Lead shot vs steel: The Field's guide to the ballistics

The organisations that represent live-quarry shooting have said that they want to move away from the use of lead shot over the next five years. Quite an ambition, and something some gun and cartridge manufacturers have been working on for years. But is it attainable within the limits of science and today’s guns?

Hitting a bird with enough energy to produce a clean kill is the core skill of every shot. In the gameshooting world, lead has been the projectile of choice for centuries. It is dense, soft and cheap, and a perfect material to transfer energy from gun to target. But, as we now know, its chemistry has a harmful effect in living organisms. That evidence obliges us to look for alternatives to reduce the overall effect on our environment. So, what else is available to do the job?

To produce that clean kill, we need to fire enough shot with enough energy to provide coverage and penetration. That combination of pattern and lethal energy transfer is the collective responsibility of gunmaker, ammunition manufacturer and shot. Almost all our guns have been designed around lead shot as the primary projectile but that doesn’t mean we can’t use other materials, if we provide coverage and penetration.

So, what are the options? Physics reminds