Ask Fish and Game: Legal Shot for Waterfowl

Q. I know lead shot has been outlawed for waterfowl hunting for many years now, but is all the lead-substitute shot on the market these days legal? A. When the ban on lead shot for waterfowl went into effect in the early 1990s, many waterfowlers were not happy with their choice in shotshells. The range of alternatives available today, however, can be a bit confusing. Shot approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service includes steel, steel with coatings (less than 1 percent of copper, nickel, zinc chromate or zinc chloride), bismuth-tin, tungsten-iron, tungsten-polymer, tungsten-matrix, tungsten-nickel-iron, tungsten-iron-nickel-tin, tungsten-tin-bismuth, tungsten-tin-iron, tungsten-iron-copper-nickel, and tungsten-bronze.