89
Table 2: Comparative prices for lead and non-toxic shotgun cartridges in 12 gauge (as taken from a major cartridge selling website). Prices are
those advertised in November, 2014.
Shot type Manufacturer Price per box
of 25
Price per case
of 250
Steel shot 3 different UK makers £7.10-7.75 £64 – 69
Bismuth-tin shot Eleyhawk £ 36.25 £323
Hevi-Shot loaded in the UK £56 £497.50
Tungsten Matrix Gamebore £70 £626.25
Lead shot (across 4 UK makers):
Lead Gamebore £6.80 – 6.95 £60.50 – 62.00
Lead Eley £6.95 – 7.05 £62.00 – 63.00
Lead Hull £9.25 – 9.50 £81.25 – 83.00
Lead Lyalvale £8.15 – 9.70 £72.75 – 86.75
demand. The comparison reveals that the retail prices for steel
shot and lead shot cartridges overlap. Thus, there should be
no economic impediment to shooters adopting steel shot
cartridges. The lead-free type of shot most similar (ballistically)
to lead shot is, however, the most expensive. These retail prices
reflect most the world prices for the component metals, based
on their rarity, strategic importance, costs of processing and
assembly into shot. Furthermore, there is not going to be
much change in these relative prices as a function of demand,
although an increase in the economy of scale might lower the
absolute costs of tungsten-based and bismuth-tin shot.
The company Midway UK provides on-line prices for an array
of lead-free bullets of different calibres and different bullet
weights and profiles per calibre. The bullets made by Barnes
cost approximately £1 per bullet across a range of bullet
diameter of 0.224 – 0.366 inch. These are much the same as
the prices for similar lead-free bullets made by the companies
Nosler and Hornady. Match-grade bullets made by the company
Cutting Edge Bullets were more expensive, approximately £1.30
to £1.40 per bullet9. Lead-free bullets made by Lapua were the
most expensive, at £2.62 per bullet, and sold in the smallest
range of bullet calibres. The prices of equivalent lead-core
bullets, are lower, by about half, than the commonly-used lead-
free bullets made by Hornady, Nosler, and Speer10. However,
many specialised lead-core bullets, such as “Match Grade” and
9 The price reflects these bullets’being made by CNC lathing, as opposed to die-swaging, to achieve a greater degree of concentricity.
10 Prices as advertised in November, 2014.
“partition”bullets may cost more than the lead-free versions.
This paper does not have comparative data on the UK retail
prices of assembled (i.e. ready to be fired) lead-free and lead-
core rifle ammunition. However, Thomas (2013) indicated that
in the USA there was no major difference between the prices of
these two ammunition types, regardless of themaker, common
calibre, and bullet weights. Knott et al. (2009) indicated that
there was a difference in price for the two types of bullets used
in their UK study, but suggested that this was an artefact of
low demand, and that differences in price would decline with
increase in hunter demand.
The economic costs of lead-free ammunition should be related
to other costs incurred in game shooting. People in the UK
pursue rough shooting as well as pest control, but precise
figures of the costs of these activities are not readily available.
Driven gamebird shooting and stalking in the UK are sports
that are extremely expensive compared with rough shooting.
An online survey of sporting estates’fees for different species of
game yielded the following approximate costs. It is recognized
that fees vary very much according to years, individual estates,
and other mitigating factors:
• Red deer stags, from £395 to £495 per stag. Some estates
then charge more on the basis of antler size; so 7-11 points
cost £590, and stags with 12+ points cost an additional £195
Availability and use of non-toxic ammunition: practicalities and regulations