doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com EPIC Game Fair vs Vintage Cup Exhibitors

I may be here by myself but I am glad to see someone standing up for the environment. No-Tox and Bismuth loads are readily available, although they cost a little more. If everyone would do a small thing for the environment, perhaps there will be an environment left for future generations. IMHO

Best Regards, George

Jent P Mitchell III says:
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July 2, 2011 at 11:08 am
Hello Foxhall, Your sporting clays course will be a total failure if you do not allow standard lead shot to be used to shoot sporting clays. Yes, I know you said I can borrow one of your junk guns to shoot steel shot. We do not want to shoot junk guns. We want to use our custom fitted beautiful over and under shotguns or one of our vintage side-by-side shotguns that shoots correctly for us. There is nothing harmful about lead shot as long as you do not eat it !

Jent P Mitchell III
Reply

I left this on a BBS for FOXHALL. I would encourage all of us here to let FOXHALL know how we feel about steel shot. Jent

You can let FOXHALL know what you think at the website----

http://epicgamefairblog.org/2011/06/03/m...all/#comment-26

Jent

There is a principle here, and that should trump the practical problem of steel shot in good guns. This is easy - the statement that needs sending will arrive loudly by boycotting this event. I sure will, and recommend others do so as well.

Foxhall will really get that message, and its unlikely to be received otherwise.

George, lead is a naturally occurring element. We mine it out of the ground. It's not radioactive, like uranium. We've been shooting it on ranges much older than Foxhall for a very long time. The only potential damage I'm aware of from accumulated shot fall would be if it were to drop into water, where it might be ingested by waterfowl. Or perhaps it might be picked up as grit by certain other bird species--although that does not appear to be happening often enough that biologists can demonstrate via population decline (as they did with ducks, back when we still shot them with lead) that any specific SPECIES is suffering harm.

We have to be very careful that what's being sold to us as "protecting the environment" does not have a strong ulterior motive behind it--like intentionally taking aim at hunting and the shooting sports.

I will not go to a vintage gun event that requires "non-toxic" shot on the clays course.

Best,

Mike

I don't think its Foxhall that needs to get the message as much as the EPIC organizers - Safari Club & Quail Unlimited - who should know better than to have selected a lead free venue and put the event opposite the Vintage Cup. They're the ones who can fix both problems for next year.

I was officiating at the Commonwealth Games Clay shooting events held at the hallowed English Bisley ranges in 2002.
Over a beer at the end of the day, the talk got around to the subject of lead shot. Bisley has been in continuous use as a rifle range since 1890, in recent years as a shotgun range too. The Bisley management state that the lead laying around does not cause a hazard to life as there is little water on the grounds and is of no concern.

At the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games we officials were discussing the possiblity of being forced to use steel shot for ISSF World Cups and Olympic Clay Target events. It is my understanding that the ISSF would prohibit the use of steel shot because of the danger to shooters, officials and spectators, due to the high risk of ricochet of steel pellets from the targets and infrastructure such as skeet houses and trap bunkers.
Don't shoot your eye out, right?
Reclamation of lead shot at shotgun ranges is practical and cost-effective and is the answer.
I would not suport an event such as this Epic Game Fair as they are insisting on non-toxic shot except for a bone tossed to lead shot users of a small set aside area. The organisers say they will have loaner guns for steel shot on the sporting course, well, if I can't shoot my Wm Evans and am forced to use a borrowed Mossberg 500.
So I'll just stick with the Flatwater and hopefully the UP shoot for 2012, can't afford the Vintagers Cup, but I would if I could.
Send a strong message to the Epicureans,
1) stuff your no lead ban
2) I'm boycotting your event

If you do go, make sure you have the best wrap-around shooting glasses you can buy, aviator styles won't protect your eyes enough.
Mike

Mike, I'm appreciate your post. It reflects my thoughts perfectly. It seems to me that participation in this event with the current restrictions amounts to passive acceptance of a lead ban at the very least. In most environments lead is harmless. Why encourage the greater adoption of "bad science"?

Have you gone there and let them know what you think? I did.