IS THIS THE FUTURE?

Most shooters are all too well aware that shotgun shooting is under growing pressure to improve its eco-friendly credentials. Moves against plastics in the environment increased substantially following the BBC’s ‘Drowning in Plastic’ TV documentary. Following that programme photographs of plastic wads and the odd cartridge case began to appear on social media and elsewhere, being picked up by some newspapers who produced negative news reports.

The eco-warriors are on the warpath, and plastic wads in cartridges are a key target. These are obviously sent out with the shot load to land some distance away and, in most forms of field or foreshore shooting, are very difficult or impossible to retrieve. Shooters recognised this aspect quite readily and have, over recent years, turned increasingly to the use of fibre wads in their cartridges. For game and other live quarry shooting, fibre wad cartridge sales exceed plastic wads and, indeed, some cartridge makers have elected to all but eliminate plastic wad options in their 12 gauge cartridge ranges.

Clay shooters are in a slightly different situation. With most of the formal disciplines requiring a standard shooting layout, such as Trap, Skeet, Compak and Sportrap, the landing zone for plastic wads is well defined and in most cases it is possible to collect the accumulated fired plastic wads. However, Sporting layouts are generally