How has lead ammo ban affected you?

[NorCal Cazadora]

Hey folks, I'm doing an article for a national hunting magazine on the lead ammunition ban in the condor zone and I'm interested in talking to folks who've been affected by it. My key questions are:

- How has it changed how you hunt? Do you hunt less? Differently? More out of state? Or are you hunting the same as you always have, just with different bullets?

- What's your experience been with non-lead ammo?

I'm looking for all perspectives, not just one point of view.

If you're interested in being interviewed for this, you can email me here. Please let me know a number where I can reach you and what time it's best to call in the next 2-3 days.

If you feel like responding publicly on this thread, that's cool too, but I'd still like to be able to talk to some folks on the phone.

Thanks!

-Holly Heyser

 

[Jon Wills]

It's hurt my wallet

 

[Rw Dunn]

It's hurt my wallet

amen to that what a ripoff

 

[hank4elk]

Tho I like the Barnes Bullets now,IT IS VERY COSTLY NOW. Prices have gone thu roof if you can find them. Can't afford to shoot(practice) as much. I see eagles ,buzzards and coyotes eating the same carcasses,they are not effected. There has been NO evidence that I have seen that bullets are the cause of the lead problems that the extinct condors have. I am not just hunting out of state now, I am moving out of state,not just the lead thing, but everything.

 

[trautertpighunter]

There are a couple of problems for me.

As mentioned, condor safe bullets are more expensive. Not exactly prohibitive, but certainly more expensive.

There continues to be something of a shortage of unleaded ammo in some of the better hunting calibers. I have been able to get .30/06 and .308 in both 150 and 180 grain, in two different loaded brands, but am still looking for good unleaded bullets for some of my other guns. Especially with the shortages in general we are facing.

So far I have used these all copper bullets on pigs of various sizes. I have yet to recover a bullet from these, but it doesn't seem to be from caliber-sized through and through shots. .30 caliber bullets are opening up to a half dollar size right at the first bone (like a rib), and passing through vital zones and out the far side in the same size, like a inch diameter pipe went through.

I wish there had been some science involved in this fiasco, but I am not suffering too much from it.
Tom