Salopian

RC cartridges used to employ a lady whose specific job was to slit cartridges . If you are homeloading and using plastic wads that are partially split , then it is a good bet they were designed to function correctly with all petals free to air . Unless of course you are using steel shot , where your time would be better spent making nails and screws and building a shed.

Getting back on track with the OP's post about the value for money and the interest in todays magazines , we need to realise that many of these magazines come out of the very same source in a London based towering office block . Being London based with the ensuing everyday costs the journalists are very likely to be ex -graduates from a well heeled family who have packed 'junior' off to London to get some work experience rather than being at home screwing up the family business through their ineptitude. Look back to the glorious days of ST and others when the decent writers like Page , Humphreys, Willock , Taylor etc all lived in rural communities , wrote about life at home and occassionally did an eye watering article about a day in the 'Smoke' receiving an MBE , visiting Purdey , Holland & Holland and having a bollicking off the Editor at HQ. I am very sorry to say that nowadays I get my reading from internet articles or forums.

chrisjpainter, Thank you for your very informative answer . Wellingtonia ! Where is the origin of that name please? Here in Wellington Shropshire an ancient market town we have a National Trust property with a fine display of similar trees all the way down the drive .

Badger Brad , What make of shotgun ? I possibly have one in stock .

Clangerman wrote " certainly is unlikely shooting has no chance of surviving much longer unfortunately" That is very good to hear , if it is unlikely that 'shooting has no chance of survival ' I understand that means that shooting has every chance of survival , so let us all get out and enjoy a wonderful sport .

Yes I have seen some wonderful sights in Cuba, Chevrolet rear wing ( rear quarter ) made from a roof panel , brake fluid made from god knows what , very clever people .

Given that we are currently in lockdown and heading for one hell of a recession ,huge redundancies, and a downturn of footfall at shooting grounds, do you not think that anything higher than £30 per hundred for practice is far too expensive?

Paul James Gamebore Director stated on George Digweeds Facebook page May 15th , 18minutes into the chat that Yes Gamebore do already make a 2&1/2" plastic wadded steel load for the Danish market . I received an email on Monday from yet another Spanish company saying that they have a totally degradable shell case and wad available in one month in the UK from Shooting Star the RC cartridge importer .

Gamebore interview with Paul James CEO he says 2 1/2" Gamebore Steel have plastic wads at the moment .

Hamster , Thank you for your observations . It is my belief that 30" may be the ideal length for the masses . As you have said 32" is certainly the most popular , but having shot 28" & 30 " in the past I never felt as though I was disadvantaged with either . As they say , " It is the Indian , not the arrow ". We all have heard that the 32" barrels are steadier on the longer targets , but the majority of sporting targets are at sensible distances and probably would be shot better with a more responsive gun.

What are your thoughts on the ideal barrel length? Churchill advocated short barrels and had great success at trap and live pigeon shooting with 25" barrels . John Bidwell won multiple World Championships with 28" barrels. Many , many won using 30" barrels and then came the trend to 32" and even some 34" . Surely physical height must have some influence on what are the most suitable barrels for the individual , but in saying that we have all seen children and petite ladies shooting 32" very well . Discuss please .

Wymberley , good for you enjoy when you can . Reading my BASC magazine yesterday , letters page a member asks how to dispose of unused lead cartridges? He has a large stock which he can no longer use and the same can be said for cartridges he uses for shooting clays. Question :- How much more disinformation are BASC members and members of the other 8 Judas organisations going to be fed ? You can shoot lead to your hearts content , the recommendation is for a VOLUNTARY restraint from using lead shot for Game and clayshooting has not even been mentioned .

Westley , HOW DARE YOU ! As a BASC member and shotgun coach HOW DARE YOU go against everything that BASC is pushing for ? Do you not realise that we BASC members must continue the push for the abolition of lead ammunition as soon as possible even though it may fly in face of what BASC has always said "No Evidence =No Change". The whole mess is a fiasco not helped by BASC continually banging the drum.

So Smoker , The cartridge manufacturers as well as coping with Lead ban will have to cope with Kanban or Just in Time ?

Stagboy , Thank you for that , I listened to it all and although everyone gave their honest opinion it was interesting to note that the BASC good Doctor would like us to roll over and not use lead in any shape or form really only Diggory talked any sense at all regarding embracing the future . It seems to me that many of these so called scientists and environmentalists would like us to behave totally like sheep , not protest and once we have rolled over onto our backs we are totally incapacitated . I find it interesting that not one person appears to have read about the toxicity of alternatives to lead shot and commented and no meaningful data has been published about mortality in humans from the consumption of lead pellet contaminated game?

Panoma , That is only £1571-50p + powder+wads +primers + time per thousand homeloaded 1ounce cartridges . Why would anyone complain about banning Lead shot ?

Thank You maybe I will have to stand corrected . What is the nearest equivalent to Lead shot please ? Heavishot , Niceshot or what have you and the cost please ? Then maybe if there is no equivalent or it is too expensive maybe we could remind BASC of their previous Press releases from their very expensive , under utilised Media Centre , paid for with Members subscriptions , gifts and fund raising about embracing change when an efficient , affordable alternative to Lead shot becomes available.

I am led to believe that Hevi-shot is no longer available here in the UK because it became too expensive . Do any of you know if it is available and how expensive it may be , asking because I believe it is the nearest equivalent to lead shot .

SO ! Fully dissolvable plastic type wads available in 2013 , but it takes two companies seven years to corner the market ? We have needed to find an economical and similar alternative to lead shot for more than twenty years , the cartridge manufacturers can be accused of being lax in their uptake and research and development, but as soon as BASC highlight this issue we all have to jump ! How much financially have BASC contributed to finding an alternative to lead shot and plastic wads ?

Correct , PVA or a derivative could be the way forward . Anglers use PVA bait swim feeders so they must be economical to produce . I would have thought costs would not be too different from producing plaswads. But with regard to this thread ( banning lead shot ) I really would advise all of you and the shooting organisations to read about the toxicity of the alternative materials to Lead shot and to correctly quantify the REAL fatalities that have been caused by ingesting lead pellets .

A friend has developed a water soluble wad and taken it to Eley , Hull ,Gamebore and BASC none have shown any real interest as the cartridge manufacturers all said they had alternatives in the pipeline . With regard to alternative shot types , what happened to Hevi-shot?

Lancer , Thank you for your comments , Here is a recent p The British government did not initiate the expansion of the ban on lead. A Brit shooting organization is espousing that phase out of lead. A fundamental underpinning of that decision is the fact that wild game is regularly marketed after shoots in the U.K. and the presence of lead shot is a EU health hazard. This is not an issue in the US as we do not market wild game. Therefore the economic pressure to make game meat marketable is not a factor here. That does not mean some anti gun organization won’t create expansive threat theoretical models as they have in California, but we are some distance from that in all 50 states. Still we need to be wary of over reactions in regulation that can seriously impact the use of vintage guns and drive up the expense of shooting with non-tox Ammo cost. The decline in participation in shooting sports is the long term greatest threat to our sport. With regard to your earlier post on plating you do seem to missout some of the important information . Zinc is extremely toxic . Tungsten is proven to be carconogenic , Tungsten Matrix is Tungsten bonded with polymers and plasticisers Steel /Iron burns off vegitation and allied with numerous readily used farming chemicals is extremely toxic and harmful to vegitation and wildlife . BUT the biggest factor that no one seems to be taking into consideration is the very low incidence of Lead being harmful /fatal to mankind . If it aint broke don't fix it .

Interestingly (for me at least) I was on a forum called shootingsportsman.com there is a debate on there about British shooting organisations calling for the phasing out of Lead . Most of the contributors feel very sorry for British shotgunners having to give up the only usable shot material ! General opinion seemed to be that the crazy Californian officials can keep their draconian laws and cuddle their Bald Eagles , but the majority will continue to use Lead for bird hunting. One or two intimated that Tom Roster was making a very good living promoting steel shot and buying and reading his articles. Let us keep using Lead shot until one of these organisations come up with irrefutable evidence that Lead is as harmful as their unsubstantiated claims make out .

Lancer , Are you now saying that all cartridge manufacturers are using plated shot , and that steel shot due to its plating is not harmful if ingested ? Perhaps anyone who is interested in the Lead shot alternatives debate may wish to research the toxicity of soft iron , tungsten matrix , zinc , tin , copper , bismuth shot and then come back with a viable economic alternative to lead shot . I do agree that Lead does have its faults , but until an economic , efficient alternative is available I personally would like to continue to use lead shot.

In the current edition of The Field magazine ( May 2020) there is an excellant article on page 7 written by Jonathan Young , also in the letters pages there are numerous well written letters regard the Lead debate including a magnificent letter from Gun Maker Tony Kennedy . I have recently researched ' The effects of soft iron consumption by Humans ' ( eating Game shot with steel shot) . Do youngsters and the future wildfowlers REALLY wish to die of pancreatic cancer or liver disease ? Just a thought ! Obviously this may require a large consumption of poisoned meat to be fatal , but so does Lead shot meat , and as I have always maintained, " Give me something as economic and efficient as lead shot but not as harmful to humans and the environment and I will gladly use it ."