California lead ban for hunting does not apply to pellet guns

[RayK]

I want my fellow California airgunners to know the facts.

The California lead ban for hunting does not apply to pellet guns.  It applies only to firearms used for hunting.

You can read it for yourself right here:
https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/hunting/nonlead-ammunition#25046251-are-pellet-rifles-included-in-the-nonlead-ammunition-ban

Under FAQ it says the following:

"Q Are pellet rifles included in the non-lead ammunition ban?"

"A Since pellet rifles are not firearms, the use of lead projectiles in pellet rifles is not prohibited."


Ray

[Number Six]

Yet.

[RayK]

Yet.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. 

California politicians appear to believe their job is to pass as many new laws as possible each year.

Ray

[Airgun.Sniper]

 So in the pursuit of always trying to think and plan ahead....what are the plans for you guys? not many accurate lead free pellets out there on the market at the moment.


 Jay

[Rob112o]

Surprisingly those silly Crosman .177 SSP 4.0gr pellets work well. I got them in a bulk trade and at 10+ bucks a tin of 250, makes me never want to buy them.

[Frank in Fairfield]

The main thing is lead particles in the guts left behind when we shoot then field dress a squirrel, rabbit, etc.
Take the entrails with you in a plastic bag so the Condors don't consume them with the remaining lead.

This also applies to non-game animals shot with an air rifle.

The carcasses have to be removed or buried.

[Wolfer]

My plan is to keep shooting lead pellets. When the law changes to air rifles I will continue to shoot lead pellets. I Now shoot non lead in my center fire rifles and have taken quite a few big game and predators with them but it all stops with air guns. Have to take some stands in life.    Wolfer

[Airgun.Sniper]

 What powder burners do shoot led? dont want to go too in-depth and probably shouldnt even be asking this...but for all i know Duck hunting with lead was out lawed years ago. Now you can only use steel shot. Ive never shot a lead cartridge out of my rifles...only thing i could think possible that has lead is air rifles ya know? Fishing is a different story....

[Frank in Fairfield]

What powder burners do shoot led? dont want to go too in-depth and probably shouldnt even be asking this...but for all i know Duck hunting with lead was out lawed years ago. Now you can only use steel shot. Ive never shot a lead cartridge out of my rifles...only thing i could think possible that has lead is air rifles ya know? Fishing is a different story....

Most centerfire rifles shoot lead bullets.
Granted they are mostly copper coated with lead visible.
.22lr bullets are lead although some non-lead bullets are showing up.
Steel shot is required for ducks and geese because they dive into the water for gravel to help in digesting food andthey ingest lead shot that way.

In fact most hunting regulations dealing with centerfire rifles require soft point (lead is visible) bullets so they expand and expell all of their energy inside the animal.

In the military we use Full Metal Jacketed bullets. Lead bullets encased with a copper jacket.
In a round such as .223 these bullets explode on contact devestating the target.
That is the reason very people survive a round of .223 because of the expolsive effect.

The restriction on lead in California is clearly a anti-hunting ploy.
Nothing more.

[aceflier]

Do they make tungsten pellets? It's heavier than lead I think. I know fishing is migrating to those. And expensive.

[wll2506]

What powder burners do shoot led? dont want to go too in-depth and probably shouldnt even be asking this...but for all i know Duck hunting with lead was out lawed years ago. Now you can only use steel shot. Ive never shot a lead cartridge out of my rifles...only thing i could think possible that has lead is air rifles ya know? Fishing is a different story....

Most centerfire rifles shoot lead bullets.
Granted they are mostly copper coated with lead visible.
.22lr bullets are lead although some non-lead bullets are showing up.
Steel shot is required for ducks and geese because they dive into the water for gravel to help in digesting food andthey ingest lead shot that way.

In fact most hunting regulations dealing with centerfire rifles require soft point (lead is visible) bullets so they expand and expell all of their energy inside the animal.

In the military we use Full Metal Jacketed bullets. Lead bullets encased with a copper jacket.
In a round such as .223 these bullets explode on contact devestating the target.
That is the reason very people survive a round of .223 because of the expolsive effect.

The restriction on lead in California is clearly a anti-hunting ploy.
Nothing more.

As it is my understanding they found all kinds of stuff in condors stomachs... but no lead. That is what I heard from one report a while back ! Very much a ploy ....

wll2506

[Back_Roads]

 On the bright side they are promotin humane hunting with air rifles 

[dcorvino]

So in the pursuit of always trying to think and plan ahead....what are the plans for you guys? not many accurate lead free pellets out there on the market at the moment.


 Jay

I have tested some alloys made jsb that's will be hitting the market soon
These pellets shot great.
Other people who tested these loved them.
I know Monkeydad, shot a pdog at 185 yards with a 22 and a pdog at 200 yards with. 25
Nick Nielson, Russ tried them and liked them


Dave

[Monkeydad1969]

So in the pursuit of always trying to think and plan ahead....what are the plans for you guys? not many accurate lead free pellets out there on the market at the moment.


 Jay

I have tested some alloys made jsb that's will be hitting the market soon
These pellets shot great.
Other people who tested these loved them.
I know Monkeydad, shot a pdog at 185 yards with a 22 and a pdog at 200 yards with. 25
Nick Nielson, Russ tried them and liked them


Dave

True dat!

[Wolfer]

The issue isn,t about alloy pellets. I really think it's exciting that they are producing new alloy pellets in different weights and design but the fact is a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats are trying to feed us a line of !!!!. Alot of policies are happening in this state pertaining to wildlife management such as the bear hunting bobcat hunting with dogs, condor range non lead ban. Can,t set steel jaw traps, and the big one no sport lion hunting. California hunters are going to have to be on their toes.     Wolfer

[cpt_sfc]

Yep YET!!

[Frank in Fairfield]

The one question remains..........

Who voted for them?

It wasn't me!

[Hopalong Cassidy]

The one question remains..........

Who voted for them?

It wasn't me!

I honestly ask myself that question constantly. "Who are these People?" Anybody getting the NRA robo call about contacting our illustrious senators?
Regarding the airgun exemption for lead; I carry a printout from that page in my pickup, just in case I run into a Dudley Do Right type.
Good grief, if it wasn't for the weather, I'd be long gone....

[MDStroup]

Do they make tungsten pellets? It's heavier than lead I think. I know fishing is migrating to those. And expensive.

Simply, never. You will never see pure tungsten projectiles in any sort of gun ever. Only solid tungsten, or powdered tungsten core in a traditional cup an core type bullet. The reason is the tungsten is why harder then the barrel you are shooting out of so it will destroy the rifling. That is why traditional armor piercing bullets have soild tungsten cores.

[MDStroup]

[/quote]

Most centerfire rifles shoot lead bullets.
Granted they are mostly copper coated with lead visible.
.22lr bullets are lead although some non-lead bullets are showing up.
Steel shot is required for ducks and geese because they dive into the water for gravel to help in digesting food andthey ingest lead shot that way.

In fact most hunting regulations dealing with centerfire rifles require soft point (lead is visible) bullets so they expand and expell all of their energy inside the animal

In the military we use Full Metal Jacketed bullets. Lead bullets encased with a copper jacket.
In a round such as .223 these bullets explode on contact devestating the target.
That is the reason very people survive a round of .223 because of the expolsive effect.

The restriction on lead in California is clearly a anti-hunting ploy.
Nothing more.
[/quote]

Alot of misinformation here. Not trying to be stubborn here,  just trying to make sure the right info gets out there so someone doesnt try something they shouldnt.

Most bullets today are cup an core sytle bullets wih lead cores with copper jackets. They generally only have lead if they are a soft point. Copper coating is something completely different, and is generally only done to cast lead bullets to reduce leading in the barrel.

Maybe some states have changed their hunting laws, but most states only have laws saying no FMJ bullets for hunting.

This is the main reason i wanted to correct this post.  The exploding  5.56 NATO. No, just no.
The only hing close is when M193 ball ammo is shot out of a 20. Inch barreled M16/AR15. That is actually shock truma caused from the high velocity combined with the high instability. But it is very velocity dependant.

Almost all USA military ammo is designed to have fragmentation. But that is also velocity dependant. To help that along most of the military ammo has a feature call a cantalure. It is a point on the bullet were the bullet jack is crimpped to the core. It has been used for years. It helps prevent set back of the bullet by having a place were the case can grab onto, and it also helps build more pressure in the cartridge to increase the velocity slightly because of the first benifit. But it helps increaee the frag range because of a side benefit of creating a weak point in the jacket. But that doesnt always work. An when a bullet fragments,  only the jacket breaks. Nothing else happens.

On top of this, .223 remington and 5.56 NATO are two different animals. .223 remington is loaded to a maximum presure of 55,000psi and alot of times loaded no where near that. While 5.56 NATO is loaded with a max pressure of 62,000psi. So things that can happen with military amoo doesnt always happen with civilian ammo.

Why did i go on a rant about military ammo? Because hunting, FMJ, and 223 were all used in the same content. No bullet is magic. We that are older or have experience know this. But someone without that experience sees soemthing like that an now they think they can go use some of that FMJ plinking ammo they saw on the self of the store that is less
expensive than that fancy hunting ammo that isnt needed as their ammo explodes. Then they go off hunting and shoot
 somehting an just badly injury the animal. Now they have a animal in pain an they are freaking. Now possibly turning someone away from the sport an become an anti. I have seen it happen to many times.

We are all hunters in here, so we know we must respect the animal that we are hunting enough to give it as humane death as possible. We as airgun hunters already know we get unnecessary grief form the anti hunting crowd because they dont know what disinhibition is.

Some people may see this as me being a windbag. That is fine. But it wouldnt be right of me to not correct something as minor as this now. Seeing something as i described su-cks. But it can be a learning experience if the person is willing. But it is worse when it happens  and the animal is just left there still alive to bleed out because they didnt want to finish it because of getting in trouble with the game warden for using ammo that isnt allowed. Or worse, them seeing it didnt work that time like they read or were told so they just chalk it up to a fluke and keep trying to hunt with that ammo. I have seen he last two way more then the first.

It anyone want to learn more aboutnthe terminal ballistic of any ammo, look up a Dr. Martain Fackler. He was a former navy field surgeon. Because of his time as a field surgen he got a first hand look at the effect bullets can have on the human body and realized all the misinformation there was. So he ended up dedicating his life to correcting it so we can better treat our soliders injured in combat. He has tested the majority of the rounds in the world before dying in 2015.

I know that there are a few spelling errors. I am sorry. I am on a tablet so i can scroll up to fix it.