How safe is it to use lead round balls while hunting?

[JeffG]

The lead issue is a Trojan horse to get rid of hunting.

So. I feel is the reintroduction wolves.

 

[JeffG]

As a teen I hunted with pellet rifles, always kept some greased lead pellets in my mouth while hunting. But over 45 years later I'm ok...I guess.

Ha ha! So did I. Other than joining the Marine Corps, no signs of brain damage or anything...

 

[TDM]

At this stage of life I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about stuff. Least of all as to whether I’m going to lead poisoning from something I shot. Good Grief.

 

[user 48702]

If you're shooting a 220 swift with a lead projectile then yeah its going to end up in many tiny pieces. A slow moving round ball, probably not.

I grew up chipping teeth on shot in rabbits and ducks as did my old man before me, and his old man before him. And we're just fine.

View attachment 193694

Looks like Jack Elam did have another son.

 

[David Veale]

Anyone born before 1960 or so has already taken in more lead from leaded gasoline than he/she would ever manage to take in from lead projectiles.

True -- but it was also shown that about 20 years after leaded gasoline was banned, state-by-state, each state showed a significant drop in crime rates and incarceration. The leaded gasoline does definitely have an effect, though I believe the greatest effects are those on young children whose brains are still developing. A friend of mine has a daughter who suffered significant lead exposure when they remodeled their older home, and is not quite normal as a result.

My experiences with lead ball echo what other members here are saying; it fragments far less than high-power rifle bullets. But... I still don't keep meat anywhere near the wound channel. The acidity of the human stomach would certainly dissolve some lead if it's ingested. Lead exposure at any age is not a good thing. A coworker's father was a plumber back in the day, with loads of lead exposure. She described him as "batsh*t insane", which she attributed to that exposure.

 

[John Spartan]

Having worked in a job where yearly lead testing was required I saw how easy it was to pick up “don’t get pregnant” levels of lead is. Just as easy to avoid too.
With that said I shave a bit of meat where the ball may have touched. Probably paranoid but there are enough life hazards around no sense embracing the ones I can avoid.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Does the lead contaminate the meat? Does it leave lead powder behind? If so do i have to get rid of the area of the meat that touched the lead?
(Also sidenote is it safe to use copperhead bbs in my smoothbore? Because lead is prohibited for hunting migratory birds where i am.)

So lots of good information. People that are actually shot through crime or accident, most often do not have the projectile removed. The damage from the removal is thought to be worse than the damage done by the projectile entry, and antibiotics are used to prevent infection from the wound. No treatment for lead is done.

Lead itself doesn't do the poisoning, it's lead-oxide, the white stuff that forms on it. OH lead that has vaporized such as in heavy leaded fuels from car or aircraft engine exhaust, or when munitions have burned goes into the blood stream via inhalation.

Lead from shooting ranges isn't from the firing of the firearm. Its from the bullets impacting the "stop" at the back of the range, and fragmenting. The tiny dust particles form lead-oxide over time, and inhaling that is what has caused shooting instructors at indoor ranges to have elevated lead levels. It's not the handling of the lead by a plumber that harms him, but the lead deposit on the surface of his skin that then oxidizes, and he ingests it.

Lead-oxide is white, and is very cheap, and mixes very well as a paint pigment..., so was used a lot in low income housing decades ago. When the paint flaked, and the toddler picked up the flake and does what toddlers often do, which is a taste-test, they ingested lead-oxide..., and if the kid was hungry, lead-oxide has a sort of sweet flavor, so they would look for more.

That's why it's a "inside joke" among us when folks ask about old lead round ball having a white frost on them, and instead of telling folks to spray them down with something like WD-40, wiping them down while wearing gloves and throwing away the cloth that was used...., we write, "I just pop 'em in my mouth and they get clean"..., which is NOT what you do as that will give you lead in your system......

LD

 

[Billy Boy]

Does the lead contaminate the meat? Does it leave lead powder behind? If so do i have to get rid of the area of the meat that touched the lead?
(Also sidenote is it safe to use copperhead bbs in my smoothbore? Because lead is prohibited for hunting migratory birds where i am.)

I used to eat right up to the bullet hole but I don’t anymore - not because of lead contamination but because my teeth are failing. Trim around the hole and dig in. I don’t know what copperhead BBs are but if they are air rifle BBs DON’T use them, they are much harder than any other type of steel shot and will damage your pipes.

 

[user 48702]

In my early days, I repaired, rebuilt, and built McClellan saddles and U.S. Army mule saddles. In acquiring reference materials such as U.S. Army Saddler's Manuals and Ordnance Manuals going back as far as 1859, regulations specified that the wooden saddle tree was to be painted with a heavy coat of white lead paint, whereas to prevent insect infestation as well as protecting the wooden tree from moisture and animal sweat. In the old days the painting of tree trunks, especially fruit and nut trees, 5 to 6 feet high around the home, farm, and orchards, was to prevent insect infestation, and the paint used was white lead based paint. Bugs will avoid a lead based painted surface like the plague.

 

[Daveboone]

Any damaged meat immediatly around the bullet wound would be discarded /trimmed anyway.

 

[Eric Krewson]

If I had a dime for every lead split shot I crimped on my fishing line with my teeth in the last 70 years I could probably buy a new Kibler kit.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

True -- but it was also shown that about 20 years after leaded gasoline was banned, state-by-state, each state showed a significant drop in crime rates and incarceration. The leaded gasoline does definitely have an effect, though I believe the greatest effects are those on young children whose brains are still developing. A friend of mine has a daughter who suffered significant lead exposure when they remodeled their older home, and is not quite normal as a result.

My experiences with lead ball echo what other members here are saying; it fragments far less than high-power rifle bullets. But... I still don't keep meat anywhere near the wound channel. The acidity of the human stomach would certainly dissolve some lead if it's ingested. Lead exposure at any age is not a good thing. A coworker's father was a plumber back in the day, with loads of lead exposure. She described him as "batsh*t insane", which she attributed to that exposure.

This is all true. Also after they introduced leaded gasoline, the intelligence of the population dropped measurably. It's not a perfect world. While I generally trim around wound channels, there are riskier things to do that we all regularly do every day... like getting into a car and driving it. That is one of the most dangerous things anyone can do, yet we do it.

I also shoot muzzleloaders, cast lead projectiles, handle lead projectiles and clean guns without masking or wearing gloves. I am a hobby print shop operator and regularly handle lead type.

While I wash my hands before eating, I really don't worry much about lead exposure. Being 66 years old and having stage four cancer, things like that just don't worry me much these days... and they never really did.

 

[Pierre009]

In nearly 25 years now shooting deer with lead projectiles I have not seen anything to indicate that hazardous levels of lead were left in the wound channel. I tend to wait for broadside or quartering away shots that pass through the rib cage, so not much there to contaminate or eat anyway.

In all those years I have only once had to do a lot of trimming as the quartering into shot from above first hit heavy bone and the ball fractured into many pieces. That shoulder area needed to be trimmed away as it was full of fragmented lead pieces. It would have been like eating a load of lead shot.

You can substitute bismuth shot where lead is not legal or create paper shot "cartridges" or use plastic shot cups loaded with steel shot to protect the barrel.

Same here, all I've used is lead balls & they work great.

 

[waksupi]

True -- but it was also shown that about 20 years after leaded gasoline was banned, state-by-state, each state showed a significant drop in crime rates and incarceration. The leaded gasoline does definitely have an effect, though I believe the greatest effects are those on young children whose brains are still developing. A friend of mine has a daughter who suffered significant lead exposure when they remodeled their older home, and is not quite normal as a result.

My experiences with lead ball echo what other members here are saying; it fragments far less than high-power rifle bullets. But... I still don't keep meat anywhere near the wound channel. The acidity of the human stomach would certainly dissolve some lead if it's ingested. Lead exposure at any age is not a good thing. A coworker's father was a plumber back in the day, with loads of lead exposure. She described him as "batsh*t insane", which she attributed to that exposure.

Lots of guessing involved with this, with no proof.

 

[user 53891]

Lots of guessing involved with this, with no proof.

I agree with you. When you start to believe what the government puts out there without questioning, then you lose. That BS that they put out there about the drop in crime and incarceration....extremely suspect.

 

[user 48702]

Lots of guessing involved with this, with no proof.

Very true, makes you wonder about today, prisons and jails are over crowded, and plenty of ignant folks that don't know how to read a map or boil water.

 

[Okie Hog]

Years ago i fired on an indoor range near Houston: i could taste the lead.

https://projects.seattletimes.com/2014/loaded-with-lead/1/

 

[beardedhorse]

Shogun Ryan. Lead is banned in the entire United States for waterfowl and in California for big game. Lots of good info from Nuthatch. In other states we have to be concerned with any future bans of lead for muzzle loaders. What about lead for just target shooting? It would make the game much more expensive if I have to go to solid copper or bismuth to shoot matches.

 

[mikesto44]

I have a friend who has three 45 lead bullets in him. He was a police officer and was shot. He's been carrying those for fifty years. I wouldn't put to much stock in what you hear....He's doing fine....

 

[Harmonica Bob]

Does the lead contaminate the meat? Does it leave lead powder behind? If so do i have to get rid of the area of the meat that touched the lead?
(Also sidenote is it safe to use copperhead bbs in my smoothbore? Because lead is prohibited for hunting migratory birds where i am.)

Although lead can be very deadly for deer, lol, there is no concern about it "poisioning" the meat. Casting lead exposes one to much more lead fumes! However, the body gets rid of lead over time! When I cast lead, I make enough for several years.