Shot law has poor aim
Critics say target should have been all of Canada

by Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 01/97) - New rules banning lead shot for migratory bird hunting stunned the industry --not because the changes were too tough but because they were weaker than everybody expected, ammunition expert Paul Simms said.

Federal Environment Minister Christine Stewart last month announced a ban on lead shot for hunting migratory birds. But the change, effective today and coinciding with the opening of duck season, applies only to wetlands.

It won't apply to all of Canada until 1999.

"The marketplace was inventoried, poised and ready to convert to steel shot," Simms said during a recent visit to the NWT.

Simms' company, B.C.-based Coast to Coast Sports Marketing, sells ammunition to distributors.

"From a business perspective, all the distributors and dealers were gearing up for the law to change to non-toxic shot," he said.

Non-toxic shot is shot with less than one percent lead by weight.

"We thought non-toxic was (Canada-wide for) fall '97," Simms said. "The industry was prepared to accept this but now the consumer is put in a position to make the decision (and) he knows how lead shoots."

Fort Smith resident Dave Dragon, an avid duck hunter, also thought the ban would be Canada-wide today.

"Until there's a complete ban, it won't be easy to find (steel shot)," he said.

Dragon said with "steel you have to be really close" to kill the bird. If not, the bird may only be wounded and end up dying in the bush.

The Canadian Wildlife Service and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters also thought the new rules would be Canada-wide this year.

A pamphlet produced jointly by the Wildlife Service and the Ontario federation had anticipated non-toxic shot rules would be Canada-wide this year.

Superior Canadian Munitions Ltd. president Garry Edwards said from his Edmonton office that for government to make this announcement "one week before hunting season (was) ludicrous."

Superior is one of only two Canadian companies that makes lead shot.

Edwards said he fought the introduction of steel shot for two years -- his company manufactures only lead shot. Banning lead shot for migratory bird hunting won't kill his business though, he said.

The company has a market of target shooters and others buyers.

Government is changing laws to eliminate lead shot because lead poisoning kills thousands of birds who eat fallen lead pellets each year.

Pellets often lodge in the bird's gizzard, where acid and grinding action dissolves the lead, which is then absorbed. Predatory birds also suffer because they eat other birds that have ingested lead pellets.

Under the new rules, hunters have to use non-toxic shot for hunting waterfowl and most other migratory game birds within 200 metres of any watercourse or water body.

"What is a body of water? The release (from Environment Canada) tells us nothing," Simms said.

Simms also said the department, in having the law apply only to wetlands, did not ask the right people the right questions. "You can tell by who they advised."

Simms said most of the groups first informed of change were gun-friendly.

On shot performance, Simms said so far steel is the best alternative to lead.

Lead gives the best "shot string or shot cloud," he said.

If a shotgun generates a shot string four metres long by one metre wide using lead, a shot string two metres by 50 centimetres would be produced with steel, he said.

To compensate, bird hunters can pay a gunsmith to have their gun's choke opened, or buy new weapon with a more suitable choke -- the tapering at the barrel's end.

On shot cost, Simms said lead is cheaper at $7.95 to $29.95 for 25 shells while a box of 25 steel shells costs between $16.95 and $27.95.

Tungsten, another alternative to lead, is pricey. Ten tungsten shells cost $29.95, he said.

Edwards added that bismuth costs $16 a pound while lead is only 80 cents a pound.

Hunters could buy bismuth shot but it may not be desirable as it shatters into too many pieces. Simms demonstrated by dropping a weight down a tube to collide with lead, steel and bismuth BBs. Lead and steel only flattened slightly while bismuth shattered.

Hunters, he said, won't be eager to bite the bullet and clean so much bismuth out of a bird.