Those of you who haven’t been living under a rock will know that the UK, Europe and the US (7 states) are or will be banning or restricting heavily the use of lead ammunition. Here in the UK, the sporting organisations such as BASC, Countryside Alliance etc are pushing ahead with a voluntary move away from lead ammunition, encouraging all of us to find an alternative. Why? Because if we don’t there will be a hard ban on lead even sooner, so it is an inevitable conclusion they are leading us to. It will be banned. In Europe, the ECHA are pushing more and more restrictions too and after having a conversation with Simone Doyle who heads up that unit in the ECHA, she informed me that it is really the only conclusion, it is just a matter of time.
I was contacted today by a large game shoot here in the UK enquiring about Hortonium after our recent appearance on the Fieldsports channel (video below). This particular shoot moved away from lead a few years ago to ensure all of the game they shoot is sold into the food chain, with people like Waitrose demanding no lead shot birds due to potential health risks.. This situation isn’t exclusive to the UK, large shooting clubs in USA and Canada are banning lead shot for the same reason, they have a much longer season than the UK. To put it into context, the US has 9 million people who hunt with muzzleloaders alone, the UK has 500,000 people in total who shoot. So the UK is a mere speck of the global potential of Hortonium. Something I’ve omitted form our Hortonium page is that it is completely non toxic and is fine to enter the food chain as per a test performed by Fisher Scientific.
The alarming thing for our industry is the sheer decline in the people shooting. We’ve gone from 650k people with licenses to 510k in the space of five years. That is down to whole number of things, although the lead ban is a major contributing factor to that I believe. not everyone is happy shooting a mass produced drainpipe out of a box, part of the enjoyment is using and owning the kit itself. That is where Hortonium comes into its own, any gauge, any length of cartridge – it can be loaded like lead. To protect our sport, the tradition and keep people shooting we need to have a credible lead alternative other than steel which isn’t the answer on its own.
We have a route for UK Patent and now filing a PCT to cover 157 countries.
The below is the latest episode of Fieldsports that features Hortonium, watch from about 17 1/2 minutes. More information about Hortonium can be found on our dedicated Hortonium page. Huge thank you to Charlie, James, Tim and the team for your help.
