Torsa no longer an island

SaltIre

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penfold

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Here's the causeway, from seafox67's link which is worth a read. Mr Cadzow says there is about 1 metre of water over the causeway at "the highest tide". His concern is "employees having to 'rush around at breakneck speed' to get jobs done which was 'quite frankly dangerous'."
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A remarkable unforced confession that he apparently compelled his employees to work in a dangerous manner, didn't risk assess the task, have a method statement or provide appropriate equipment to fulfil the job safely(i.e. a boat or even an amphibious vehicle like an argocat). His answer to his failings as an employer is to despoil a landscape that doesn't even belong to him, he just has limited rights to use it. I was right, he is arrogant.
 

sarabande

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The link in #46 is about partridge & pheasant. Shooting is on Luing - 200 fowl and ducks in the bag in a weekend is hoped for...
Also has an image of a dead deer.
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Isle of Luing Shoot
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If the young person is really into preservation of the environment, I wonder if he has made it a condition of shooting in such pristine wilderness that lead shot is banned ? It is particularly critical that lead does not enter the lochs, inlets and soggy ground.
 

AntarcticPilot

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If the young person is really into preservation of the environment, I wonder if he has made it a condition of shooting in such pristine wilderness that lead shot is banned ? It is particularly critical that lead does not enter the lochs, inlets and soggy ground.
I was in under the impression that lead shot is banned in the UK by law.
 

sarabande

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There is a voluntary move from lead shot (which contains about 2.5% of antimony to stop it deforming in the barrel) to steel. Entirely voluntary.

The problem is that steel shot, even with clever wadding and coatings, can wreck shotgun barrels as the steel is much harder than lead, and therefore abrasive.

On Exmoor, where the shooting of farmed birds puts about £40million a year into the economy, very few shoots insist on steel, and the National Park is reluctant to get involved in trying to reduce or eliminate the tonnes of lead which are fired of each year in the name of sport. This reluctance to take on the big estates is also a feature of the Environment Agency's approach.


What happens in Scotland, I do not know, but I shall ask family for information.
 

dankilb

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This is forming into a newsworthy story IMHO. It combines a lot of compelling elements (environment, land ownership, class, etc.). Even the fact this humble forum may have been the first to identify the misdeed.

Doesn’t anyone know a willing national print journalist to direct towards this thread?! (They normally love it when a forum has done most of the work for them!)

Of course, my logic being it would add to the pressure on the authorities to put it right.
 

AntarcticPilot

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There is a voluntary move from lead shot (which contains about 2.5% of antimony to stop it deforming in the barrel) to steel. Entirely voluntary.

The problem is that steel shot, even with clever wadding and coatings, can wreck shotgun barrels as the steel is much harder than lead, and therefore abrasive.

On Exmoor, where the shooting of farmed birds puts about £40million a year into the economy, very few shoots insist on steel, and the National Park is reluctant to get involved in trying to reduce or eliminate the tonnes of lead which are fired of each year in the name of sport. This reluctance to take on the big estates is also a feature of the Environment Agency's approach.


What happens in Scotland, I do not know, but I shall ask family for information.
That's interesting, and rather troubling as lead shot is banned for use by freshwater anglers, or so I am told. Personally I don't care how many shotgun barrels are damaged - lead is a cumulative poison and shouldn't be blasted all over the landscape.
 

Norman_E

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There is another problem with steel shot. Because it is lighter than lead it needs to travel faster in order to have the same effect. That means that more powder is needed in steel shot cartridges. That means greater pressure in the barrels, which have to be proofed for steel shot. Most older high quality bespoke sporting shotguns are only proofed for lead, and could be dangerous if used with high power steel cartridges.
 

penfold

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This is forming into a newsworthy story IMHO. It combines a lot of compelling elements (environment, land ownership, class, etc.). Even the fact this humble forum may have been the first to identify the misdeed.

Doesn’t anyone know a willing national print journalist to direct towards this thread?! (They normally love it when a forum has done most of the work for them!)

Of course, my logic being it would add to the pressure on the authorities to put it right.
West Highland Free Press used to be good at this kind of thing with the P&J getting an honourable mention, but latterly both are shadows of their former buccaneering selves.
 

SaltIre

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AntarcticPilot

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There is another problem with steel shot. Because it is lighter than lead it needs to travel faster in order to have the same effect. That means that more powder is needed in steel shot cartridges. That means greater pressure in the barrels, which have to be proofed for steel shot. Most older high quality bespoke sporting shotguns are only proofed for lead, and could be dangerous if used with high power steel cartridges.
Then they should hang up the old guns and buy new ones. We no longer allow cars to belch lead over our cities, even with the excuse of providing transport; scattering lead over the countryside for sport has no excuse.

Incidentally, while I've no doubt there is an issue, it will be at least partially offset by the lesser density of steel allowing a higher acceleration for the same pressure. Force = Mass X Acceleration, so a lower mass implies a higher acceleration for the same force. As that acceleration is over the same length of gun barrel, steel shot will leave the barrel at a higher speed than the same volume of lead shot; I'd have to sit down and remember my school maths to work it out exactly, but the principle is clear.
 

Greemble

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As that acceleration is over the same length of gun barrel, steel shot will leave the barrel at a higher speed than the same volume of lead shot; I'd have to sit down and remember my school maths to work it out exactly, but the principle is clear.
Acceleration will be greater with a higher muzzle velocity, for sure.

However, deceleration will also be greater once out of the barrel and more importantly, when hitting the target. Not really very useful if when a hit is scored, the pellets just bounce off.

Granted, from the point of view of the bird or deer, it might be preferable...
 

dutyhog

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Oban Times?
The Oban Times, which also owns the Squeak, isn't much of a critical, campaigning paper, and probably doesn’t like upsetting landowners. The Herald could be better, although the journalists I fed such stories to long ago (and enthusiastically followed them up) have all retired now.
 

sarabande

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This is forming into a newsworthy story IMHO. It combines a lot of compelling elements (environment, land ownership, class, etc.). Even the fact this humble forum may have been the first to identify the misdeed.

Doesn’t anyone know a willing national print journalist to direct towards this thread?! (They normally love it when a forum has done most of the work for them!)

Of course, my logic being it would add to the pressure on the authorities to put it right.


'' I wonder if Private Eye will be interested ?
 

Quandary

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Luing is a pastoral island, These folk are farmers, long established ,enterprising and respected, a young lad made a mistake and owned up to it even volunteering to undo his error. I am not sure that his work is any more detrimental to the anchorage than visiting yachts or the laying of permanent moorings there.
Who would have thought there was so much inverted snobbery among yachties?
 
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