OT- Lead Free Bullets

Bigahh · Post by **Bigahh** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:56 pm

I see Nosler is offering a bran new lead free bullet in 2008. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come where we are all forced to use them in the future!

deerwhacker444 · Post by **deerwhacker444** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:16 pm

It's only a matter of time.....You know some bureaucrats are watching what is happening in California and tripping over themselves trying to get legislation enacted for the rest of us using CA as a foothold.

cutter · Post by **cutter** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:45 pm

I have seen where the traditional muzle loading crowd is having succes with lead free solder.

But, at nearly 30 dollars a pound...

Modoc ED · Post by **Modoc ED** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:55 pm

You bet it's coming. The U. S. Forest Service is doing a survey right now about the use of lead in the National Forest and the same thing is going on at Bureau of Land Management too. It won't be long before lead bullets and shot will not be allowed to be used on Federal land. That goes for all Federal land whether it be in CA, AZ, VA, TN, etc..

The bullet coming from Nosler is not pure copper. It is an alloy (along the lines of Hevi-Shot and a couple of others (Remington HD))and hopefully that will take the place of lead. Pure copper is roughly 75% the weight of lead and the copper bullets that are available now that come close to matching lead weighted bullets are really long. Might be fine for single shots/bolt actions but may be hard to feed through a lever action.

handirifle · Post by **handirifle** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:53 am

Looks ;like it's quite a bit cheaper than the Barnes offering. Almost half at $36 for 100 and about the same price for 50 from barnes.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:37 am

It doesn't really matter the whys or wherefores. It will severely cripple the shooting industry. Many people who shoot a lot will just cut back or quit. The ones who buy a box of ammo and take 20 years to shoot it up at one round per hunt will grumble but buy it anyway.

Hand gun competitors will take it in the shorts big time, and cast bullet users will be screwed.

This is bad science and nothing but back door anti gun legislation.

Back in the late 70s when the National Product Safety Commission was going to try to ban ammunition there was a ground swell of complaints to the government, why are we not hearing this now?

I think what's needed is a clearing house of information such as the NFS and BLM proposed bans that are easy to search so we can start writing our congress critters NOW.

Am search impaired, I couldn't find a web site on purpose if I tried and then navigating around inside is all but useless for me. But give me a direct link I can go to and I'll be there.

So, those of you who have this information share it ... OK.

Joe

Modoc ED · Post by **Modoc ED** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:13 am

This lead free/lead ban has been coming/on the horizon for many years and has been beat back several times. I think the only way it got passed in CA this time is because "the Arnold" is a big backer of the environmental/tree hugger groups and he signed the bill with no or very little arm twisting.

I don't believe that at the start that Barnes started making copper bullets as an alternative to lead bullets because of environmental concerns but the fact remains that right now they are the only major bullet maker with a large selection of lead free bullets. Remington, Federal, Winchester, PMC and others saw it coming but did nothing about it(sought a lead free bullet solution). Nosler has stepped up and is offering a limited selection of non-lead bullets with hopefully, more selections to come.

I've been writing/phoning my Congressmen and Senators about the Federal lead ban. Of course with CAs two Senators being heavy on environmental issues, they won't lift a hand/vote to do anything about it.

If you can find a lead free bullet to handload for your particular needs, you better stock up on as many as you can afford now because the supply of existing bullets will be bought up by CA handloaders for now and the price of copper and alloys is on the way up.

Although the lead free ban does not effect my part of CA at this time, I bought a good supply of Barnes TSX Copper Bullets for the rounds I handload for -- .30-06, .30-30, and .444 Marlin. Although they were expensive, I plan to place another order with MidwayUSA next Monday.