Beginning on September 1, hunters will be required to use shotgun shells loaded with nontoxic shot at all times while hunting rails, snipe, and moorhens in New Jersey. Nontoxic shotshell types legal for waterfowl will also be legal for rails, snipe and moorhens.

Legal shells are those containing nontoxic shot of steel, bismuth, tungsten-iron, tungsten-polymer, tungsten-matrix, tungsten-nickel-iron (HEVI-SHOT), tungsten-iron-nickel-tin (TINT), tungsten-bronze, and tungsten-tin-bismuth. Hunters are not permitted to use or have in possession, shotgun shells loaded with lead shot while pursuing rails, snipe, or moorhens.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife initiated these new regulations after numerous studies indicated that spent lead shot deposited in marshes was being ingested by waterfowl and other wildlife causing debilitation and mortality. Additionally, secondary lead poisoning is a threat to predatory and scavenging wildlife, most notably raptors, which consume weakened animals that have ingested lead shot. Rail hunting, particularly for soras, occurs in some of our most valuable wetlands utilized by a variety of waterfowl and raptors, including bald eagles. This regulation will essentially halt lead shot deposition and subsequent wildlife lead poisoning in New Jersey wetlands.