We shouldn’t rely on US steel shot study
In his column (Sharpshooter, 21 September), Alasdair Mitchell is keen to report the findings of a US study on the effect of steel shot versus lead shot on mourning doves. Put simply, no difference could be found.
It would be dangerous to extrapolate these findings to English game shooting conditions. Mourning doves are lightly built, fragile birds. A cock pheasant is much more robustly built and nine times heavier. Even a woodcock has twice the mass of a mourning dove.
In addition, American proof regulation allows the use of ultra-high-velocity cartridges (over 1,500ft/sec) and gas-operated semi-automatic shotguns are in common usage. These will help dampen the inevitable recoil. All that can
