Hmmmmmmm

[philpot 4,929]

This email arrived this morning which is the part we are interested in, I leave it for you to comment.

 

 

 

UK REACH consultation - effectiveness of non-lead
airgun ammunition

Terry Behan

Terry Behan is BASC East's regional director has been with us just over four years. Terry is a chartered surveyor, a housing practitioner and a member of the Chartered Institute of Building.

In the second in our series centred around the UK REACH consultation on proposals to ban the outdoor use of lead ammunition in England, Scotland and Wales, Terry Behan reports on BASC’s testing of non-lead airgun pellets.

As outlined in my previous blog, the UK REACH consultation – undertaken by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – proposed a total ban on outdoor use of all forms of lead in ammunition with limited derogations.

Under current proposals all use of lead airgun ammunition outdoors would be prohibited, directly impacting the majority of the estimated four million airgun owners in the UK. As the proposals stand, the sector would be granted a five-year transition period to move away from lead airgun ammunition.

Airgun users have raised significant concerns regarding the evidence behind the planned restrictions, as well as the current viability of non-lead airgun ammunition. 

In the interests of our members and for the sector as a whole, BASC teams undertook testing alongside the Basingstoke Air Rifle and Pistol Club to ensure the HSE have the correct information when making their decisions.

 

Testing protocol

Non-lead airgun pellets are mainly a combination of tin and zinc, both of which contain a lower density than lead. As both lead and non-lead airgun pellets are generally of uniform size (relative to calibre), the current non-lead pellets are much lighter in grain weight than lead pellets.

Lighter projectiles, unless shot at a higher velocity, suffer from lower energy transference and reduced accuracy. As such, we undertook a series of range-based accuracy and muzzle energy tests with a variety of lead and non-lead airgun ammunition in .177 and .22 calibre, the two most popular airgun calibres in circulation.

Shots were fired at targets positioned 25 metres from the firing point. A series of 25 shots were taken (five groups of five shots), with further series of ten shots fired to record the muzzle energy produced.

We also conducted some additional testing over 50 metres. This was to ascertain the accuracy of the lead and non-lead ammunition at ranges encountered by highly proficient live quarry shooters, as well as those shooting disciplines such as ‘Hunter Field Target’ (HFT).

 

 

Results

BASC’s Air Rifle Code of Practice advises a maximum grouping of 30mm to ensure a humane kill.

Across all the tested rifles in .177, the average grouping of the lead ammunition options was 25.31mm, compared with the non-lead pellets where the average grouping was 35.54mm.

For .22 rifles, the lead ammunition averaged a group size of 25.66mm, compared to the non-lead group size of 38.33mm.

Muzzle energy results

Within our Air Rifle Code of Practice, we state the energy requirement for shooting live quarry to ensure a humane kill to be 11ft/lbs. The average energy of the tested .177 non-lead airgun pellets fell short of that mark, with none of the options meeting the 11ft/lbs target.

The .177 non-lead airgun pellets produced consistently lower muzzle energy compared to the lead options tested. This is expected given that the average weight of the tested non-lead pellets was 6.12 grains as opposed to 8.74 grains for the lead pellets.

The average muzzle energy of tested .22 non-lead pellets was also below target, with just one option exceeding the 11ft/lbs requirement. Conversely, all .22 lead pellets tested registered above 11ft/lbs. As with the .177, there was a weight component to this; the non-lead pellet weighed 12.96 grains versus 15.97 grains for the tested lead options.

Fragmentation 

Following assessment of accuracy and penetration, our team investigated loss of pellet weight once it hit the target in order to establish any transference of lead particles to shot quarry, causing potential implications for human health.

We did this by recording the weight before and after taking a shot at ballistic soap (simulating a shot in quarry), calculating any weight reduction in the pellet.

The five airgun pellets fired into the ballistic soap had a collective weight of 40.1 grains prior to loading into the airgun.

Post recovery, the same five pellets (once cleaned and dried) had the identical weight. This demonstrates that there was no loss of weight of pellets after firing through the rifle and into the ballistic soap. The results suggest that lead residues are not left in the ballistic soap during impact or in creation of the wound channel.

Ranges of 50 metres

None of the tested airgun pellet combinations were consistently able to group 30mm at 50 metres.

The results did however show that the lead options were more accurate than lead-free options of the same calibre at this distance, but the average was still outside the 30mm.

 

Our results suggest that the tested non-lead pellets in .177 and .22 calibre achieve neither sufficient accuracy nor muzzle energy to be suitable for shooting live quarry. In contrast, the tested lead pellets were shown to achieve the desired accuracy and muzzle energy to be sufficient for the shooting of live quarry out to 25 metres.

The results also suggest that the tested lead-free options would not be suitable for ‘sports target shooting’, particularly competition shooting given that the accuracy demanded for this is much more stringent than for live quarry shooting.

Conclusions

Our testing provides evidence to support concerns that the current non-lead airgun pellets may not be universally effective for the humane shooting of live quarry.

The results show that lead airgun pellets do not fragment when fired into ballistic soap and so support a position that lead airgun pellets present a negligible risk of lead exposure to humans consuming game shot with lead airgun pellets. Furthermore, that removal of the wound channel and pellet, in line with game meat handling best practice, would eliminate any risk of exposure.

Without significant development of lead-free alternative airgun ammunition, the current UK REACH proposals are likely to have a significant impact on the ability to conduct humane shooting of small game and vermin species.

BASC is calling on the HSE to drop all proposed restrictions relating to airgunning for both target shooting and live quarry shooting.

You can read BASC’s full response to the UK REACH consultation here.

[foxdropper 17,092]

I’ll not hold my breath then .There’s hope but if airguns are allowed it why not .22 subs and 17 hmr .Would start  an in house battle for equality .

[villaman 9,980]

It’s only this country the rest of the world can carry using lead 

[philpot 4,929]

On 19/02/2023 at 00:50, villaman said:

It’s only this country the rest of the world can carry using lead 

It is a joke, there simply is not a metal that will work in airgun, both sub 12 and fac and of course rimfire. The idiots pushing this will destroy shooting in this country but I guess that is the intention don't you think.

[villaman 9,980]

2 minutes ago, philpot said:

It is a joke, there simply is not a metal that will work in airgun, both sub 12 and fac and of course rimfire. The idiots pushing this will destroy shooting in this country but I guess that is the intention don't you think.

Exactly that Phil