I am sometimes a defender of issues unpopular with some in the Sierra 
Club. I would liked to discuss the steel vs. lead shot issue. The issue 
is not near as simple as some my think.

Over 30 years ago federal law required those hunting geese and ducks to 
start using steel or other nonlead shot. There was evidence that some 
waterfowl that fed along the bottom were picking up lead and dying of 
lead poisoning. The situation was unique to waterfowl hunting because it 
is done over the very limited areas of water, especially shallow water, 
used by ducks and geese. The steel shot will rust away eventually and 
not poison waterfowl if consumed. Hunters quickly embraced this solution 
because it was good for waterfowl. There are several problems with 
nonlead shot. First is the expense. A box of steel shotgun shells can 
cost significantly more than shells with lead shot. Shot with tungsten 
and bismuth cost even more. Also, some think the harder steel damages 
their shotgun barrel. Most important, steel is less dense than lead ,and 
for an equal weight of shot steel pellets must be larger than lead ones. 
Fewer balls of steel can fit into a shotgun shell compared to a lead 
shell. That creates a less dense shot pattern at a distance and leads to 
more wounding of birds. Also, the lower density and greater size of 
steel shot means the shot hits with less force that results in more 
wounded birds.

I was surprised at the effort by the Sierra Club and others to require 
steel shot for dove hunting. Dove hunters use very tiny shot pellets 
(the size of a big pencil dot) to create a large, dense pattern to hit 
the fast flying, maneuvering dove. As above, steel shot means fewer 
pellets per shell with less force resulting in more wounding. Unlike the 
concentrated waterfowl hunting areas, dove hunting occurs over wide 
areas and the shot is scattered over wide areas. Dove hunting usually 
takes place over crop fields. It would help to know what animals might 
consume enough lead shot to cause morbidity and mortality. Deer, 
turkeys, and squirrels do not feed like some ducks that filter the 
bottom of ponds for food. They are capable of picking up individual 
kernels of corn or soybean.

I have never seen any scientific study that shows lead shot is 
detrimental to wildlife outside of aquatic areas. If you know of any 
please let me know. But just thinking, hunters use large quantities of 
lead shot when hunting pheasant. There is a heck of a lot of lead shot 
sitting around Iowa fields (not to mention Kansas and S. Dakota). If the 
lead shot was so detrimental, we should have solid evidence of the ill 
effects by now.

Don’t confuse the small shot of bird hunting with the problem of lead 
poisoning in condors. A deer might be wounded with a bullet that 
contains a much larger lump of lead. When the wounded deer dies, the 
condor might well consume a lethal does of lead. Copper bullets are 
available and might be required in areas of concern with condors. At 
this point in their development, copper bullets are not as accurate as 
lead bullets. Perhaps further R and D will solve this problem. 
Inaccurate bullets can wound rather thanhumanely kill wildlife.

Most deer hunters in Iowa use lead bullets. A missed shot means ½ to 1 
ounce of lead lying around the forest. Again, if that causes a problem I 
think we would know about it. I use the copper bullets for deer hunting .

Finally, I think some need to examine their conscience. When the dove 
hunting bill was passed, the battle was lost for the antihunters. You 
might complain that the legislative process was too cryptic, etc., but 
that is beside the point really. After the bill passed, this email 
newsletter caused some to quickly start calling for the use of steel 
shot on doves. I doubt that these nonhunters knew much of anything about 
the above concerns about steel shot. It seemed to me that the call for 
steel shot was more about people being piqued at the dove hunting and 
seeking some revenge. If you think steel shot is so good for doves, 
where’s you voice been all these years while hunters used lead shot on 
pheasant?

For the steel vs lead shot, there are the ever present tradeoffs as in 
most issues. I do not see any evidence that using steel shot for doves 
will benefit wildlife. It may balance out to be more harmful to the 
wounded wildlife.

Lanny Schwartz

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