P07151

Have you ever thought about what effects to the environment you cause when you shoot lead shot out of your shot gun? Steel shot should be compulsory in all shot guns. There is a set distance that lead shot can be used from a body of water because there is a chance waterfowl for example Mallard ducks swallowing a pellet and being poisoned. Also lead fires out of the shot gun differently to steel. Shooters are divided and everyone has their own opinion.

New Zealand law states on this issue that shotguns that are 10 or 12 gauge must use steel shot if they are shooting within 200 metres of a body of water over 3 metres wide. Shotguns that are 16, 20 or 410 gauge are exempt from this law and are allowed to use lead shot anywhere they want to. This means that if you are shooting on land more than 200 metres away from water and are using lead shot in a 10 or 12 gauge shotgun you can not go within that distance or you could be fined if caught.

The mandatory use of non-toxic shot applies only to shotguns that are 10 or 12 gauge within 200 metres of a body of water. This law should be applied to all shotguns because waterfowl for example mallard ducks feed off the bottom of the body of water and are likely to swallow a lead pellet and become poisoned by it. Studies carried out in the Auckland area showed that 4.7% of birds contained lead shot and another study in Otago showed 6% of birds had some lead shot in their gizzards. http://www.chisholm.co.nz/steel-lead.htm  Lead shot is slowly killing game birds unnecessarily because it can not be broken down in the environment. Steel is a non toxic shot and is broken down easily and will rust away from a few weeks to a year depending on where the steel ends up after being shot. If waterfowl happen to swallow a steel pellet it would be easily broken down in their body without any harmful effects. Even though steel shot is more costly than lead it is a small price to pay to save the environment.

Lead shot has more of a chance of wounding flying waterfowl because it has a wide spread pattern where as steel shot as tight shot pattern. A pattern is where the pellets spread out to when shot. The tight shot pattern of steel shot makes it more accurate to shoot with and it is more likely to kill a game bird because lots of steel pallets will hit it. Lead shot has more momentum than steel but steel shot has larger pallets than lead to compensate for it.

The 200 metre rule that applies to 10 and 12 gauge shotguns should be applied to all shot guns to help reduce the problem of lead poisoning. Steel shot and lead shot both have their strengths and weaknesses but if you use steel shot you will help towards having less fatalities caused by lead poisoning. But in the end it is up to you as to which type of shot you use and if you care about the environment.