A big part of the reason we have to shoot non-toxic shot.....
 

Is because lead ingestion supposedly killed some eagles. I'm not hearing much about this over the news and I'm guessing they aren't going to ban wind turbines anytime in the future......

http://news.yahoo.com/study-wind-far...160226373.html

Maby they can start makeing them out of nontoxic materials.

A conservationist friend of mine told me several years ago that wind turbines killed birds.

Yes Mills, that's true and especially so for birds that are migrating as they tend to fly higher on their migratory routes. Local songbirds tend to flit from tree to tree and generally don't fly high enough to be hit by a blade.

While what I'm gonna say has nothing to do with turbines . I can remmember when Lordship shut down and the Great Eastern was cancelled for a number of years until they brought it to Greenbelt at the old Beretta Gun Club . And I understand they were putting x amount of tons of shot in the water each year . I also remmember when they shut down the old trap fields at the Ann Arundal Gun Club for the same reason .

Now I realize the magnitude of shot skeet and trap clubs can dump in a marsh or waterway can be immense ,whats considered an acceptable level for wildlife and human alike ?

The reason I ask is this . I hunt the Blackwater NWR each year and the Chincoteague NWR the years I get drawn . And ALL of the areas in both places are open to LEAD buckshot and slugs . Now granted there might be lets say 1,000 loads of buck and slugs shot on each refuge yearly . But wouldn't that be the same thing ?

I mean it's kinda like the frickin condor in Cali or whatever it is they forbid the use of any lead !

Chevron was sued by the government for serious money because approximately 20 birds died in a oil catch/recovery pond where Chevron was drilling a new well--North Dakota, I think. Yet the ground California wind farms is littered with dead birds and the wind farms are exempt from prosecution.

The reasoning for banning lead shot for waterfowl was that it was thought that the fowl ingested the spent pellets as grit, making them weak and vulnerable to the eagles. The eagles then ingested the pellets through eating the fowl, became sick and died. The main reason for the explosion in the eagle comeback was the banning of DDT. Period! I don't think that the larger buckshot and slugs will be available to fowl to ingest so you should be OK Craig. As far as I know Craig, rifles are legal in Dorchester and Worchester counties in the marshes where you hunt. Good luck.

Rifles are legal in Dorchester but not on the Blackwater !

I believe in parts of California, you even have to shoot lead free rifle bullets and buckshot. Something about crippled game being eaten by condors or some other overblown liberal tall tale.....

DLH

Maybe a condor will get whacked by a wind turbine. Keeping my fingers crossed....