how to adapt a .177 BB to a pellet rifle; no lead pollution of land

Lead in its metallic form is relatively inert. That's why it was being used in flashing on roofs and in sewer connections. Lead in a breathable form, like that found in gasoline is dangerous. So is lead paint which is ingested by rugrats that are not being supervised and chew the scenery. Lead that is ingested by waterfowl and other creatures is processed by their guts into a deadly form also. Rememeber, water is deadly too if it covers your nose for more thatn 10 minutes. Its all in how you process it.

Al

How about these?

's-CO2&secondgroup=Daisy&thirdgroup=Pellet

's-CO2&secondgroup=Daisy&thirdgroup=Pellet Thanks that is just what I needed. And good that Daisy is starting to manufacture nonlead pellets because then I think the other manufacturers will follow suit. And I find it mildly amusing that they call these nonlead pellets for "indoor shooting" so as to not pollute the indoors. And strange to think that lead in the outdoors is okay.

We all know lead is a proven danger. Yet the USA govt agencies tasked with protection of the environment turns a blind eye to the entire Sports industry in allowing land to be filled up with lead contamination and lead in fishing to contaminate waters.

There are many substitutes for lead in bullets or in fishing and Washington DC should protect the environment.

Archimedes Plutonium

whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

Al wrote: (snipped)

I do not think there has been enough research as to whether plants uptake lead. I know that some plants pass off metal contaminants into their fruit bodies so that peach or apricot or plum pits can contain unwanted metals. Whether potatoes and onions store lead in their tissue.

I think the horticulture research as to whether and how much lead in the soil moves through plant tissue is skimpy and flimsy.

Archimedes Plutonium

whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

pellet

nonlead

water.

Have you tried depleted uranium?

Lead makes good pellets and bullets because it has a high specific gravity, 11.35 compared to only 8.96 for copper, and a rather pathetic

7.31 for tin and 7.894 for iron, but uranium has a specific gravity of 19.05, that'll *really* sting those rabbits.

I'll bet somebody will tell me there's a downside somewhere.

Funny man!! How about Gulf War Syndrome? :o) Can you imagine a raccoon with palsey and losing its hair?

Try putting a little tuft of cotton in front of the BB to hold it in place. Are you afraid the bunny will die of lead poisoning? Or are you a lousy shot? A hollowpiont .22 Rimfire will provide a quick death rather than the long pain you will cause with a BB IMO, and the lead exposure, even the cumulative sum of all human activity with lead, to the environment will likely be less than naturally exposed ores and volcanic eruptions.-Jitney

Shooting BBs is dangerous. They bounce back at you if they hit something hard, unlike a pellet. The coefficient of restitution is above .9. I recommend against this.

But if you really insist on doing it, it is supposed to possible to paper patch them. You use a paper patch just the way the muzzle-loader shooters patch their round balls. I've never tried it but have heard that competitive BB shooters used to do this. The patch not only seals the bore but may grip the rifling.

Elmers

plastic

nonlead

environment

Quite. The big question that environmentalists often don't seem ever to consider is this:

Which environment/planet did heavy metals come from?

Fishing weights are a problem because they get ingested by waterbirds, particularly swans, and there are perfectly serviceable alternatives, but redistributing a few grams of lead from one part of the environment to another in the form of pellets is almost certainly not significant.

I would be concerned that a .177 is only just big enough to be reliably lethal to a rabbit, any compromise (and lighter lead-free BBs are a compromise) is going to reduce the lethality further, quite possibly to the point of unnecessary cruelty.

Archimedes Plutonium wrote: (snipped)

protection of the environment turns a

lead contamination and lead in

should protect the environment.

--- quoting BBC in parts --- Isotopes could improve forensics By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff, at the BA festival

A new approach to measuring radioactive isotopes in bones could transform the way forensic pathologists determine the ages of skeletal remains in future.

The novel test uses an isotope, or form, of lead, with a so-called half-life (the decay rate) of 22.3 years.

Forensic anthropologists can use this property to pinpoint the exact year of death many decades in the past. .........

The lead isotope concerned is called 210Pb and is absorbed by humans in their food.

"Although we differ in diets, we all have the same concentrations in our bodies because basically all foods have roughly the same concentrations of these isotopes," said Professor Black. .......

So by establishing the 210Pb deficit in a corpse, scientists can determine to within a year the time of death. ........

This isotope, 210Po, has a much shorter half-life of 138 days. It would pinpoint time of death on the scale of weeks.

.......

--- end quoting ---

I saw this news flash and wanted to tie in to my recent thread on the subject of lead.

The point I want to focus on is the increasing spread of lead in our land and environment when we need not do so.

I easily found a source for lead-free pellets but to think of all those lead ammunition spread all over the world when it need not be.

Some of the pellets are plastic wrapped so that it affects the airgun barrel hardly at all and the metal is a aluminum zinc alloy. Some are steel in a plastic sheath.

I see no excuse for the USA environmental protection agency EPA in getting all lead out of sports so we do not pollute the land and waters heedlessly.

The amount of lead concentrated in animal bodies, perhaps plants also, should be a continually rising quantity because of the human habit of spreading lead over more and more of the environment. Lead, like mercury should be a controlled toxic material in all forms of use. It is stupid to have fishing and sporting and shooting stuff containing mercury and stupid to have that stuff containing lead. So where is the EPA on this issue? Are they Rip van Winkling?

As I said earlier, the research on plant uptake of lead in soil is sketchy and cloudy information. I hazard to guess that many plants do uptake lead and thus get into the food chain.

Archimedes Plutonium

whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies

I think, with all due respect, your concerns are misplaced.

It seems unlikely the OP has any experience shooting, whether it be airguns or firearms, and has little idea of the skill that is required.

Put simply, I don't think there's any chance at all he will actually hit a rabbit. I would suggest he put 1000 rounds of standard lead pellets into a safe target backstop. (That will cost about $5 to $15 depending on how high quality pellets he buys.) Then he will be much better prepared to decide what kind of ammo he needs.

Let me point out that a standard .177 pellet weighs approximately 8 grains (there are 7,000 grains to the pound). Is that enough lead added to the environment to be worried about?

I ask again, where does the lead come from? From which environment/planet?

This is not a manmade material that you can find infinitesimal traces of in the blubber of polar bears and then run around like a headless chicken declaring the end of the world is nigh.

Lead exists in the earth's crust at about 13 to 15 parts per billion, and not just in neat little plots you can call lead mines and therefore pretend that it is in some way an industrial pollutant.

Getting it out of paints, water systems, petrol and so in is a good idea but have some sense of perspective here. If your .177 pellet misses that bunny is anybody ever going to notice that you have caused a tiny quantity of lead to be moved from one part of the earth's crust to another?

Of course if you are really concerned you can take the Scaramanga option: gold has a higher specific gravity than lead or uranium, very ductile, ideal for pellets, and if you're firing golden shot you probably will develop Scaramanga's habit of killing with a single shot. That's the ideal solution, no?

I suggest Silver.

Cheaper than gold.

Excellent Lone Ranger pubicity image.

In article ,

Mortality due to ingestion of lead fragments has been observed in a number of species particularly raptors (via carcasses) and waterbirds (spent shot and fishing tackle). The California Condor is probably the most extreme case - ingestion of lead fragments from carcasses was a threatening process of probably sufficient magnitude alone to ensure their extirpation. Abatement of this threat is major concern in their reintroduction program.

Andrew Taylor

Having killed a lot of rabbits in the 50's when you could run over 1 per mile with a car at night. A 177 pellet would be a rater cruel way to kill a rabbit unless you gat a head shot and it would not penetrate the skull from all angles with all guns.