130
that the price of lead-free rifle cartridges sold in the UK would
likely decline as the size of that market increased.
COMMON QUESTIONS CONCERNING
ALTERNATIVE AMMUNITION TYPES
The following questions have been raised variously across many
countries, including in the UK, and over many decades. These are
relevant to the UK situation and to broader communication of
the issue.
Is there evidence that the use of
lead-free ammunition regulations
may reduce participation in
shooting sports or significantly
affect its economic viability?
While the use of lead bullets has not been restricted in many
areas or countries, several examples exist of countries or regions
where the use of lead gunshot has been prohibited for all
shooting. An example relevant to the UK is that of Denmark,
where alternatives to lead have been used for almost 20 years
(since 1996). As outlined in these symposium proceedings
(Kanstrup 2015), non-toxic shot use by Danish hunters has not
been accompanied by a change in the number of hunters. Game
shooting is a relatively expensive sport, and the costs of non-
lead ammunition are a small part of the total costs of shooting
game with rifles and shotguns (Thomas 2015). For the individual
shooter, steel shot of similar quality to equivalent lead shot is
of broadly comparable cost (this fluctuates with world metal
prices). Other alternative shot types are more costly, perhaps by
up to about five times, but these are less frequently used and
still represent a small proportion of the costs of sports shooting.
The use of lead-free ammunition on shooting estates has many
benefits. In addition to reduced environmental contamination,
this reduces the exposure of wildlife and livestock to spent lead
shot and its health effects. In addition, for both large and small
game animals sold in national and international food markets, a
low-lead status of the meat will ensure that consumers are not
exposed to unnecessarily high levels of dietary lead, which have
the potential to put at risk the health of frequent consumers of
game meat. Proposals to restrict the use of lead ammunition will
help to give shooting sports a more sustainable future without
the toxic footprint of lead contamination, and this should help
to secure both the environmental sustainability and long-term
economic viability of shooting estates.
Are alternative shot types as
effective as lead in killing birds?
In the USA, concern arose, initially, in the 1980s over the ballistic
efficiency of early types of steel shot for waterfowl hunting in
the USA (Morehouse 1992). This issue was investigated early on
in the USA, because it was among the first to end the use of lead
shot for wetland shooting, and because it had the capacity to
investigate hunters’use of this shot type.
Concern largely related to a perceived potential for increased
“crippling loss” of waterfowl shot with steel. The term “crippling
loss” refers to birds that have been shot but are unretrieved,
either because they have not been killed outright, or because
they have been killed but the carcass cannot be found. In the
former case, birds are generally wounded due to poor shooting
skill and/or errors in distance estimation.
Crippling rates of birds can be high (generally in the range of
10-50%), irrespective of the shot types used (e.g. Haas 1977,
Nieman et al. 1987). Morehouse (1992) reported a slight increase
in waterfowl crippling rates in the USA during the early steel
shot phase-in years of 1986-1989, but that the rates for both
ducks and geese declined towards early 1980s levels in 1991.
A large-scale European study on the effectiveness of steel shot
ammunition indicated similar performance levels with lead
shot when hunting waterfowl (Mondain-Monval et al. 2015).
Mondain-Monvalet al. (2015) also showed that hunter behaviour
and judgement, the abundance of birds, and strong wind
conditions played significant major roles in determining the
effectiveness of hunters’ ability to bring birds to bag. Noer et al.
(2007) indicated that the wounding of geese by Danish shooters
could be reduced by hunters’ confining their shooting to a
maximum distance of 25 m, a practice that requires awareness
and determination.
A definitive, large-scale, comparative study of the effectiveness
of steel and lead shot for shooting mourning doves Zenaida
macroura was conducted in the USA (Pierce et al. 2014). The study
revealed that hunters using lead shot (12 gauge, with 32 g of US
#71/2 shot) and steel shot (12 gauge, with 28 g of US #6 and US
#7 shot) produced the same results in terms of birds killed per
shot, wounded per shot, wounded per hit, and brought to bag
per shot. Hunters in this double-blind study wounded 14% of
Vernon G. Thomas, Niels Kanstrup & Carl Gremse