Article on fibre vs plastic

This might be of interest, I am not biased either way, I shoot fibre only because almost everywhere I shoot asks for fibre.

https://www.sportingshooter.co, .uk/features/clay-shooting/plastic-vs-fibre-the-great-debate-1-5976018

Shooters make a stick for their own collective back's. If we keep on like this we might as well just accept the abolition of lead shot now! Clay target shooting is done in a controlled environment we know where the plastic is definitively so why not either keep animals out of the area or clean up after shooting?  

Eley now have Bio degradeable wads that look like plaswads.

Interesting one this. I never shoot fibre or felt wads for two reasons, firstly because their inferior to plastic and secondly, because no ground I visit requires me to do so. I don't know of any other competitor that does either.

That said, I'm not blind to the mess they make and the time grounds spend tidying them. I'd switch to fibre or felt if necessary but only once it is mandated by the rules and a level playing field exists.

Jan Powell said:

Interesting one this. I never shoot fibre or felt wads for two reasons, firstly because their inferior to plastic and secondly, because no ground I visit requires me to do so. I don't know of any other competitor that does either.

That said, I'm not blind to the mess they make and the time grounds spend tidying them. I'd switch to fibre or felt if necessary but only once it is mandated by the rules and a level playing field exists.

Click to expand...

Of course if it is a mandate from the ground in question ... but to go out and make a  magazine piece to highlight shooters use single use plastics is just another step along the way to having it stopped... lead shot after that... someone above complaining about noise ... at a shooting ground! And he is a shooter... what next compulsory silencers ?  Or wait even better just have nothing in the gun you call fro the target and shout bang at the apropriate time and have someone behind judging where or not you would have hit... and broken the target... judge's descision final and red card for anybody who argues .

jwpzx9r said:

judge's descision final and red card for anybody who argues .

Click to expand...

so you're saying that you're too confrontational to shoot civilized trap? oke:

And we think plastic wads need to be banned what about this mess!

photo taken from London marathon today

jonz said:

And we think plastic wads need to be banned what about this mess!

View attachment 7692

Click to expand...

Indeed, And all that litter on the ground as well!!!!

There's a slightly bigger operation to clean it all up than at most clay grounds.

I'll put the shooters up against any group in the litter/person category.  Just consider the potential load if there were as many shooters as there are runners

just sayin'

Steel shot next on the list!

Recently returned from Germany where I was doing some work on one of the largest clay ground in the country. All steel shot, no lead, but the wads were still plastic. So you pick your angle I suppose. As soon as we have a felt cupped wad I can see it all becoming felt & steel only.

OK I will accept that plastic is a major problem and I for one would readily swap to fibre wads. What I would like to see is the Cartridge Manufacturers doing their bit and bring the cost of fibre wads into line with plastic (NOT by raising the cost of plastic either ! ).  BUT, the lead shot issue has arisen yet again. WHEN someone can show me positive proof of the damage to wildlife caused by lead shot, then perhaps I will take notice.

westley said:

WHEN someone can show me positive proof of the damage to wildlife caused by lead shot, then perhaps I will take notice.

Click to expand...

As far as I can see the only damage done to wildlife is when it’s shot by lead...?

Just thinking where does lead come from? Is it man made ? Or grow on trees? Or excreted from some rare exotic beast? Nope, the actual answer,  it comes from the ground.  

when you shoot your lead filled cartridges, where does the lead end up  

this world’s gone mad I tell thee 

westley said:

WHEN someone can show me positive proof of the damage to wildlife caused by lead shot, then perhaps I will take notice.

Click to expand...

Lead shot damage to any aspect of the environment has never been scientifically documented.  People ingested more lead thru breathing lead additives to gasoline than any wild animal.  A couple studies were done when I was still working for CalTrans that showed the lead levels from burned fuel in the soil adjacent to freeways was high enough that it could be carried on the workers boots into their homes in detectable quantities  exceeding recommended levels.  Nobody died.

Wonko the Sane said:

People ingested more lead thru breathing lead additives to gasoline than any wild animal

Click to expand...

Excactly this is why we don't shoot lead in Denmark any more. Back in the mid nineties when the whole lead in fuel thing was going on, a minister jumped the bandwagon and banned lead shots also. So we have been shooting steel (or the extremely expensive other variants) since 1996.

That being said I do believe that lead pellets can hurt waterfowl, other than the obvious. When they digest lead shots instead of pebbles to help grinding their food (have no clue what you call it in English) they can get very sick. 

Lars

I have been a shooter for decades, I love the sport and would defend it vigorously BUT I think some of us need to be more aware of the dangers of lead to waterfowl.

Lead is poisonous, plain and simple. Waterfowl (and most birds) swallow grit which lodges in the gizzard which is a large grinding muscle that grinds up their food, (we don't need a gizzard because we have teeth.) The grit is constantly passing through with the food and needs to be replaced so the bird picks up more, ingesting it constantly. The bird can't tell the difference between grit and lead shot and that is the problem, it all gets ground up and digested.

That's why we get sick and dead wildfowl due to lead poisoning.

Gizzard :- (avert your eyes if you are squeamish)

Are you saying that the lead in THAT bird's gizzard, was the cause of it's demise  ?  I was a wildfowler both on the marsh and inland on rivers for a great number of years, yes I saw pricked birds that had fallen and never been picked and I saw several that had collided with power lines. I have also shot birds that had previously been 'pricked' and had then survived an entire close season, until being shot by myself.

Bear in mind that most houses that were built prior to 1970's WILL still have lead water service pipes (that's the bit between the water main and your property). Obviously the the water Companies have not heard about the lethal properties of lead yet  ?

MMmm confit duck gizzards tasty! I really doubt the toxicity debate in regards to lead to be honest ... but that debate just gives the anti's another club to bash us with. There are way more lethal elements and  chemicals floating about the atmosphere than lead... how about the many different radio nuclides that spewed out of both Windscale and Chernobyl  ... Plutonium anybody ? One or two atoms are enough! Anyway don't you worry about a thing the government has assured us all is well... which it probably is... but how can we be sure? How are you going to enjoy that Welsh lamb joint at the weekend... irradiated to perfection with a luminescent jus   

jwpzx9r said:

. irradiated to perfection with a luminescent jus   

Click to expand...

Few things make me salivate like luminescence   hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm