Traditional ammo ban hurts

Guns Magazine, August, 2009

Hunting has declined in areas where California last year banned the use of traditional ammunition with lead components, costing the Department of Fish and Game in excess of $200,000 in lost tag fees, reports outdoor writer Jim Matthews in the San Bernardino Sun. Sales of deer tags for the seven zones affected by the ban declined after three years of gains there, and tags for wild pigs were down as well.

While hunting increased outside the geographic scope of the ban, the decline appeared to confirm a Responsive Management study that showed approximately 25 percent of hunters would either quit big-game hunting or hunt less in California if a ban was adopted. Among the reasons cited for the decline was non-lead ammo costs more than traditional ammunition. "NSSF fought the ban on traditional ammunition because there was no conclusive evidence California condors were being harmed by it and because hunters offered to voluntarily take steps to prevent ingestion of spent bullet fragments by burying game entrails," said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.

--Courtesy NSSF