My wife and I are moving to Northern Ca next year and as an avid hunter, I want to be able to use my newly aquired .50 cal G.L. Jones flint lock. I'm curious, with California banning all lead ammunition, what are you that hunt down there shooting out of your traditional ML's to abide by these laws?
I don't live in California, but this topic interests me. I'm also interested in birds.
It is my understanding that there is scientific research behind the rule. Lead projectiles tend to fragment, to some extent, on impact. Gut piles frequently contain some of these fragments, and carrion eaters, such as condors, ingest them along with the animal parts they consume from the gut piles. Toxic effects of the lead particles evidently affect their health and reproductive ability. Hence the law requiring non-lead projectiles.
I live in Florida, and am unaffected by this rule. I've looked at it as objectively as possible. There is a lot about it online and in publications, and the research, as presented, seems pretty solid. However, my own professional practice, in healthcare, was driven by science, and I can tell you even scientists sometimes have an axe to grind. I've read articles by respected professionals who looked at the
same problem (for example, the effects of tracheostomy tubes on human swallowing function) and found different results. The point here being that whether you agree with the science or not, people in positions of power have translated it into law, and people who live in the areas affected have to abide by it.
Sorry I can't post a link from the device I am using, but if you would go to Google and enter "ballistic products tombob itx," you should find some links to follow. TomBob Outdoors developed a line of non-lead projectiles intended for muzzleloaders shooting patched round balls. These are evidently composed of an iron-tungsten matrix (that's where the "ITX" designation comes from) produced from powdered metals fused under heat and pressure. I don't think they are frangible, but are meant to hold together. The round balls come in sizes for .32, .45, .50, .54, and .62 caliber. They also produce ITX shot in five sizes, fro #6 to 00 buck. These specific products have been approved by those commissions requiring non-lead projectiles. The round balls have a distinctly visible flat "belt" around the middle, and they come in distinctive packages, so game wardens can recognize the individual bullets or the packages on sight.
Reading the promotional literature, you would think the ITX round balls would be the answer to the California hunter's prayers... Essentially interchangeable with lead balls, minimal weight difference, similar point of impact, good penetration, legal to use, etc. However, in trying to learn more about these, it appears there is a downside.
The most obvious one is cost. These are expensive. The .50 caliber (0.487") balls will cost right at a dollar apiece. Larger balls cost more, smaller ones a bit less, but most of us will not be doing much plinking with these.
I did read one shooting test... Somewhere, I forget... That found accuracy was acceptable but not impressive. I'll need to look that up again.
The other thing is that the ITX balls are apparently quite hard, possibly hard enough to damage your barrel if the patch slips during loading. Hard enough that your ball puller probably won't work if you forget to load powder first. If you go to the Rice Barrels website and read their disclaimers, you get the sense that Rice was thinking of these balls when those disclaimers were written. I was thinking of ordering a couple dozen of the balls just to experiment with them, but decided against it. Just not worth it, to me, to satisfy my curiosity.
I've wondered about other options. On my property, I had a quantity of dirty old copper tubing that I sold to a recycling company a couple of years ago, wondering all the while if it could be melted, cleaned, and cast into balls without ruining a mould. I also have a quantity of unusable ( split or dented) brass left over from my cowboy action phase, and I've wondered the same thing. Comparing brass to copper, which is softer, and which has the lower melting point? Can brass or copper be safely cast into bullets by home craftsmen? Maybe with Lyman or Saeco steel mould blocks? I would think that brass or copper would not be hard enough to damage a modern steel barrel during occasional use, although pulling a ball would probably be pretty difficult.
Interesting discussion.
Notchy Bob
balls has the same wait as lead ,just very costly(like everything in ca) I would find out what the Ca fishermen and upland hunters use for shot/sinkers and see if it can be made into safe round balls
