a little speculation needed... day late & a $ short... lead bullets

[Magnum Wheel Man]

like most things in life... seems like I'm a day late & a $ short... I currently handload for almost 50 different cartridges, & honestly 10-15 years ago, you could say that I really hated using lead bullets ( my expirience at the time was with soft swaged lead )... well as my list of more obscure cartridges grew, it often required cast bullets ( BTW... I inherited litterally a ton of lead I helped my father in law cast into ingots, & the pot, & several molds, after he died )... so far I've not taken up the casting, but as of late, my interest has been more in line with guns / cartridges conductive to cast bullets, & I have been buying them already cast...

my concern, is that if I continue down this path, the anti lead croud will put me out of business ( the business of shooting, reloading cartridges & casting bullets for my self ) by the time I get started...

do you guys think there could be a ban on full lead projectiles for the general shooting & hunting public in the near future ??? I live in MN, not Kali, but am draggng my feet a bit, before I start buying bullet molds for everything...

your thoughts ???

[PA-Joe]

That is why you want to cast them into bullets ASAP! They ban making new ones.

[Unclenick]

Depends. California has banned hunting with lead south of SanFrancisco, except for a band of counties in the middle of the state, as part of the California Condor protection regulations. There is some history of other states gradually following California's lead on environmental issues, but not always. No California Condors to worry about elsewhere, and the EPA declined to try to regulate lead bullets this year over an exemption bullets have to such regulation under the law. Probably something the NRA got included in legislation. I'm not worrying about it yet, but do keep an eye open for state regulations and go on line and contribute public comments where they are solicited.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Short answer: No.

[Uncle Buck]

I do not think a lead ban is imminent, but I do think that eventually it will come, or it's use will be severely curtailed.

Unlike you, I only load for a few different calibers and I do not cast anything. I still buy bullets every month. Right now I have about 5,000 on hand.

I am actually more concerned with the availability of primers and I worry like heck that someone is going to push for a license to buy powder. I stock up on all the component I can. But I do not go over board. When I can, I buy a few of this and a few of that and stick it in the ammo cans for storage.

[mikld]

Eventually we'll have to face a lead ban, IMHO, but no time soon. Tree huggers and polititions are trying hard to convence everyone that lead is some evil demon set on poisoning all the human beings on earth. Some states have already banned lead fishing sinkers and some have tried lead bullet bans too, but unsuccessfully. In CA the lead wheel weights pry themselves off wheels and drop along side the hyw. where they are ground up and rain will wash the lead down into the water table and poison everyone that drinks water. Evil little buggers, eh?

I have only been casting for 7 or 8 years and I'm still on the look-out for lead; tire stores, yard sales, flreabay, etc., and pick some up whenever I can. Yep, stockpiling...

[BDS-THR]

Search for replacements for lead has already started. I have a feeling that if/when lead use is curtailed, we probably be reloading something else already. More than likely, the "other" material bullets will just be larger for the same weight as lead bullets.

I have even shot compressed clay frangible bullets several years back (who would have thought using compressed dirt as bullets?). I doubt they would ban dirt anytime soon.

[DRBoyle]

If I could weight in brief. I don't want to add to speculation, rumour, inuendo
etc, but something occurs to me when you mention lead and banning.

Seeing a pattern play out where a softer sell means appealing to sentiment
to hide a real intent. The example is lead being lead banned because someone in power actually cares about the environment. A surveyor I met at a friends family gathering 5 years ago mentioned that the cost of lead was always going to increase due to to amount being pulled out of the ground.
He referrenced the top in relation to car batteries and the move to rechargable/hybrid technology. The point is, I think the arguement translates
to casting and banning of lead.

Here is an article from some time back indicating the surveyor may have
been correct.

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/News/2007/6/Pages/Lead-Prices-Hit-Record-High-Due-to-Lower-Exports.aspx

It might be the real reason for banning lead has to do with trade agreements, raw material prices, investment for mining projects etc than any real concerns.

However empty sentiment being the tool of puppet politicians, means enviromental concerns are cited.


The enviroment has been positioned now in our time as a huge talking point world wide.

Agree or disagree, there is the fact a lot of energy expended.

Meanwhile, big money is made and a social agenda is set on quite
a large scale.

I would encourage you to research this supposed lead price trend before making a decision to hoard. However you should consider these larger scale concerns of larger scale people, when hearing the lip service of some weasel politico.

my two cents.

[sonnycrockett]

Funny,they want to ban this and that......
Well how much damage is lead bullets actually doing to the environment ?
Not much! How much is industry polluting our air....HUGE !

They want to ban Industry as well,treehuggers want all the dirty factories in
china and india and not in America - So no jobs for us they all go overseas
and our air is clean but taxes and unemployment SKYROCKET......Oh wait
we are already there.....no jobs,high taxes and Look at the home of the treehugger in Cali,they are almost bankrupt !

[Don P]

do you guys think there could be a ban on full lead projectiles for the general shooting & hunting public in the near future ??? I live in MN, not Kali, but am draggng my feet a bit, before I start buying bullet molds for everything

I won't tell if you don't. Personally I would get the molds, make bullets and have fun.

[SVO]

I can see the possibility of the EPA declaring outdoor gun ranges to be a Superfund site and closing them.

[Don P]

I can see the possibility of the EPA declaring outdoor gun ranges to be a Superfund site and closing them.

Maybe, the EPA has more super-fund sites than they know what to do with now especially the one between Texas and Florida know as the Gulf of Mexico. I don't see this happening in our life time.