I do a lot of indoor shooting and the possibility of lead poisoning is something that concerns me. I get a blood test for lead every year and it stays within the “normal” range but when I wasn’t doing much shooting for a couple years it went to almost undetectable levels. Hence, I know I have a lead source in my environment and it’s probably either the indoor range and/or the reloading.
When I saw Powder Valley had no lead, small pistol, primers available I ordered some to test. I didn’t know they were even available to the reloading community. These primers would probably reduce the lead exposure at both the range and when handling the reused brass during reloading.
They are a bit more expensive than the Winchester primers (WSP) I normally use. Before shipping the Winchester WSP primers are $28/1000 (2.8 cents each). The Fiocchi no lead primers are $57/1500 (3.8 cents each). A penny per round difference… hmm. Okay, I would pay that if it significantly reduced the lead I’m getting into my system.
Due to a mixup by Powder Valley I ended up (after a couple of weeks) getting 1500 Fiocchi standard primers as well as 1500 of the no lead primers. They came in a brick of 10 trays of 150 primers per tray:
They are, ironically, a lead grey color:
I made up my indoor loads and ran them over my chronograph:
| Bullet weight |
Powder weight |
Mean velocity |
PF | SDev | ES | Min | Max | |
| Montana Gold JHP, CFE Pistol, WSP primers* |
180.22 | 5.4 | 921.50 | 165.87 | 11.5 | 38.0 | 905 | 943 |
| Montana Gold JHP, CFE Pistol, Fiocchi No Lead primers |
180.22 | 5.4 | 916.67 | 165.00 | 16.6 | 56.0 | 897 | 953 |
| Montana Gold JHP, CFE Pistol, Fiocchi standard primers |
180.22 | 5.4 | 879.00 | 158.22 | 44.3 | 139.0 | 803 | 942 |
Hmmm.. The standard deviation and especially the extreme spread are worse with the no lead primers. And the Fiocchi standard primers are terrible! The velocity is lower and the standard deviation and extreme spread is through the roof. I loaded up some more rounds and tested them and got essentially the same results.
With the polymer coated bullets I use outdoors and CFE Pistol powder the results were even worse. The standard deviation went from about 10 fps with WSP to about 18 fps with the Fiocchi no lead primers (I haven’t tested the Fiocchi standard primers with these bullets).
I really don’t want to keep two types of primers around. I want to minimize the number of components types rather than expand them. And if I increase the standard deviation on the match ammo I would need to increase the mean velocity to insure I continue reliably making major PF. Increasing the velocity also means increasing the reloading cost above that of the increased primer cost, and increasing the recoil to solve a “problem” I don’t really have.
I think I’m going to continue using the WSP primers.
** Yes, I know these aren’t reliably making Major Power Factor, I’m increasing the powder charge some based upon this data. This load is just for practice anyway. I have never used them at a match. For USPSA matches I have been using Black Bullets, WSP primers, and ETR7 which has been repeatedly tested to give me a PF of a little over 170 with a SDev of about 9 fps.
I missed the ETR7 powder bandwagon.
I got 8 pounds of it. It’s all loaded up. I’d get more if I could. Good price. Low charge weights. Good velocities. Great standard deviation.
For some odd reason, it was easy to find HS6 around here a few years back during the recent powder shortage. So I’ve got a bunch of it that I’m putting in pistol reloads until I use it up and go back to now available favorites.
The primers count for over 90+% of your lead exposure from shooting. Very little from handling during reloading, and very little when shooting APART from the vaporized lead from primers.
I used a mask to filter the air when I’m working with dusty brass cleaning media. I also have an air filter running 24×7 on my reloading bench.
I don’t know of any blood level data with and without such equipment.
I know that sometimes people end up going through clouds of smoke and particulates at matches. It all depends on the wind conditions that particular day and the layout of the stage.
Is there any proof that smal concentrations of lead in the body are not beneficial?
Anyway; those people I’ve known who constantly try to avoid “toxins” in their food and environment are that same ones who are always sick, weak, and afraid to do things. At some point, what might be considered prudence becomes a pathological obsession.
Eventually the body can lose its ability to deal with environmental stresses, and then it’s further weakened by fear, by a pervading sense of victimhood, and paranoia.
The paranoia turns to hate, and at some point the person will snap (ask me how I know) go nuts, and attack the people they blame for their bad feelings.
And so the person that’s always talking about “toxins” and suchlike, I consider to be a threat. They’re always demanding deference and special treatment, they have to bring their own, special food when they come to dinner, and certainly aren’t any good to anyone, except to reinforce the paranoia of their fellow pathological, phobic travelers. Then they become a gang.
On a somewhat jocular note, I usually find myself forgetting to breathe while shooting any but the longest IPSC course. 🙂
The concentration required for adequate DVC is intense.
Now it seems, from this discussion, that might not be a bad thing.
Lead in the blood isn’t beneficial. It replaces calcium and to a lesser extent iron in tissue and bone. The way lead conducts electric charges causes major problems when it has replaced calcium in the structure of nerves and organs. Similarly it weakens bones. For some reason the body, in most people, mistakes lead for calcium and iron, which is disastrous for kids with growing bodies building new organic structures. Though some people have a physiological make-up where their body does recognize heavy metals and passes them readily.
I don’t know why modern bullets don’t have protected bases like TMJ. Seems to me eliminating vaporization at the bullet base would do more to remove airborne lead than changing the minuscule amount in primers.