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8 hours ago, Ultrastu said:

Good game .

Just out of interest  .are you Bell target shooters worried about a possible lead ban on all  airgun pellets . As the lead free pellets  can't be shot onto a steel plate .

Good to see Bell target alive and kicking .

 

 

Apparently, even the EU lead banners are softening on a total ban, if the pellets can be captured at the target they are likely to be permitted. Personally, I am stocking up to see me out, on both shotgun and airgun.

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The issue with the lead free pellets  is absolutely  terrible ricochets on steel , wood , even some harder cardboard . And they bounce right  back at you with a lot of force .totally  unsuitable for indoor shooting and probably most garden ranges too .I have a few  different tins and won't shoot them even into my sand trap back stop now as the slightest miss (and lead free can be terribly  inaccurate) and a hit on some thing a bit harder than sand and the pellet comes back .

I regard them as unsafe projectiles and should be banned .

 

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I have been asked to use non lead pellets to shoot squirrels in a conservation wood, where the carcasses are to be left out as carrion. The carrion is used by fox, badger and buzzards. I have experimented with various non lead pellets in various air rifles and as @Ultrastuhas said accuracy is not the same with any non lead pellets which I have tried. The best performing was in my FAC air, but the group enlarged from my normal 5p to 25mm at 25 metres, which in my opinion isn’t good enough to ensure a one shot kill. One shot kills have always been my aim for live quarry. I think that it is probably due to the harder metal not gripping the rifling in the barrel. For that reason it has been agreed that even in this conservation wood .22lr is best even though previous shooters were restricted to air rifles.
With the .22lr a 42grain bullet passes straight through any squirrel and therefore there’s no lead residue to be of concern for ingesting by animals or birds.
Anecdotally concern has also been expressed that zinc or tin pellets are harder and as such could cause dental damage to animals  eating carrion containing these harder metal pellets.  Badly damaged teeth in wildlife is detrimental to health as the teeth of a wild animal are effectively the knife and fork which as humans we tend to use.

Obviously using a .22lr shooting into to canopy is a no no, but onto feeders with armour plating and on the ground enables plenty of opportunities..

The one thing that is most important is to have maximum efficiency in the killing of live quarry and to avoid maimed or injured animals doing a runner. Sadly in my experience non lead pellets will not achieve consistent kills in standard power air rifles. Obviously they will kill at reasonably close range and when hitting the kill zone, but not to the 99%+ consistency I would want, because in the words of the well used shooter’s mantra “it’s accuracy that kills.”

Edited by Fisheruk
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Good post .I think if I were specifically  targeting squirrels in trees .my tool of choice would be a .177 fac shooting heavy pellets  so as to increase penetration  and pass through .but worry less about elevated shots going somewhere they shouldn't (ie like a .22 lr ) 

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22 hours ago, London Best said:

Gordon Bennett!

Which planet have you been on for the last two years?

Lead in shotgun cartridges which could enter the food chain may be banned. I must be missing something because i didn't know air rifle kills went to the game dealers. The argument  doesn't stack up .

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32 minutes ago, 222mark said:

Lead in shotgun cartridges which could enter the food chain may be banned. I must be missing something because i didn't know air rifle kills went to the game dealers. The argument  doesn't stack up .

For me, the argument doesn’t stack up against shotgun cartridges or stalking rifle ammunition either. But the fact remains that the game dealer situation is not the main issue. The environmentalists are determined to ban lead everywhere and are gleefully backed up by the anti-shooting people.

I thought from your earlier post, perhaps wrongly, that you had not heard about a possible lead ban at all.

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1 hour ago, London Best said:

For me, the argument doesn’t stack up against shotgun cartridges or stalking rifle ammunition either. But the fact remains that the game dealer situation is not the main issue. The environmentalists are determined to ban lead everywhere and are gleefully backed up by the anti-shooting people.

I thought from your earlier post, perhaps wrongly, that you had not heard about a possible lead ban at all.

I fully agree with what you say. Unfortunately nobody listens to the people who know.

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I am now into my eigth decade and have been fed on shot game since I came off my mothers milk. I am still pretty fit for my age and here in person able to type this item. There is little doubt this is all down to the sale of game overseas by game dealers with  the anti brigade including the puppeteer in No.10 putting her penny worth in and nothing to do with the environment. Lead is a natural element and dropped on the ground goes back where it came from.    Lead pellets and shot have been sprayed all over this country for decades even centuries and apart from the use over wetlands effecting waterfowl and this was very much from angling leads on swans, in the main it passes through ducks in hours with little damage, but of course hot air will blow up a balloon and get the headlines.

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9 hours ago, Ultrastu said:

Good post .I think if I were specifically  targeting squirrels in trees .my tool of choice would be a .177 fac shooting heavy pellets  so as to increase penetration  and pass through .but worry less about elevated shots going somewhere they shouldn't (ie like a .22 lr ) 

Yes, I agree with @Ultrastuan FAC in 177 would be good. Nice light pellet. The ricochet of an FAC .30, is horrendous. I remember being out with a member on this forum where I was trying out his new .30 in FAC., running at about 60ft/lbs. Shooting at a steel plate target 50 metres away the pellet at 46 grains bounced back , flew over our heads and smashed the windscreen of a pickup parked 30 metres behind us. On another squirrel  forum I’ve seen posts about what a wonderful gun their .30 FX FAC is at shooting squirrels from trees.  It surely can’t be long before someone  is injured by a stray 46 or 51 grain slug fired from an FAC air rifle as it’s fired up into the canopy.

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21 hours ago, Walker570 said:

I am now into my eigth decade and have been fed on shot game since I came off my mothers milk. I am still pretty fit for my age and here in person able to type this item. There is little doubt this is all down to the sale of game overseas by game dealers with  the anti brigade including the puppeteer in No.10 putting her penny worth in and nothing to do with the environment. Lead is a natural element and dropped on the ground goes back where it came from.    Lead pellets and shot have been sprayed all over this country for decades even centuries and apart from the use over wetlands effecting waterfowl and this was very much from angling leads on swans, in the main it passes through ducks in hours with little damage, but of course hot air will blow up a balloon and get the headlines.

Yep it's not rocket science, so B obvious but no one in a postion to retaliate it seems 😕

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