The Government has indicated that legislation to ban lead shot for shotgun use will come into effect in summer 2026, with a three-year transition period. This means the use of lead shot will likely be prohibited from summer 2029 onward.
That gives us four full shooting seasons before the proposed ban:
- 2025 / 26
- 2026 / 27
- 2027 / 28
- 2028 / 29
Of course, these dates are not yet set in stone. No final legislation has been published, and timelines may shift – especially with pressure from shooting organisations to extend the transition period in line with HSE advice. But for now, we must work on the basis that the current proposals will be implemented as planned.
How Will This Affect Game Shooters?
At Just Cartridges, we believe the 2025 / 26 season will be largely unaffected in terms of lead shot supply. Most mainstream lead cartridges will still be available into 2026 / 27 and 2027 / 28, but more obscure or specialist loads may start to disappear as manufacturers begin winding down lead production.
By the 2028 / 29 season, supply is likely to become much more difficult. Manufacturers, importers, and retailers will be working to clear lead stock ahead of the 2029 deadline, and we anticipate severe shortages of lead products by that time.
From 2026 / 27 onwards, expect a phased reduction in lead availability and a growing shift to alternative materials, especially steel.
For Clay Shooters
It’s worth noting that while the lead shot ban is largely driven by environmental concerns around live quarry and wetland shooting, clay shooters won’t be immune to its effects. The legislation is expected to cover all uses of lead shot, including clay target disciplines. That means even for practice or competition, alternative loads will become necessary.
There may be limited exemptions – for example, it’s understood that elite athletes could be permitted to use lead under strict regulation. However, these exemptions are expected to be tightly controlled, and the details will become clearer once the final legislation is published.
While some disciplines and grounds have already started experimenting with steel or lead-free options, we anticipate a gradual but inevitable transition across the clay shooting scene. Stock up wisely, and don’t leave it too late to test what works in your gun and for your chosen discipline.
One challenge for clay shooters is the current lack of biodegradable wad options in steel loads. At present, most steel clay cartridges are still loaded with traditional plastic wads. It’s possible that more grounds may temporarily revert to accepting plastic wads as the legislation nears, particularly if biodegradable options remain limited or cost-prohibitive.
Biodegradable wads are expensive to manufacture, and if plastic wads are still no longer accepted at the majority of clay grounds, we could see the end of the affordable ‘budget’ loads that many shooters rely on today. This makes the availability and affordability of suitable alternatives a key issue in the years ahead.
Cost aside, we do expect to see more clay loads with biodegradable wads come to market over the next 3 years, giving shooters more options and helping ease the transition as regulation tightens.
The Future: Steel, Bismuth, and What Comes Next
When it comes to alternatives:
- Steel is the most viable option moving forward. All major manufacturers now offer biodegradable full-cup wads, making modern steel cartridges safe and effective in many guns.
- Tungsten is already priced out of reach, with no mainstream manufacturer producing it for general use.
- Bismuth is going the same way. While we still hold good stocks at pre-increase prices, raw Bismuth is now around $50,000 per tonne. At that rate, end-product prices would double – making them unaffordable for many shooters.
The bottom line? If we want to keep shooting, we’ll have to embrace steel as the go-to solution.
Our Position at Just Cartridges
We’re well-prepared for the transition:
- Fully stocked with lead shot cartridges for the 2025 / 26 season
- Strong supply of Bismuth at pre-increase pricing – while it lasts
- Extensive range of steel and other alternative loads as the industry adapts
We’re monitoring developments closely and working with all major suppliers to maintain a stable, reliable stock position throughout the transition period.
Plan Ahead
While we’re not here to scaremonger, the shift is real – and it’s coming. We strongly recommend ordering in good time, especially if you rely on specific lead loads or want to secure Bismuth before prices rise further.
We’ll continue to keep you informed as more details emerge. In the meantime, if you have any questions about compatibility, performance, or availability – just ask.
Excellent article which I found helpful, But can anyone tell me what will be the position with a .410 which I have in a hush power to control vermin around farms .Secondly I also have a 28bore and it would appear these two calibres are not going to be of any use once lead is banned .All 28 bore shotguns are only 3”together with the .410
Which would make it difficult to make any alternative to lead with steel shot .I was hoping that these two calibres would have been granted an exemption especially in the .410 but no one is even discussing them ,I even asked BASC who could not give me a answer they had not even thought of the hushpower in .410 which is full choked as well .They are still selling them and they are sold immediately as stocks arrive rather worrying.
Hi
BASC have discussed .410 – cip regs state that 1/2 choke should be used for steel in HP there is no restriction on choke for standard – if a manufacturer will load a subsonic load hushpower will be fine.
Odd, isn’t it. Steve Horton of Horton guns has spent years making an alternative and now has hortonium. He reached out to all cartridge manufacturers in UK and USA. Not one UK company wrote back. The Americans did. He’s now closed up shop in Birmingham and is moving to…. Yup, USA. Pretty much like those who invented television, telephone etc. Go elsewhere if you want to get on. The manufacturers are not interested. Stell is just, well, awful!
They will have to make it a lot cheaper ,steel a few years ago was dirt cheap ,but they steadily increased it(crafty)
I am a little confused about what chokes are recommended for steel.
For standard steel, don’t go tighter than half choke (modified). For high-performance steel, stick to quarter choke (improved cylinder) or less. We state in all product descriptions whether a load is standard or high-performance steel. As a rule, all clay loads are standard steel (2025).
The way I understand it is you should only use steel proofed barrels, and you can use up to half choke for standard steel loads, no more than quarter choke for high performance (game) loads. I just bought a box of 24g steel Eleys for my 20 bore, nothing untoward happened when I pulled the trigger…..but I noticed bad fouling of the barrel, but that’s the propellant, not the shot.
If you check the manual you got when youo bought your shotgun it will tell you what each choke is for and which are compatable with steel shot. If yo no longer have the manual go to the manufacturers website and down load one.
Most modern guns are steel compatable.
Good article .Thank you .
I am keen to continue clay shooting with a .410 or 28g .Do you think that there will be alternatives?
Do you hear about barrels getting scored by steel ? That’s what concerns me in nice old English guns ( even with open chokes of less than half ) .
Do you see Bioammo as a feasible alternative for .410 or 28g ? Fo they make it for 20g and 16g ? Do you sell it ?
Your experience is helpful.
Felix
For the Practical Shotgunners amongst us I don’t think steel or bismuth are viable alternatives.
At my club PSG is run in a disused stone quarry (so full of ricochet hazards for steel ammunition), and standard PSG targets are steel (plates from 6″ squares upwards) so, again, a real ricochet hazard.
The only viable option to date seems to be BioAmmo, currently twice the price of lead ammunition. Our main ranges have already been cleaned to comply with the incoming regulations regarding recovery of lead and recording quantities of rounds sent downrange and, as our PSG quarry forms part of our over-arching range “complex” we have already scraped the lead out, such that when we can resume our PSG season (Sept/April – closed May/August due to noise) we will be lead and steel free so must use BioAmmo as there are no other “cheap(!)” alternatives.
Do you know when BioAmmo and such lead and steel free alternatives are likely to be produced at a realistic price point?
Has this lead ban to be voted on in parliament? The ban will be disastrous for Trap shooters who’s guns are more heavily choked. Established clay shooting grounds should be exempt, having already a great deal of lead on their fall zones. It will another nail in the coffin of shooting. Drip by drip what’s to be banned next in our sport. I am coming to the end of my shooting career having shot for 60 years, the future of shooting is under tremendous pressure.
I have also shot shotguns and rifles for over sixty five years and my current certificates run out in 2029, Unfortunately due to the lead ban and hassle renewing firearms/shotgun licences I will not be renewing my licences.
I too have a mossburg.410 hushpower, very popular gun.
Selling like hot cakes is this the end for them ?
I bought new 18 months ago.
Sadly the shooting orgs have absolutely shafted the working man in a bid to shift the glut of unwanted game produced by the huge commercial shoots.
They either don’t care or have no understanding of the effect this will have on grass roots shooting. Sim days, flushes, .410’s, 28’s, any clay ground that can’t allow plastic wads. All finished.
Lead is safe and works. Just because a narrative is repeated over and over doesn’t make a different opinion true.
As a pigeon decoyer and committed 28 bore user (Berretta Silver Pigeon), I go through 2,000 cartridges a year costing a little under £1,500. Bismuth would cost me over £4,500. which is, frankly, unaffordable. Further, bismuth loads are 21 gm, significantly less that the loads currently available in lead. I use 25 gm which is effective anything less would not be and I would not use it. Do any cartridge manufacturers plan to produce steel 28 bore cartridges. and if not, why not?
I’m intrigued – what would lead you to be so committed to the 28ga and why would you then load it with 25g of lead – quite a mouthful for a 28ga. You say that your 2000 shells cost £1500 a year. That’s £750 a thousand! Whoa! I have 2 Beretta Silver Pigeon guns on storage, one 28ga, the other 20ga. Frankly it’s hard to instantly tell them apart. Why not use the almost identical 20ga, with lead cartridges half the price, and even non-tox cartridges available at £471 a thousand in 24g steel 4s with dissolvable wad. The lead ban could actually save you quite a wedge.
Three of us used these Eley 20ga steel VIPs on pheasant and duck last season with such good results that one wondered what all the fuss is about. I’d struggle to believe that they wouldn’t kill decoyed pigeon.
My fabarm is proofed to take magnum steel up to and including full choke..why don’t the other manufacturers do the same???????we in the UK are governed by different regulations to other parts of the world, the US is years ahead of us when it comes to non toxic ammunition.they shoot tight chokes without any issues are we being over cautious maybe.??and as for my experience of steel shot ,some Italian cartridges are deadly,I’d have no issues using them on game. I’m yet to find a UK made cartridge to compare and to be honest some UK made steel loads are truly dreadful..
With the Lead ban coming in faster what’s going to happen to the small bore calibres such as 410 and 28?
What are the cartridge manufacturers going to do where commercial Steel loads are impractical, too light?
I home load for 410, 10g of Steel #7 is the heaviest load possible and then really only effective at close range.
The only other alternatives are TSS and Bismuth both are price prohibitive!
I heard rumours that BioAmo/ Joker were going to produce a 410, going by the price of their 12 bore cartridges I’d put it in the same bracket.
Cartridge manufacturers, I respectfully request that you get the finger out and do some serious Research and Development to produce a cost effective solution or the UK will loose these very useful, and much loved, all be they niche, calibres to history!
I shoot a lot of 410 and 28 bore, and have bombarded the organisations to make clear that for clay shooting there is no viable alternative to lead, but everyone is transfixed on game shooting with 12 bore for which there are many high priced alternatives to lead.
It seems to me the government has worked out a way to get rid of more shooters, as there is no problem with lead, it should also be remembered that cuddly steel is not steel, it’s cast iron which is also toxic when it corrodes, so lead on the ground oxidises and goes inert where as iron oxidises and produces iron oxide, so will this also get banned?
Just buy as much lead as you can for 410 to last you till hopefully something else comes through in time that is just as good at the right price.
Is the ban on use of lead or sale of lead cartridges? What happens when the ban comes in if you have a stock of lead cartridges? Will we realistically have to phase out of lead pre the ban to ensure we don’t hold stock of now “illegal ammunition “?
We all know it’s got nothing to do with ‘saving the environment’ and everything to do with attacking the rural/countryside sector by the urban metropolitan elite, who hate the country population and everything it stands for! There is absolutely no science behind it! It is all part of a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ & a bandwagon the antis have conveniently jumped on. Steel is NOT a sensible alternative, it rusts, it damages chainsaws in timber and it is not an effective killing material, which is why lead has been used for at least 400 years. For the shooting organisations to have capitulated without a whimper is pathetic and I will cease to support them financially for doing so! I am utterly ashamed and appalled by their actions!
Surely they will make an affordable alternative for the 410 cartridges, can’t believe nobody as got an answer from the makers on this ?
Strangely, despite all the above predictions of woe for .410 and 28ga, the market for .410 and 28ga guns remains very strong. If you’re worried that your current guns will become worthless then sell them now – they are selling like hot cakes for decent money.
410/28ga loads already cost an arm and leg compared to 12/20g. If you’re that cost sensitive then why are you using them now?
I had a 30 year fascination with 410/28ga – but it was always a case of want not need – I wanted to use them but didn’t need to. My clay scores were lower, and I’m sure I wounded more game trying to shoot with ever lighter loads – trying to prove some point at the expense of the humane wellbeing of pheasant etc.
20ga guns generally don’t weigh much more than 28/410 and 20ga cartridges are and will be available in very light loads akin to 28/410 – if you think you really need such light loads. The manufacturers are chasing priorities at present, that is 12/20g. I have no doubt that 28/410 will get their attention is good time.
Going shooting is the greater part of sport/pleasure/pest control. Surely what you shoot with is a smaller part of that experience. We live in a world with ever increasing restrictions in every aspect of our lives – you’ll not change that, or this. Get on with it and don’t let it depress you – there is still so much else to be thankful for.
The use of steel shot has decreased Duck numbers nationwide. Two ducks are fatally wounded for each duck collected with steel. Do we want this to be applied to all game? The federal government has a long history of making bad decisions.