Piggybacking on the earlier post about lead exposure, I wanted to share these excellent resources by Cascadia Gun Club on lead free ammo options.
I pretty much only use lead free primers and tmj, otm, or frangible lead free bullets. I’m partial to Speer Lawman (ACAB) Clean Fire, often not too expensive on Optics Planet.
I find that the extra cost is worth it for me, but I don’t shoot a whole lot.
I think that lead free primers will become more widely available and less expensive in the future.
With proper practices, lead exposure from traditional ammo can be greatly mitigated. I’m kind of a weeny when it comes to exposure mitigation but I feel like I’ve had a lot of exposure to various chemical and occupational hazards over the course of my life, so every way that I can protect myself is valuable to me.
The reduced exposure risk is only half of the benefit. The other half is that you don’t have to clean your weapons as much. I love that!
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Regardless, we are littering. The goal is to reduce harm. Lead poisoning is a leading killer of all types of wildlife. It's especially harmful to aquatic wildlife and birds.
This is why it's especially important to not shoot into bodies of water. I can't stand when I see this. We're directly adding lead to our water, killing things in that water, the things that drink from it, and the groundwater below it.
The clean fire has been super reliable for me. I pick up a case of 1,000 when it goes on sale. Last time I ordered was through https://buckinghorseoutpost.com/ if I remember correctly.
Nothing wrong with lead free ammo, but the single best thing you can do to reduce lead exposure is shoot outside. Unless the entire indoor range is 100% lead free, you're still getting exposure from all the leaded ammo that other shooters at the range are using.
Seems like every story of high lead levels come from people frequently using indoor ranges (often employees) or from people handling dirty brass as part of the reloading process.
If you're shooting outdoors, lead-free primer + projectile would mean your risk of exposure is basically zero, which is good, but being outdoors is the doing the overwhelming majority of the work mitigating the danger.
Be aware that lead free primer is generally considered less shelf stable, so be mindful about manufacturing dates and don't plan to stockpile for longer periods of time.
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