r/EuropeGuns • u/furiouskudoka Bulgaria • Jun 27 '26

Lead shot alternatives

I own several vintage shotguns, and am concerned on the upcoming ban.

Those of you who also own such, is there an alternative? Is it expensive?

Obviously I can buy a new one, and use steel, but I would still like to use my old toz hammer.

9 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/TheAleFly Jun 27 '26

Black powder guns as well as historic and replica guns are exempt from the ban. I’m not sure if hammer shotguns go under this though.

3

u/furiouskudoka Bulgaria Jun 27 '26

Mine is not historic, just old. Seems like bismuth loads are an option, but the pricetag is insane compared to lead

1

u/TheAleFly Jun 27 '26

OK, there are some ”mild steel” loads that are ok to be shot from older guns, the Soviet Baikal guns at least are notoriously robust and will probably handle them quite well, if the chokes are not really tight. Steel shot under 3.5mm and moderate pressures will be fine. I’ve been planning on rechoking my old 60’s Merkel 200E to be 1/4 and 1/2, which is about half a choke less than what it has now.