With a statewide phaseout of lead ammunition slated for completion by July 1, 2019, adult California hunters can sign up for free non-lead ammunition through the Salinas-based Ventana Wildlife Society. The raffle program gives out free copper bullets, available to residents of the 18 counties within historic flyways of the California condor, a federally endangered New World vulture and North America’s largest land bird. Condors feed on gut piles and carcasses of shot animals, which can poison the birds if lead ammunition was used. For more information on the program, go to ventanaws.org.
