Lead in grass / water

[two-snakes]

One area where I am able to deer hunt is the land surrounding a large pistol & rifle range. After many many years of use there has been tens of thousands of rounds of ammo sent down range.

I have been working in that area for five years and have seen the deer feeding everywhere on the range. It is the same deer over the past several years because they avoid us during hunting season. There are two 10 / 12 pointer and two 8 / 10 pointers, these are the big ones, plus many does and several spikes, yearlings and 4 / 6 pointers. Do you think there would be any problems of lead in there system?

Do we need to be concerned?

 

[donk]

From the deer you discribed they seem pretty healthy. Lead is a substance that acumulates in the system and can poison the animal gradually. But I would think that if there was enough lead in their systems to cause you problems that they would be showing the effects. :imo:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Yes. I think if you put lead in their system it will be fatal. Somewhere around 180 to 230 grains of dosage ought to about do it. ::

Seriously, I would not worry about the deer. Unlike geese/ducks they do not pick up gizzard stones (and the occasional pellet) which introduces lead into their system. The projectiles are in a form that is not readily dissolved back into the food chain. Many soldiers (and a few hunters) lived to ripe old age with a bullet or pellet in their body that was safer to leave than try and remove. Pure lead is pretty stable. I do not think it is absorbed by plants and would not be passed into a deer's system through browse. The bad results of using lead solder in cans was partially due to the acids in the food leaching the lead out as lead sulfide and other lead compounds that the body can absorb and metabolize. There may be some possibility of lead leaching into the environment (acid rain, etc.) but it would be pretty localized to the berm behind the targets.

Now, the deer that grazed by roadsides and the corn that grew beside highways back when we had leaded gas. That was a concern. :shocking:

In fact, I have a "range" on the hill behind the house that has 25 plus years plus worth of lead splattered and scattered around. This past year I took a deer that was bedded within 20 yards of it when I jumped him. In the past I have killed many in that spot (I reserve it for those times when I only have a short opportunity to sneak out for a "fast" hunt).

Then again, maybe that explains some of my behavior. "Now, why did I carry this desk up the hill to go deer hunting?"

 

[oomcurt]

Just my two cents on this whole lead thing today...Yeah..I can see it with waterfowl..maybe...seems to me folks have used lead to hunt ducks with for dang near a couple of centuries. With this "preoccupation" that folks have today with it..nope..I don't buy into that one bit...had lead soldiers and such as a kid..used what was called "split shot" for sinkers for fishing..you secured them on the line by biting them closed. I've used lead for revolver bullets for years...handled thousands of[url] them..in[/url] fact..take a break for lunch and never even washed my hands. I'm pushin 70 and so far..I have NO health problems due to lead...IMO..most of this comes out of some health nuts ideas in gov't.

 

I try to go to the range only when things are slow there.(Cause I'm retired and I can) About 50% of the time, all times of the year, I see deer &/or turkeys. Except for possible insanity, they all seem healthy. Bill in Oregon

 

[canyonman]

We killed a nice buck last year just off the local shooting range and he ate just fine. It did have a VERY slight metalic taste to but not so that you would notice and none of us have had any ill effects fro... cough, whezz, choke, uhgh, ooohhh, ooooo :blah: nah just fooling with you. eace:

Larry

 

Hey Bud
Watch it the feds on both side will use this to dump our sport. Just like the non lead shot deal... it was proven to be an Industrial problem but the antis are forcing them to keep the ban on lead shot... Loyalist dawg

 

[2172]

A private club here in western NC decided to move from the range it had rented to another site...a bunch of newbies started fighting the move, using every legal trick they could think of..one was to accuse them of an EPA violation on the old range by contaminating the ground with lead...the property owners quashed that by saying it was their property, and it wasn't going on the market or available for public access...but it shows that mentality at work. Having once belonged to a club that lost a trap range to an anti-gun sound engineer...waited until the wind carried the sound clearly enough to hit 82 dec....I worry about this a lot...not the contamination...my dad carried some WWI lead to his grave, but the anti's using it as a tool...Hank