You may have heard that EU commission has asked ECHA to come up with the proposal to the use of LEAD as a bullet material. You may have ignored it.

Firearms United has been in contact with experts in ammunition manufacturing industry to find out what it really means in practice for YOU.

The experts that we have been contacting (and contacted by) have characterized the ban as the “serious hit for hunting and death of sportshooting”.

That’s right. Death of Sportshooting as we know it. Sound drastic, but here is why you should take it seriously:

DIRECT IMPACTS TO FIREARMS OWNERS:

– For bullet manufactures to retain same or similar bullet weights with other materials, it pretty much means that longer bullets are needed. This means its hard to make ammunition that fits the specified dimensions for the calibers.

– This directly leads to dangerous over-pressures because longer bullets with same external dimensions mean bullet has to seated deeper in to the case, which can lead to dangerous over-pressure.

– Longer bullets require more tighter barrel twist to stabilize, meaning existing weapons would either lose accuracy or would have to be re-barreled. In case of firearms with historical value this is not possible. For other firearms – its “just expensive”.

– Potential (available at reasonable cost) replacement materials are harder, which translates to significantly increased barrel wear. You can overcome this by using “smaller” bullets but this means significantly less accurate ammunition. In sportshooting accuracy is sort of the point.

– Only “reasonable” material with somewhat to replace lead is BISMUTH. The thing is, BISMUTH is kind of a side product of lead mining, which means that if nobody extracts lead from the ground to make bullets, it means that bismuth will not be available either. The price difference between lead and bismuth shot might be somewhat smaller now, but price will sky rocket as soon as lead is banned.

– Price of ammunition will sky rocket. For hunter this might not necessarily break the bank, but for sportshooter who shoots hundreds of rounds per week, its pretty much end of the sportshooting.

– Home-casting of lead bullets is also being proposed to be banned as a part of these restrictions, meaning no more black powder shooting or for example Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS).

These were the IMPACTs of #EUAmmoBan.

Stay Tuned! Firearms United needs your help to fight this!