In mid-February most of Europe (except Britain) banned the use of lead shot for any game shooting within 100 metres of any 'water course or lake'. It will be interesting to see if this is enforced in the next season. Even having one cartridge in your pocket counts as an offence!

However at the same time they said that shooting wild boar with a 12 bore roundball would continue to be OK, because the little birds could not swallow such a large lump of lead...