When the ban on lead for waterfowling was being introduced in the US and Canada, our major (in fact, the only at the time) outdoor magazine ran a series of articles on lead vs non-tox shot, with some expert opinion. The series generated a flow of readers' letters, and I vividly remember one of those. It ran like this:

"I load my shells on a table in my backyard. I keep chicken, and every time a pellet drops on the ground, a chicken will run up and peck for it, thinking it's something edible. And every time the chicken will recognise something is wrong, and spit the pellet right out! Now, if a domestic chicken is smart enough to know that a lead pellet it not food, you'll never convince me that a wild duck, who's ten times smarter than any chicken, will be stupid enough to gulp it down!"

Now, I guess a ban on lead shot is not exactly a laughing matter. But every time I hear about this nonsense, that old letter comes back to me, and never fails to cheer me up!

Russian Hunting Shotguns