Only 65 people out of 1630 people who shot in the past year reported not using lead ammunition? As someone who grew up hunting waterfowl, where using lead is illegal in the entire US, my mind is blown.
Unless you’re hunting waterfowl, it’s all most all lead. It’s often jacketed, but it’s still lead. Lead is cheaper, rides the rifling more effectively since it’s soft, expands better on impact, and is heavier.
For performance AND price it’s just better. But you have to be mindful of its environmental and health impacts.
I used to reload a lot of my shotgun ammo with reclaimed lead from the range. Every few years they’d scrape the soil in the trap and skeet area and you could buy bags of the shot. It would be a mix of like 7.5, 8, and 9 all mixed together, but it worked for skeet shooting.
Another real annoyance is finding lead free air rifle pellets. Especially ones that aren’t crap, and doubly so in any caliber other than .177. Apparently it’s too much to ask to punch paper or perforate soda cans, maybe whack the occasional rat, and not be distributing lead all over the damn place.
Lead ammunition is ONLY illegal statewide in California, and nationwide for waterfowl ONLY. You can still purchase and use lead bird shot for birds other than waterfowl. I can go down to Fleet Farm and get leaded ammo right now no problem.
It depends, but most ammo is at least partly lead.
Your standard ammo is likely what gets called fmj, full metal jacket. That’s a bullet made of lead and wrapped in some other metal.
There is ammo that’s only lead. Shotgun ammo is fairly commonly lead pellets unless it’s meant for bird hunting.
There’s various lead only bullets as well. I still have a few hundred rounds of wadcutter, which is a type of bullet shape, that’s lead only. I never shoot it any more because, well, pure uncovered lead. That and I’m not fond of the load they have, but that’s not why I stopped using it for target practice; it is why I wouldn’t shoot it for anything else unless I had nothing else left though.
You can get other materials, but lead has a good weight at any given caliber that’s hard to duplicate.
That being said, my carry handgun stays loaded with frangible rounds that have zero lead in them at all. I have backup ammo for it, but the five or six magazines I keep handy are all non lead except maybe one? Could be two; you have to practice with what you’ll actually be shooting if you have any sense. So I tend to rotate through, but the brands I prefer have been hard to get, so I have some hollow points in a couple of magazines still.
Anyway, yeah, if you roll up to anywhere that sells ammo, chances are high that you’ll have to walk out with something that has some amount of lead in it.
Only 65 people out of 1630 people who shot in the past year reported not using lead ammunition? As someone who grew up hunting waterfowl, where using lead is illegal in the entire US, my mind is blown.
Unless you’re hunting waterfowl, it’s all most all lead. It’s often jacketed, but it’s still lead. Lead is cheaper, rides the rifling more effectively since it’s soft, expands better on impact, and is heavier.
For performance AND price it’s just better. But you have to be mindful of its environmental and health impacts.
I used to reload a lot of my shotgun ammo with reclaimed lead from the range. Every few years they’d scrape the soil in the trap and skeet area and you could buy bags of the shot. It would be a mix of like 7.5, 8, and 9 all mixed together, but it worked for skeet shooting.
Non-hunter who enjoys shooting as a sport: it’s rare that I encounter non-lead ammo.
It seems that hunting has way more restrictions but I’ve never been to a range where most/all of the ammo sitting around wasn’t lead.
Another real annoyance is finding lead free air rifle pellets. Especially ones that aren’t crap, and doubly so in any caliber other than .177. Apparently it’s too much to ask to punch paper or perforate soda cans, maybe whack the occasional rat, and not be distributing lead all over the damn place.
Lead ammunition is ONLY illegal statewide in California, and nationwide for waterfowl ONLY. You can still purchase and use lead bird shot for birds other than waterfowl. I can go down to Fleet Farm and get leaded ammo right now no problem.
Huh. What do they make bullets out of in the US then? I always assumed lead by never got into firearms enough to learn
It depends, but most ammo is at least partly lead.
Your standard ammo is likely what gets called fmj, full metal jacket. That’s a bullet made of lead and wrapped in some other metal.
There is ammo that’s only lead. Shotgun ammo is fairly commonly lead pellets unless it’s meant for bird hunting.
There’s various lead only bullets as well. I still have a few hundred rounds of wadcutter, which is a type of bullet shape, that’s lead only. I never shoot it any more because, well, pure uncovered lead. That and I’m not fond of the load they have, but that’s not why I stopped using it for target practice; it is why I wouldn’t shoot it for anything else unless I had nothing else left though.
You can get other materials, but lead has a good weight at any given caliber that’s hard to duplicate.
That being said, my carry handgun stays loaded with frangible rounds that have zero lead in them at all. I have backup ammo for it, but the five or six magazines I keep handy are all non lead except maybe one? Could be two; you have to practice with what you’ll actually be shooting if you have any sense. So I tend to rotate through, but the brands I prefer have been hard to get, so I have some hollow points in a couple of magazines still.
Anyway, yeah, if you roll up to anywhere that sells ammo, chances are high that you’ll have to walk out with something that has some amount of lead in it.
They make bullets out of pure Righteousness and The American Way (yeehaw.)
Lead poisoning would explain a lot about that country.