The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

I would tell them to stick it up their arse and find somewhere or something else to shoot.

Acquiescing is the same as agreeing with their position..

paulmoto wrote:Hi Thanks for your response, from August my local game dealer wont take venison unless its shot with as you say lead free.
Many Thanks

Can't you just dig the bullet out of the kill and stick a non-lead replacement in to salve their woke?

Judging by the responses. In short no we have no information on lead free loads for the 6.5 Creedmoor.

Sim G wrote:.................. Personally, I think it’s Bollox. Some activists are behaving as it lead is polonium or Novochok. It is not a legal requirement but could become so. I don’t shoot game commercially so the outlet is not a concern of mine. After it’s gifted, probably less than 30% of what we shoot will see a game dealer. He made his request, so we’re going to donate it to the local zoos. Got three within half an hour and the all have big cats and wild dogs.

It's interesting and a little enlightening where this business started and gained traction and supporting legislation - California and its reintroduced California Condor, a really big and really, really ugly bird.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_condor

The bird had nearly died out in its natural habitat, then California started a restoration project some decades ago. Many individuals were reared in captivity before release into the wilds initially successfully, but then most mysteriously sickened and died. PMs discovered it was lead poisoning, this deduced to be caused by eating shot deer that hadn't been recovered by the hunter, and/or gralloch or other field-butchering remains. The campaign to save this one bird soon morphed into a much wider movement both in the state and worldwide.

A retired Defra scientist explained to me that because this bird species and a possible handful of other vultures spread around the world were affected, this has little or no bearing on the vast majority of other species, even predators. The California Condor is a type of vulture and almost entirely a carrion eater. As its food is usually rotten and laced with dangerous bacteria, it has an unusual, highly evolved gastric system to cope that uses very powerful, corrosive stomach acids - strong enough to dissolve lead fragments and allow them to get into the bloodstream. This is a rare situation and most predatory animal or bird species aren't affected to anything like the same degree, or at all. Much of the recent scientific debate is about how much 'normal' animals, including humans, are at risk of permanently ingesting lead from shot game. It seems the risk is non-existent to low from this source, but the EU and many western governments are totally addicted these days to the 'precautionary principle' - if there is the slightest, smallest, teeny-weeniest possible risk under vanishingly rare conditions, then ban it.

Alpha1 wrote:Judging by the responses. In short no we have no information on lead free loads for the 6.5 Creedmoor.

This question would be much better asked on the Stalking Directory Forum. Lead-free bullet performance on game and handloading issues are evergreen subjects there, for the same reasons that has made the OP ask here.

In the early days of all-copper bullets, there was often a considerable disparity in maximum charge weights between conventional lead-core and all-copper designs of the same weight. The copper bullet manufacturers have since learned how to keep pressures down, so there is usually much less difference in charges between the types these days. This is particularly so for Barnes designs since the company introduced its TSX models with two to four relief-grooves across the bearing surface. However, since copper models are longer than lead-core types of same weight, similar shape designs, the norm is to run one step lighter in the former. Early smooth sided, uncoated versions such as the original Barnes X were also notorious for depositing copper in the barrel. Not only did this affect precision adversely, it was often of such a nature and extent that chamber pressures were pushed up appreciably.Issues these days are much more about jump to the lands and seating depths in order to get decent groups and acceptable MVs.

Insofar as powder grade is concerned, there is nothing much if anything between the types. As H4350 is the near-universal 6.5 Creedmoor propellant for 120gn and heavier bullets, look at the Reach-compliant alternatives available here - to wit, IMR-4451, Alliant Reloder 16, Ramshot Hunter, Reload Swiss RS60 and 62, Lovex SO65 and 70, Viht N555, Norma 204 and URP and go to the manufacturers' websites for suggestions on loads.