NOVEMBER, 1940 
 
SOUTH DAKOTA CONSERVATION DIGEST 
 
PAGE NINE 
 
Alloy Shot May Eliminate Lead From Duck Diet 
Old Style Pellets Just as Likely to Kill Feeding Fowl as Hunter's Guns; New
Stuff Disintegrates in Water 
 
When a hunter raises his gun and 
lets go at a flock of wild ducks or 
geese, and they all fly away, he is 
likely to mutter a few well-chosen 
words and assume that the birds all 
escaped harm. 
Yet some of them may die long after- 
ward, victims of shot that never touch- 
ed them. 
The nimrod gains nothing from this, 
for you can't have duck dinner tonight 
or any night if the duck is going to 
die next week in a faraway marsh. 
Conservation authorities aren't happy 
about the situation. If ducks under- 
stood it, they wouldn't be so well 
pleased either. 
Birdshot falls in marshes where 
waterfowl feed and are swallowed 
along with their food. The result, as 
the lead pellets are slowing pulverized 
by the gravel in the bird's gizzard, is 
lead poisoning which soon proves fatal. 
Studied for Years 
This situation, although unrecogniz- 
ed by laymen, has been studied by 
scientists for years. 
The U. S. Bureau of Biological Sur- 
vey showed as long as 20 years ago 
that six ordinary No. 6 shot prove 
fatal to the duck or goose that inad- 
vertently swallows them. 
But it remained for Dr. R. L. Dowdell 
and Dr. R. Green of the University of 
Minnesota to do something about it. 
In a report to the American Society for 
Metals they reveal an extended re- 
search into the effect of shot made of 
various alloys. 
Object was to develop shot that 
would be fully efficient if it scored a 
hit, but which would not remain a 
menace if it fell into marshes where 
wildlife feeds. 
Alloy Disintegrates 
Drs. Dowdell and Green finally de- 
cided that alloys of lead and magnes- 
ium offered the necessary qualities, 
chief among which was quick disinte- 
gration of shot after it comes in con- 
tact with moisture. 
Their report, accompanied by plenti- 
ful charts and X-ray pictures of shot 
of various sorts in the digestive tracts 
of ducks, shows that an alloy contain- 
ing from 1 to 2 per cent of magnesium 
 
can be made into a shot of proper 
weight and ballistic properties for use 
in present types of shells, and that 
these shot will crack on the surface 
and start to break up within 24 hours 
after they fall into water or onto wet 
ground. 
Experiments covered lead-magnes- 
ium alloys running from one-quarter of 
1 per cent to 4 per cent magnesium. 
The greater the amount of the mag- 
nesium in the alloy the harder was the 
resultant metal, and the quicker its 
disintegraton. 
Weight Is Problem 
However, increasing the magnesium 
content too much also reduced the 
weight and thus made the shot un- 
suitable for use in present shells and 
guns. 
Ordinarily lead shot are dropped 
from a tower as melted metal which 
collects into spheres as it falls and 
cools. 
Many attempts to make alloy shot in 
this manner resulted, not in the fa- 
miliar sphere, but in something that 
resembled roundheaded tacks. 
Alloy shot were made by extending 
the metal into wire and then cutting 
the wire automatically into short 
pieces and rolling them into spheres 
 
on a special machine designed for the 
rolling of balls. 
This resulted in a very satisfactory 
shot as far as shape and uniformity 
were concerned, but at a higher cost 
than the shot-tower method affords. 
Find Simple Method 
Since there is a great deal of shot- 
tower equipment now in efficient use, 
Drs. Dowdell and Green concluded 
that future experiments should include 
variations in the shot-tower technique 
in hope of finding a way to use existing 
equipment In making alloy shot. 
After many hundreds of experiments 
the metallurgists have found a simple 
method for making drop shot in shot- 
towers and it is likely that by the fall 
shooting season in 1940 that "duck- 
alloy" will be used exclusively. 
It means a chance to save the lives 
of thousands of waterfowl every year. 
To the sportsman, it offers the 
cheering assurance that the only ducks 
which will die from his shots are the 
ones he brings down and takes home 
with him. 
The rest will live to be shot at an- 
other day. 
(By NEA Service) 
 
Big Game hunters In the Black Hills no doubt were agreeably surprised 
to find the above "Sportsmanship" message tacked on trees in remote
places. 
This fall hundreds ot these cards were posted by the Black Hills Rod &
Gun 
Club and they no doubt conveyed their pertinent message to many a solitary

deer hunter. Such cooperation with the game department is to be commended.

 
I am a sportsman-are YOU? 
I hunt and fish in this area-do YOU? 
I obey Conservation Laws-do YOU? 
I expect others to do the same-do YOU? 
I will report all violations to the nearest Warden- 
WILL YOU? 
Our furry, finny, feathered friends will increase- 
IF YOU DO!