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

[Mike in FL]

My first gun was a break stop single shot 20 guage. I was raised picking 7 1/2 shot out of game at the dinner table. Squirrel, grouse, rabbits, and grouse. We were dirt poor and counted on wild game and before I was old enough to work I felt pride in contributing food to the family. 75 now and haven't had any ill effects. Now it is a different world in so many ways.

 

[SOLANCO]

My first gun was a break stop single shot 20 guage. I was raised picking 7 1/2 shot out of game at the dinner table. Squirrel, grouse, rabbits, and grouse. We were dirt poor and counted on wild game and before I was old enough to work I felt pride in contributing food to the family. 75 now and haven't had any ill effects. Now it is a different world in so many ways.

On my grandmother's farm ground hogs, rabbits and squirrels were important protein sources.

 

[FishDFly]

Animals shot with lead are not going to kill you,

 

[vintovka]

I spent 2 decades sampling and testing air, water, soil and about everything else with an near unlimited budget. I personally did the sampling and reviewed the results myself. All the work was done in certified laboratories with verifiable lower detection limits in PPT and PPQ. I now try not to think about it anymore.

 

[Jedidiah]

Lead poisoning is real. it happens past and present. Use at your own risk. Being paranoid is not the answer, but being smart is. You can take simple precautions when using or working with lead. When I cast bullets, I work outside, lots of fresh air etc and still use a N95 mask. It is not a problem to do and provides a bit more safety when working with a known product that can cause numerous medical issues if handled improperly. Just one mans opinion.

 

[Jedidiah]

Animals shot with lead are not going to kill you,

Probably not since you already killed them!

 

[WBNovak]

I think it depends on which side of the rifle you are on.

 

[B P Arn]

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

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

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!

 

[B P Arn]

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. ...(blah, blah, bah...)

That explains why kids in major cities are so smart now, and the violence is so low.

 

[david w]

My first gun was a break stop single shot 20 guage. I was raised picking 7 1/2 shot out of game at the dinner table. Squirrel, grouse, rabbits, and grouse. We were dirt poor and counted on wild game and before I was old enough to work I felt pride in contributing food to the family. 75 now and haven't had any ill effects. Now it is a different world in so many ways.

Lead shot never affected me. Now, what is my name again? Seriously, I used to be quite the dove hunter. Can't tell you how many pellets I missed when cleaning.

 

[Gordoncourtney]

If the water flowing through the pipes is of a higher pH -- no problem. Many cities still use them with no ill effect. But... if you change the pH of the water so it becomes acidic (which is exactly what was done by our former governor as a cost saving measure in Flint, MI) then you start to have serious problems.

Don't get me wrong; I cast my own roundballs all the time and fully recognize the superiority of lead as a projectile material. But I don't do it in an enclosed space where vapors are likely to be inhaled. I pick the shot out of game as much to save my teeth as to keep from raising my lead levels.

It's not a matter of lead is 100% fine or 100% bad. The world is not black and white.

Well our 1950s house mains 70 ft of lead pipe from the road is still there it blew a few years back and water board replaced a bit with plastic. I gather the pipe inside gets covered in probably lime scale to protect us The conclusion was not to disturb it and replace it with plastic. We bought house off uncle in 1986 and non of us have suffered any ill effects I guess sucking a lead ball is not advised. Haha. I am 79 feel 40 look 63 I am having immunology for old kidney cancer , doc says I should make 90
I guess plenty of vitamin C will keep you ok from lead. My mate Roy up in Norfolk uk is constantly breathing lead fumes casting bullets in his garage, he should use a mask, but he suffers no ill effect. I don’t know anyone that has died of lead poisoning

Ps I paint a lot but no lead paint. Ha ha. Just had first grandson too

But it’s an important subject that needs constant reviewing. I wish you well

Nice but cold day UK

 

[user 31232]

Haha I remember clamping lead sinkers with my teeth.

 

[FishDFly]

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!

How many "documented" cases are there from a person dying from eating a deer shot from a lead projectile in the last 200 years?

Take up tennis, your odds are better dying driving there than eating a lead laden deer.

 

[B P Arn]

No lead fumes are created from casting lead bullets, balls, sinkers, etc.

 

[FishDFly]

They are, but deer are not eating them while casting.

 

[tenngun]

I suppose it depends on what you need for proof. When each state experiences a significant drop in crime rates about 20 years after they ban leaded gasoline (and many states did it at different times, all with identical outcomes), that's a pretty strong correlation. The same is true across different countries that banned leaded gasoline. I suppose for some people, there's no proof that I'm the perpetrator if I point my gun at someone and pull the trigger (hey, maybe a stray bullet came from somewhere else, and I missed?), but most reasonable people would agree with this level of evidence.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkn...ricas-violent-crime-epidemic/?sh=17d533dc12c4

Yeah, but…..
Wasn’t there a fall in crime after Mork and Mindy went off the air? After the introduction of Splenda? Remember rotory phones, bit we were rolling in crime then. Thank God we went to touch tone then cell phones.
Remember the coming ice age? Lordy when we switched to global warming crime went in the crapper. In fact you noticed an increase AFTER we switched to climate change. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[tenngun]

Lead shot never affected me. Now, what is my name again? Seriously, I used to be quite the dove hunter. Can't tell you how many pellets I missed when cleaning.

Swallow a lead pellet isn’t a good idea. However as a hunk of solid lead it isn’t too dangerous. The lead has to get in to your system. Hold a lead ball in your mouth to decrease thirst isn’t a good idea. Drinking anything acidic from a lead glazed pottery pot non to smart
Since before humans were human we got lead and arsenic and God knows what in to our systems. It’s overwhelming the system that’s dangerous. Lots of folk walking around with a lead bullet in their bodies.

 

[user 31232]

Not safe for the deer

 

[FishDFly]

Yeah, but…..
Wasn’t there a fall in crime after Mork and Mindy went off the air? After the introduction of Splenda? Remember rotory phones, bit we were rolling in crime then. Thank God we went to touch tone then cell phones.
Remember the coming ice age? Lordy when we switched to global warming crime went in the crapper. In fact you noticed an increase AFTER we switched to climate change. Coincidence? I think not.

Have you been drug tested lately, Mork and Mindy?

 

[BlackRock52]

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....

I don't doubt it...
Every foreign object in the human body gets covered by the body with a fibrous nearly impervious layer of tissue referred to as biofilm in order to "wall off" the item from and to protect the body from the foreign object. Similar thing happens with an abscess except in that case, the infection continues, pressure builds, and there are periodic 'leaks' into the body triggering a febrile reaction. Not too hard to imagine a non infected object being encapsulated and hence causing no problems to the body as a whole.