Time To Steel Ourselves

It’s a long-running debate among shooters — should we move away from lead shot in favour of steel? Matt Cross examines the options

We were deep in a ditch on the Orkneys. There was a tumbling grey northern sky above us and an icy wind. The peninsula’s greylag goose population was not playing ball. They went to the right of us, they went to the left, they landed on the barley 100 yards away and swirled over the nearby coastline. But they did not demonstrate a willingness to be shot.

So bad did the situation become we were forced to talk to each other. One topic of conversation had dominated discussions among the group, and in the ditch we returned to it — whether it was time to stop shooting lead and change to steel. On one side was a 6ft 5in Englishman, on the other a Scot who made up for anything he lacked in height with Caledonian pugnacity. The Englishman was a fan of moving over to steel, the Scot was not.

There are other alternatives, but tungsten, bismuth and HEVI-Shot are all much more expensive than lead. Only steel can begin to match lead for price and for game and pigeon shooting it seems the only really viable alternative.

The argument that it is time to ditch lead is being made almost everywhere that shooters meet — in Gun buses, on social media, at club AGMs and in goose-forsaken Orcadian ditches. The first thing to remember is that it is illegal to shoot ducks and geese with lead shot in England, and it is illegal to use lead over wetlands in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The debate is about its use for game and pigeon shooting.

Harmful effects

The arguments against the use of lead are well rehearsed. Lead is toxic and its harmful effects on the central nervous system have been known since Roman times. It has been banned from water pipes, paint, petrol and children’s toys.