Thread: 20g lead ban ?

PerazziSC3, another day, different post!!! I agree it is confusing, but being biased the owner of 3 16 gauges I'd fight for the status quo.
I'm suprised that it is only 4% with sub guages, in the two groups I'm lucky enough to shoot in there is always 2/4 sub gauges.
The way retailers are speaking you would think that 20 Ga. has taken over, obviously not so.
I suppose if they ban subbies totally I'll have to trade in the old 1187 and buy a 3 1/2 " Benelli, and start throwing steel all over the place.
Leave well alone I say!!

I love my 16 ga Merkel for ducks so I hope I never see 16 ga steel for sale. It was made long before someone dreamed up the idea of shooting steel out of a shotgun. It does give the rangers a rush of blood when they ask if we are all using steel and I reply no with a blank look on my face.

Originally Posted by john m

I love my 16 ga Merkel for ducks so I hope I never see 16 ga steel for sale. It was made long before someone dreamed up the idea of shooting steel out of a shotgun. It does give the rangers a rush of blood when they ask if we are all using steel and I reply no with a blank look on my face.

So, how do the ducks know that the lead from your 16 or my grandsons 20 is safe to ingest, because isn't it ducks picking up the lead from the bottom of waterways what it is all about...and isn't there something about the width of the waterway that comes into it...all very confusing.

Originally Posted by Spook

So, how do the ducks know that the lead from your 16 or my grandsons 20 is safe to ingest, because isn't it ducks picking up the lead from the bottom of waterways what it is all about...and isn't there something about the width of the waterway that comes into it...all very confusing.

The only lead that makes it into our pond would be from me having to finish off wounded birds as a result of steels ineffective killing power... Otherwise it lands probably 100m away from the pond (the stuff that isn't caught by the bird that is...). Out of the 40 ish shooters on ponds nearby that I know of, only one other shoots sub gauge. And that was only a result of witnessing the difference of killing power between the 3 inch steel hyper velocity ammo he was using and standard 20g 2 3/4 lead I was using. I now use 3" 1 1/8oz shells, the difference is more pronounced now.

I see in the 2014 printed Fish and Game regulations that there is a paragraph about banning of lead in sub gauges in Southland to be in force by 2017. "after careful consideration of submissions" was mentioned (they are obviously blind and deaf!) which is laughable. They were obviously pretty confident that it was going through when drafting the regulations for 2014. Luckily they have been set straight (for the time being)...