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According to this article (full disclosure: I wrote it) lead-based ammunition is a well-known threat to Condors and other scavengers, and may have negative effects on humans who unknowingly ingest bullet fragments.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that lead-free ammunition performs just as well as lead-based ammunition, without the potential side-effects, and lack of adoption is largely due to habit (we like to use what we have always used).

So, my question is two-part:

  1. Are there documented performance differences between lead-based vs lead-free ammunition?
  2. Have any hunters who have used both noticed a marked difference in performance?

NOTE: I re-posted this technical question for the firearms experts at firearms.stackexchange.com - if you have an answer, join in.

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Migrate to firearms.stackexchange.com? – Graham Feb 4 at 9:17
I'm wondering if in essence this is about firearm performance and only tangentially related to the outdoors since it seems a given that leaving lead shot in the environment is the only tie to the outdoors and not really in question. – bmike Feb 4 at 18:22
@bmike -- I think this is about hunting, which is directly (not tangentially) "great outdoors", but that it's even more appropriately on firearms... (hence my vote to close). Lead vs. Other shot is a huge hunting debate and not so much a general firearms question. Also however a sometimes hotly argued topic which may be a bad question in general. – Russell Steen♦ Feb 4 at 18:50
Controversy only makes this a bad question if there are no objective arguments. SE makes a fine platform for presenting (NOT DISCUSSING!) such arguments for and against... BTW: I'm reluctant to migrate this, as the focus seems to be primarily on hunting and environmental effects - while that doesn't make it off-topic on Firearms, it does potentially make it on-topic here... And therefore a good scope-defining question, which migration subverts. – Shog9♦ Feb 4 at 19:19
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+1 if nothing else to counteract the -1. This is not a bad question. This is a good question which has served a useful purpose in helping decide scope. – Russell Steen♦ Feb 5 at 1:33
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closed as off topic by Graham, Russell Steen♦, bmike, Kevin♦, studiohack♦ Feb 4 at 21:46

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