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

[ShogunRyan]

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.)

 

[azmntman]

Lead kills. Thats why even after Dan'l n Davvy we still shoot it.

Dont keep your ammo in your mouth and no problems. Have not ever heard of trimming around the wound or entrance myself. Not enough uuumph to destroy alot of meat (with my loads anyway). You also should not order the lightning rod from the web thats going around. Lightning kills but so does lead and most all of here are still alive.

 

[ORBushman]

Dont keep your ammo in your mouth and no problems.

Wasn't that a way to loob without a patch?!

 

[Spikebuck]

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.

 

[BS2366]

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.)

Lots of deer have been killed with lead slugs. Lots of birds and turkey with lead shot. Lots of people have are the meat and are fine. Nothing to worry about

 

[chorizo]

Unlike modern unspeakable ammo, Lead from a ML usually doesn't scatter as it isn't designed to be frangible. That said if you hit bone, I have found pieces of lead around where the wound is.

Lead poisoning is usually from sustain MICRO particles, like the smoke from modern bullets in enclosed shooting ranges. An occasional ingestion of larger lead particles pass through you and don't stay in the system long enough to build up a toxicity level.

You will get more contamination and exposure to lead cleaning your gun and getting the solvents on you hands than you will from eating.

Wash your hands well, don't touch you face until you do and things will be fine.

 

[chorizo]

Unlike modern unspeakable ammo, Lead from a ML usually doesn't scatter as it isn't designed to be frangible. That said if you hit bone, I have found pieces of lead around where the wound is.

Lead poisoning is usually from sustain MICRO particles, like the smoke from modern bullets in enclosed shooting ranges. An occasional ingestion of larger lead particles pass through you and don't stay in the system long enough to build up a toxicity level.

You will get more contamination and exposure to lead cleaning your gun and getting the solvents on you hands than you will from eating.

Wash your hands well, don't touch you face until you do and things will be fine.

 

[JeffG]

Lots of wisdom here. Don't get concerned about lead projectiles.

 

[user 53891]

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.)

The only death I ever heard related to the use of a led ball, is the animal it went into.

 

[Nuthatch]

Lead roundball & even older, cartridge-based bullets don't fragment the way high velocity stuff does. I don't worry about it. Here in CA, we have to use lead-free projectiles when hunting so I cast bismuth alloy roundball. But the law doesn't apply to airguns, which are almost always subsonic. The regulators know that low-velocity projectiles don't fragment so airguns are exempt. But it's easier to enforce a blanket lead prohibition for all firearms than enforce it for some and not others. There aren't many airgunners out there to worry about it. And now there are muzzleloaders that are pushing 2400 fps where you're likely to get some level of fragmentation. The rules stink. But I get it at some level.

Shot is a different matter. I don't mind using lead shot and would prefer it in most cases. I've never gotten bismuth shot to shoot the same as lead. I've chomped on lead shot once or twice when I was a kid and we could hunt with lead. The risks to humans are negligible, from what I can tell. But what certainly seems to be an issue is scavenger birds. The condor gets all the press but all kinds of raptors end up with lead poisoning, though I don't know how much is from unrecovered animals later getting eaten by raptors or if they're exposed from something else. All I really know is that my falconer friends are ardent lead-free advocates. Since they have some skin (or rather soul) in the game, I'll trust their judgment on those issues.

I try to wash my hands after shooting or cleaning my muzzleloaders or airguns. Other than that, I don't worry about it much.

As for using steel BBs, the general rule is don't. If you must (and who really must?), then use some kind of wad or you'll risk scratching up your barrel. Steel on steel is generally a no-no.

 

[user 53891]

As I and you who are 70, 80, 90 years old. We were raised around lead....paint, cribs, etc, etc, etc. The only ones of us that dies from lead poisoning was usually inflicted by the enemy, I'm sorry to say.

 

[chorizo]

" But what certainly seems to be an issue is scavenger birds. The condor gets all the press but all kinds of raptors end up with lead poisoning, though I don't know how much is from unrecovered animals later getting eaten by raptors or if they're exposed from something else. All I really know is that my falconer friends are ardent lead-free advocates. Since they have some skin (or rather soul) in the game, I'll trust their judgment on those issues."

I wouldn't be so trusting. All based upon a now widely discredited study done by the Peregrine Fund out of Boise. It was so bad even the Peregrine Fund withdrew it and fired the "dentist" who wrote it.

As for lead poisoning waterfowl, the Mendota Wildlife Refuge (CA) lead study of the 70's that was used to ban lead shot for waterfowl was also widely discredited in the 80's It wasn't lead killing the birds, rather selenium from the drainage of irrigation water. This issue was brought forth by the California Woolgrowers Association in the late 70s as lambs were getting what is called white muscle or stiff lamb disease from selenium poisoning. The Feds finally investigated, but never did remove the lead ban.

Selenium Hazard in the Salton Sea Environment, Summary of Current Knowledge to Inform Future Science | U.S. Geological Survey

The effect of selenium (Se) toxicity on wildlife has been known for more than 50 years. The threat of Se contamination gained greater attention from federal agencies in the 1980s due to the observation of embryo deformity and mortality in birds at a National Wildlife Refuge in California. Harmful effects from Se were determined to be connected to irrigation drainage water.

Selenium Hazard in the Salton Sea Environment, Summary of Current Knowledge to Inform Future Science | U.S. Geological Survey

Condors are poisoning themselves by eating large amounts of road kill from contaminated small animals from the years of use of leaded gasoline. It has been shown that those birds dying from lead poisoning are those that scavenge along roadways. Birds that don't, don't die from lead poisoning.

The lead issue is a Trojan horse to get rid of hunting. Even the enviros refer to it as the "spotted owl" method of getting rid of something. Once something is banned, even if the study is completely flawed, the ban is never lifted. It is akin to "Silent Spring" and DDT. Total bunk and widely discredited, yet DDT is still banned and millions upon millions of humans get sick and die each year from mosquito vectors.

You want an eye-opener? Read this book that has plenty of legal and scientific references and backs his writing with such:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007PTM3MW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_d_asin_title_o06?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Combining riveting tales from history with powerful policy arguments, Merchants of Despair provides scientific refutations to all of antihumanism’s major pseudo-scientific claims, including its modern tirades against nuclear power, pesticides, population growth, biotech foods, resource depletion, and industrial development.

 

[ffg]

I wonder if men like Lewis & Clark, Hugh Glass, and all the thousands of men that wandered our mountains were concerned about that, I would think they would be more concerned about how to survive that day & night

 

[user 53891]

" But what certainly seems to be an issue is scavenger birds. The condor gets all the press but all kinds of raptors end up with lead poisoning, though I don't know how much is from unrecovered animals later getting eaten by raptors or if they're exposed from something else. All I really know is that my falconer friends are ardent lead-free advocates. Since they have some skin (or rather soul) in the game, I'll trust their judgment on those issues."

I wouldn't be so trusting. All based upon a now widely discredited study done by the Peregrine Fund out of Boise. It was so bad even the Peregrine Fund withdrew it and fired the "dentist" who wrote it.

As for lead poisoning waterfowl, the Mendota Reserve lead of the 70's study was also widely discredited in the 80's It wasn't lead killing the birds, rather selenium form the drainage of irrigation water. This issue was brought forth by the California Woolgrowers Association in the late 70s as lambs were getting what is called white muscle or stiff lamb disease from selenium poisoning. The Feds finally investigate, but never did remove the lead ban.

Selenium Hazard in the Salton Sea Environment, Summary of Current Knowledge to Inform Future Science | U.S. Geological Survey

The effect of selenium (Se) toxicity on wildlife has been known for more than 50 years. The threat of Se contamination gained greater attention from federal agencies in the 1980s due to the observation of embryo deformity and mortality in birds at a National Wildlife Refuge in California. Harmful effects from Se were determined to be connected to irrigation drainage water.

Selenium Hazard in the Salton Sea Environment, Summary of Current Knowledge to Inform Future Science | U.S. Geological Survey


Condors are poisoning themselves by eating large amounts of road kill from contaminated small animals from the years of use of leaded gasoline.

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

What a wonderful world it could be without power hungry politicians and stupid people. That was a great article friend.....thank you.

 

[stikshooter]

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.)

Safe as long as the shooter misses /Ed

 

[Nuthatch]

" But what certainly seems to be an issue is scavenger birds. The condor gets all the press but all kinds of raptors end up with lead poisoning, though I don't know how much is from unrecovered animals later getting eaten by raptors or if they're exposed from something else. All I really know is that my falconer friends are ardent lead-free advocates. Since they have some skin (or rather soul) in the game, I'll trust their judgment on those issues."

I wouldn't be so trusting. All based upon a now widely discredited study done by the Peregrine Fund out of Boise. It was so bad even the Peregrine Fund withdrew it and fired the "dentist" who wrote it.

As for lead poisoning waterfowl, the Mendota Reserve (CA) lead study of the 70's that was used to ban lead shot for waterfowl was also widely discredited in the 80's It wasn't lead killing the birds, rather selenium from the drainage of irrigation water. This issue was brought forth by the California Woolgrowers Association in the late 70s as lambs were getting what is called white muscle or stiff lamb disease from selenium poisoning. The Feds finally investigated, but never did remove the lead ban.

Selenium Hazard in the Salton Sea Environment, Summary of Current Knowledge to Inform Future Science | U.S. Geological Survey

The effect of selenium (Se) toxicity on wildlife has been known for more than 50 years. The threat of Se contamination gained greater attention from federal agencies in the 1980s due to the observation of embryo deformity and mortality in birds at a National Wildlife Refuge in California. Harmful effects from Se were determined to be connected to irrigation drainage water.

Selenium Hazard in the Salton Sea Environment, Summary of Current Knowledge to Inform Future Science | U.S. Geological Survey

Condors are poisoning themselves by eating large amounts of road kill from contaminated small animals from the years of use of leaded gasoline. It has been shown that those birds dying from lead poisoning are those that scavenge along roadways. Birds that don't, don't die from lead poisoning.

The lead issue is a Trojan horse to get rid of hunting. Even the enviros refer to it as the "spotted owl" method of getting rid of something

Indeed, it was an Assembly Bill that gave us the lead ban, not CDFW. CDFW is pretty hunter-friendly but, alas, they got their marching orders from the politicians.

Politicians and "scientific" reports can be a capricious bunch. My rule of thumb is to go with the consensus among those closest to the action -- especially when it's rather inconsequential to me.

The irony, of course, is that it was meant to curtail hunting and has, instead, launched companies like Barnes into the mainstream. Hunting license sales are up, as is the general interest and acceptance of hunting. Barnes was just a niche product for dangerous game hunters. Now copper bullets are used by hunters all over the world for all kinds of game. Thor bullets, which I've used in my Hawken, are actually manufactured by Barnes, too. Yea, they're expensive. But they're also effective. All in all, I'm a big fan of copper for high velocity stuff. For ML, it's just a petty nuisance reg.

I had once read that 70%+ of all -06 ammo in the US is sold in CA. Getting a market here is a big deal. The politicians unwittingly made somebody's business take off with that lead ban.

 

[DCAN]

Having seen the x-rays from deer and elk shot with bullets fired from the "unmentionables" I quit using anything other than pure copper bullets for those type of rifles. The x-rays looked like a picture of the Milkyway. Lead fragments were in places I never would have believed. That being said, I believe lead bullets fired from a ML are quite different. Much lower velocity with a much lower chance of the fragmentation. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to see an x-ray of an animal killed with a lead bullet fired from a ML.

 

[chorizo]

"My rule of thumb is to go with the consensus among those closest to the action -- especially when it's rather inconsequential to me."

Some of the most biased and uninformed people I know are those with an axe to grind that are closest to the action.

People believe what they want to believe. The desire to conform to what to others tell them in a small and specialized groups ...peer pressure...is enormous. They believe, in spite of the facts, because they don't want the stigmatism of being a non-believer...or as the environmentalists now so effectively call it, a "denier".

Confirmational bias amongst these groups is a given

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Ingesting lead from an animal killed with a lead projectile is pretty much unheard of. When I butcher an animal I killed, if the wound is in the meat I would eat, I discard that area as it is likely to have bone fragments, hair, dirt and possibly chunks of lead and/or gilding metal from a jacketed bullet. 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.

You might want to pick shot out of game birds, rabbits and squirrels for fear of breaking a tooth, but in a nutshell, nothing to worry about.

 

[Nuthatch]

"My rule of thumb is to go with the consensus among those closest to the action -- especially when it's rather inconsequential to me."

Some of the most biased and uninformed people I know are those with an axe to grind are closest to the action.

People believe what they want to believe. The desire to conform to what to others tell them in a small and specialized groups ...peer pressure...is enormous.

Confirmational bias amongst these groups is a given

And we hunters are no exception there either.