Many ammunition still uses lead, mainly due to the function that they are required to fulfill. In this case, hunting ammunition is intended to slay the prey without damaging the meat too much, or penetrating the creature out through the other side (to hit something else). Hunting ammunition tends to be hollow-points in this case, and they have to be made of poor metals (a type of soft metal) for this purpose - and unfortunately lead happens to be the cheapest (trading at less than US$ 1 per Imperial pound). Other poor metals are so much more expensive, such as bismuth, which is often used as a replacement for lead when material cost is not an issue (i.e. high-value products like cosmetics). Banning lead in ammo will cause rounds to shoot up in cost.
I do know that hunting licenses are issued by the state governments in the USA, but I can't seem to find any example of a hunting license in order to look at the details. As such, I do not know whether these licenses require hunters to reveal the number of bullets they used per season and how many shots went astray (which will, of course, pollute the environment that they end up getting stuck in).
Yet, I have watched and read documentaries on hunters' cultures. They do realize that bullets that stay in the environment WILL pollute it. The more responsible ones would actually keep count of how many rounds were used and attempt to retrieve them all - if they fail to make sure every round lands in the prey, which they would try to.
The problem is that just as there are responsible hunters, there are trigger-happy ones who are just out to abuse the Second Amendment of the USA Constitution. These are the ones that should be focused on, for the short term. For a permanent solution, bullet design is the only reliable one. Unfortunately, there has yet to be a suitable, economical non-toxic replacement for poor metals for hunting ammunition, or a new, cheap bullet design that can replace the hollow-point.
A blanket ban on lead in ammo won't solve this matter as any kind of bullet, regardless of the metal used, will pollute the environment that they end up landing in if they go off-course.
But lead in fishing sinkers? Yes, there should be no lead in it. These are reusable items, so cost should not be a big issue if a more expensive replacement for lead has to be used. (The sinker has to be heavy enough to improve casting distance and such, but even this can be provided by line design.)
Bambi still prefers that you don't use any ammunition of any kind at all though - for good reasons.
Fish would hate you for adding insult to injury - or more precisely, MORE injury - by using lead-weighted sinkers.
Gelugon_baat
Yeah that beats my post. Cheerio.
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