microtrash to nestlings was the most important cause of death in this age class. Biologists have been clearing nest caves of trash prior to hatching and periodically throughout the nestling stage to reduce this problem. It has helped, but the cause of this behavior by adult birds remains open to speculation. One belief is the parents are feeding what they believe to be bone or mollusk-shell fragments—but is actually trash—as a calcium source for the chicks. Others suggest it is a substitute for small stones and sticks that aid digestion. Polished bone fragments are now being provided as a calcium source for adults to feed to nestlings.

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Thoughts?