Maryland’s already inconvenienced gun owners now have to contend with Senate Bill 634 (SB 634)—a push to ditch lead ammo.
This bill is telling the Department of Natural Resources to phase out lead for hunting, one species at a time, until it’s totally gone by July 1, 2029. It hit the Senate Education, Energy & Environment Committee on March 4 and was immediately met with backlash – specifically from the dedicated crowd of hunters in the state.
Lead ammo’s the king of cheap and efficient—no other material produces projectiles that work this well for the price. It’s been dropping game and filling freezers since the invention of the first smooth bore hand cannnons, but now they’re supposed to swap it for pricey copper or all-steel projectiles that not only introduce their own set of problems on the shooting side but are also often way more expensive to produce and buy.
Maryland’s hunting scene hauls in $328 million and keeps 4,100 people working, says the National Shooting Sports Foundation, so this could hit hard. And it’s not just hunters—range shooters, competitors, and self-defense folks live on lead too; it’s the backbone of damn near every trigger pull.
Hunters these days, including myself, actually like non-lead ammo ‘cause it cuts down lead exposure—less dust and fumes when you’re out there gathering food to feed your family or just sending rounds down range for training.
Copper flies fast and hits hard, making clean kills, and steel is almost just as good, ideally leaving no toxic lead scraps for critters to choke on. The environmental impact when added back into the environment is not good – Everybody gets that. But let’s be real—lead’s the champ because it’s dirt cheap and gets the job done, especially for the tons of rounds that aren’t even sent into the environment but either the animal itself or a backstop of some sort.
The NRA-ILA and Sportsmen’s Alliance are still calling BS on the ban. They say the “lead kills eagles” thing is hyped—hunters bury gut piles, and waterfowl’s been lead-free since ’91. Eating game? The CDC doesn’t have any definitive proof of a problem, especially next to sucking in city smog. As someone who has lived near Baltimore for several years, I can tell you that lead might be the worst of their worries for their waterways.
The slow species-by-species rollout? Just a warm-up for the full ban in 2029. Pro-gun crowd’s spooked it’s a trial balloon—start with hunters, then screw over range rats and reloaders. “They’re sneaking up on all of us,” said NRA-ILA’s Maryland guy, John Ross.
“Lead today, what’s tomorrow? The Bill is still sitting in committee, and Maryland’s 200,000 hunters—plus every other gun owner in the state—are getting rowdy. If this lead ammunition ban passes, where does it go next, and what impact does it have, if any on the wildlife and environment of Maryland?
If you cave on lead ammo, the very next thing they’ll do is clamp down on anything not lead as “armor-piercing”, “cop killer” bullets.
Remember, everything they do is in bad faith. Everything. Don’t give them one inch.
The politburo already banned “armor piercing” ammo in ILL annoy. Yeah ordinary green tip. Unlike quite nearby Indiana. My son lives in Maryland but I doubt he cares ????
Would need to be a state definition as even the updated 855a1 is not considered AP but yeah anything they can ban. With that said I want to see a variety of AP in all options of caliber for sale at bass pro.
Such laws/regs are always a fun example of how language matters.
.30-30 will pen a soft vest (as will nearly all rifle rounds). Cops, mostly don’t rock plates on patrol and the claim is that bans on “AP ammo” are for officer safety.
Given that I doubt most criminals intent on killing a cop are going to let the officer run to the back of the vehicle and put on plates, the whole thing makes little sense unless the goal is simply to ban categories of things and see if a court will uphold it, which is in fact the point.
It’s almost like that Nero guy is on to something.
There are a few classes of plates that some officers do wear on patrol vests as they do not add much weight (special threat ex hesco 200 level and various uhmwpe lv3/rf1) but those are more where AR/AK pistol are a common issue and while both would stop a 30-30 one could lead to severe broken ribs. Beside your point of banning categories as that is always the purpose and why I identify and promote every workaround that would be politically costly to eliminate. Really wish m80a1 wasn’t so expensive no matter the method.
Hesco’s whole numerical system needs an overhaul IMHO. I didn’t realize that they now have UHMWPE in a 200 series, I remember that being in their 400 series and above. Nice that they made a slimmer package. The 400’s and above are not something I’d want to wear for a long time in a vehicle, at least not the older stuff.
Their SRT plates are worth the coin if they fit your needs. I have a kit I originally built with their L210’s (now the L211 IIRC) for the range after I had an AK pistol pointed at me twice inside 10 minutes by an OFWG who’s attention span was limited, though I doubt he had BZ ammo in that thing.
It’s just a trainer now. I wish someone like Agilite would bring back that A-TACS-AU pattern though. That and tiger stripe are my all time favorites.
I imagine they will need to when the newer nij standards are finalized but bz api at this point is more often garage built with various hardened steel bits ………or smuggled from Canada. The 4400s never bothered me too much but I was used to ESAPI and older SAPI plates…… with that said the various lv3 just shy of 4 plates using the silicon carbide ceramics were thinner lighter and covered just about anything I am likely to see (LTC white label). For a larger budget though the top end M or U200 probably would be where I would look as anyone able to acquire or make ap ammo wouldn’t be shooting it at me but dummies with various rifles can bean issue as you seem to have seen as well. Oh and Rhodesian brush stroke or pencott greenzone depending on season or who I want to piss off.
I like RBS.
If I’m out to troll I’ll mix M81 with Desert Tiger and add some of the worst highlight possible; Multicam Black.
Rhodesian is a nice pattern.
If I’m out to annoy though, I mix M81 with Desert Tiger and throw in some Multicam Black (It’s not even camo!).
Ah aiming for pissing off the camo autists/purist types. (Greenzone/badlands my end) rbs is great for fall and early spring especially with open fields and annoying the “anti racist” hiker types……..gets even more fun when the kids of a few vets who used that camo are in our gun group and tan much darker than I do for most of them.
Mainly I just like the troll the M81 goons because they’re morons who mostly have zero idea what they’re talking about but have a boner for the pattern due to MARSOC using it. Which might be cool if any of the M81 goons I’ve met could pass a PFT in the first place, but they can’t and quite frankly, never could.
They do ReeEEeeEeeee! in a delightful manner though, between gulps of Mt. Dew. I’ve also found they go apeshit if they see a Unity riser, which makes no sense but whatever.
If I’m not trolling, around here I for fall/spring I use something like A-TACS-AU/Desert Tiger/Kryptek Highlander.
When things green up/the old stuff blows away then you have to think about the altitude you’re going to be at a bit more. Higher up you want something like Kryptek Altitude, lower altitudes Multicam works fine but so do things like Mandrake or A-TACS-FG.
Kinda sucks compared to where I grew up where a single pattern of RealTree worked basically everywhere unless it was winter in which case… white.
I know several people from South Africa who are fans of RBS. Just works well in that area of the world and it’s a fairly unique pattern in a lot of regards. It’s supposedly the parent of all the Tiger patterns and has exerted a heavy influence on all subsequent Euro camos of note.
I would, however, like to see a new “Rain” (Strichtarn) pattern and how well it holds up against modern NVGs. The old Rain patterns that the Commies used were extremely effective at defeating Gen 1/2 night vision.
I don’t think this law prohibits the sale of lead ammo, but it does prevent is use for hunting.
One step at a time. Incrementalism is how they roll.
The possession ban will come eventually.
This bill and its House crossfile (HB 741) are unlikely to go anywhere this session. Neither bill advanced from its original committee and session MD’s 90-day legislative session ends in a little more than a week. There have been similar attempts in years past, and this will probably be introduced again next year, but the state legislature has largely been preoccupied with how to deal with the state budget against a severe structural deficit and how to respond to the Trump administration’s actions that hurt the state’s coffers.
I think gold would make a good lead substitute.
The rarely mentioned benefit of lead is its density… yes, comparable to gold, but gold is more dense. Density means more case capacity for powder, plus the bullet is the “right” length to stabilize with the barrel twists that were all designed for… lead-based bullets.
Barnes doesn’t print their own reloading manual for fun… it’s because you can’t use traditional load data with all-copper bullets. And the velocities at the extremes… are lower. By that, I mean the velocity-challenged rounds are more challenged with copper bullets. .458 Win-mag being a prime example.
And you may or may not dare using something else (like steel or tungsten) for the core rather than lead, or you may run afoul of THOSE laws.
Lead came out of the ground… it can go back there. This is all just another way to inconvenience gun owners by any means possible. Non-lead shot for waterfoul… yeah, there’s a case there. But deer? Squirrels? Rabbits? No such case exists.
Perhaps the idiot progs would prefer DU bullets?
Not much worse of a charge than using brass or beryllium infused copper for the core. May be a few more questions on where it came from but more than a few industrial sources.
Aren’t brass and beryllium copper specifically AP ammo under the law already?
Exactly, pretty much the same time to serve if convicted.
Thought so, dunno how I remembered that but I had an inkling (that wasn’t a baby squid).
waterFOWL….
Concerned that the article parroted the “benefits” of non-lead projectiles.
Lead is toxic. But I’d like to see the data that proves lead deposited from hunting and shooting (in the form of bullets) has been detrimental to animals.
Doesn’t exist. The original waterfowl study used to start this lie was flawed and biased.
Seems like most people believe what people tell them to believe.
Or the “experts” (in political science) confusing metallic lead with organic lead, notably tetraethyl lead previously used in fuel, paint dyed, etc.
Organic lead does nasty things with cognitive ability……which may explain some things for the generations with heavy exposure in the higher population density areas of the time (see many blue cities now).
Ammo Control is Gun Control and History Confirms Gun Control is an agenda Rooted in Racism and Genocide.
I’ve been posting the above fact for years and not one Gun Control zealot has said otherwise because they cannot, the History of Gun Control does not allow it.
However those who have barked at educating the public about Defining Gun Control by its History have been no other than Gun Owning Blowbags who agree the public is Gun Control History illiterate but it would do no good to educate them. How zipped lipped gutless wonders know that without ever having done it is fuking amazing.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZFEz3Bt9hCw&feature=shared
Lead is very toxic at high speeds.
Eventually it will be illegal to possess lead ammo. That gives them a reason to arrest you on felony charges. Casting bullets will be a no no. Transporting lead bullets from out of state will be banned.
Extreme? Not really. If you think they will be reasonable and rational think again.
The goal is to ban the guns, bullets and everything else. That leaves our overlords with small arms to watch over us.
Garguntua has it exactly right: “If you think they will be reasonable and rational think again.:”
Simply try having a conversation with anyone on the left. Oh, their ears work just fine, but they fail to listen. My Yorkie at times displays more intelligence.
Their first strike is always fiscal on every front because they want to use your currency against you. From their point of view, it’s a twofer. They take your taxes, use them against you and if you fight it, you pay out of pocket. So, your currency is funding both sides of the fight. Nice for them, eh?
For all the 2A news in Colorado the big thing for people living in the State is the legislature’s current attempt to remove TABOR (the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights).
A state that has seen its revenue increase by over $7 billion/year in just the past five years has decided that caps are no longer acceptable because increasing revenue by $1.4 billion annually just ain’t enough to fund everything they want to do. There’s, like programs to fund, and shit! (Yet, they can’t fix the roads which are now so bad that Polis considers them a potential threat to his political future outside the state.)
Now they’re starting up a campaign that if they’re not allowed to remove all spending and tax controls the handicapped kids won’t have any programs.
And… they’ll probably get it because they have the majority due to the fact that these people do the thing that Conservatives never do, Lefties exercise power when they have it. Days of testimony against their proposed “AWB”, only five people testify in favor (at least two from out of state!) and it passes over all objection.
Because that’s what power is, the ability to say “Fuck you, this is what we’re doing and you don’t get a say”.
One sort of has to wonder if Trump will, overarchingly, take that stance at the Federal level in terms of shrinking the size of government. Someone has to because, Lord knows, Conservatives will literally never take such a tack.
This is part of a 2-step scheme to ban all ammunition.
Step 1: Ban all lead bullets as “bad for the environment.”
Step 2: Ban all copper, steel, and other lead-free bullets as “armor piercing cop killers.”
Mission accomplished for the anti-gun extremists, all ammunition banned.
There’s a typo in the article:
“I can tell you that lead might be the worst of their worries…”
I think you meant “least of their worries,” not “worst of their worries”!