Public service announcement.....

[Mr. 16 gauge]

Within the last few years, the antihunting groups have attempted to shut down hunting in certain areas with claims of lead poisoning for endangered species, most notably the California condor.
We know that it's not about saving condors (because there has never, EVER been a documented instance where a bird has died from eating a spent slug in a carcass), but has more to do with shutting down ALL hunting.
A lot of companies have come out with nontoxic rifle ammuntion & bullets for reloading.....Expensive ammuntion and bullets, but the option was there for those who wanted (and could afford) it.
However, traditional muzzleloaders, as usual, were left out in the cold.....no one gave any thought to saving our sport.....we were told to accept it and get on with our lives (yes, I've seen it posted on a few other websites)
Recently I received a catalog from Ballistic Products of Corcoran, MN. I have ordered things from them in the past (mostly nontoxic shot for waterfowl hunting), but since I'm not in need of anything right at the moment, I put the catalog away and forgot about it.
I ran across it this past weekend, and was surprised to see "Nontoxic round balls" listed on page 2. Seems like BP has taken up the challenge and made some round balls in various calibers to help out us traditional shooters in the nontoxic field. The calibers they have listed are as follows:

.32 cal (.312)
.45 cal (.436)
.50 cal (.487)
.50 cal (.490)
.54 cal (.524)
.62 cal (.601)

These balls are made out of the same material that they make their ITX shot out of....it's safe in older barrels, and is denser (13g/cm3)than lead. I'm thinking that will some judicious use of powder and patch, one should be able to find a good load that shoots to point of aim.
The only drawback is that the stuff is expensive; currently the .54 cal balls run $11.99/10 balls. Still, it beats the alternative of not hunting with your smokepoles ever again!
I currently hunt deer on a managed waterfowl area, and right now the regs are such that single projectile ammunition is not affected by the lead ban....but with all the whackos out there, who knows how long that will last.

Just thought I would throw this out there for anyone who might be in the position of not being able to hunt with their traditional muzzleloader due to the environmental terrorism that is going on in the courts today.