Markemp wrote:Why not use steel shot? As long as everyone is using the same rounds, it's still a fair competition.
Doctors are pretty unanimous on the science showing no amount of lead is safe for children.
It's funny that they mention the cost of changing to use alternative shells, but they don't mention the cost of lead exposure to the kids. Honestly this is one of the dumbest things to oppose.
Are they protesting about the cost of helmets for high school football?
If you want to discuss lead exposure and lead shot’s role in it, I’m game.
First off, the shot is a nonissue as far as exposure to gunfire.
Priming compounds are a bit of a different matter.
Metallic lead is insoluble. Put a bullet in your body and you don’t develop lead poisoning, even though a 5 grain piece of shot is well past the fatal level in your blood stream.
The whole argument against lead shot is an environmental one.
I’ve loaded and shot clay birds with steel.
At short distances, it’s actually more effective due to hardness and improved patterning. However, it rapidly degrades as you get further out there. Put a clay target on the ground and shoot it at varying distances… you get holes in the pigeon from lead at 70 yards with#8 shot. Steel #8 bounces at about 45 yards, assuming target loads.
Note that Trap handicaps you by distance. Standard is like 16 yards to the trap house, so you are usually breaking them 30 yards out. Doesn’t give you much reaction time before it’s out of effective range. Start at the 27 yard line and it’s less. Then try Olympic rules with low gun mount and about 35% less pellets… along with a faster bird.
Waterfowl hunting went steel when I was in junior high. My first 2 seasons I used lead, then went to steel. Steel is more prone to crippling due to energy transfer issues, and poor patterning due to having to go to markedly higher velocities and a larger shot size to retain impact energy.
BTW, if getting rid of lead was going to stop lead poisoning of birds and improve numbers, why is my hunting (same place all my life) not getting better? There are nowhere near the bird numbers there were 30-40 years ago locally.
If the changing to lead actually was a safety issue, then you might get some traction.
BTW, there have been more deaths and injury related to scholastic soccer than to HS trap. Talk about banning soccer before you start legislating on safety issues re trap shooting.
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2024 5:34 pm