Hunt lead free SD

If you could give me the rational on this, it would be appreciated.
Back before the 80s they would shoot ducks with lead shot. Supposedly then and now ducks dig the lead out of the mud and eat it, leaving lead in the meat. Ive never see a condusive study proving this. Now we dont. But, we do shoot pheasants with lead shot. Similar sized bird and similar sized shot.

As far as meat exposure to lead shot, having 3-20 pellets #4 diameter go through the meat, most people i hunt with tend to just dig the pellets out and call it a day. that would mean meat is being ate that had contact with lead.

On my big game kills, i aim for heart shots. In one side of ribs, out the other. I cut around the blood shot meat. one time in the last 20 years i shot a shoulder lengthwise. Ended up discarding it. my 180 grain hornady interlocks all weigh over 173 grains when i recover them from lengthwise shot animals. The ones ive dug out of soft dirt were also the same. ones that hit rocks explode. Since i can see the devastation from that big bullet i cut around it. I also run a metal detector over all my game meat to prevent tooth damage from shot.

Thats why i think i have less lead exposure from big game than birds. its also so minimal im not worried.
 
One might wonder as to if Wyoming270 is old enough to have ingested more than his share of lead paint.
I dont think there is really an age for that. Anyone remodeling houses painted before the 1960s likely will contact it, and in some cases that paint was stored and still being applied for a couple decades after that. Id bet most people in the us who have been around buildings older than 1990 have been near lead paint. Wether or not they sand it is a different story.
 
Back before the 80s they would shoot ducks with lead shot. Supposedly then and now ducks dig the lead out of the mud and eat it, leaving lead in the meat. Ive never see a condusive study proving this. Now we dont. But, we do shoot pheasants with lead shot. Similar sized bird and similar sized shot.

As far as meat exposure to lead shot, having 3-20 pellets #4 diameter go through the meat, most people i hunt with tend to just dig the pellets out and call it a day. that would mean meat is being ate that had contact with lead.

On my big game kills, i aim for heart shots. In one side of ribs, out the other. I cut around the blood shot meat. one time in the last 20 years i shot a shoulder lengthwise. Ended up discarding it. my 180 grain hornady interlocks all weigh over 173 grains when i recover them from lengthwise shot animals. The ones ive dug out of soft dirt were also the same. ones that hit rocks explode. Since i can see the devastation from that big bullet i cut around it. I also run a metal detector over all my game meat to prevent tooth damage from shot.

Thats why i think i have less lead exposure from big game than birds. its also so minimal im not worried.


One big difference here is that lead shot used on game birds is traveling anywhere between 700 and 1000 FPS on impact. A high powered centerfire rifle round doing three to four times that speed splashes and fragments, sending thousands of tiny lead particles throughout the animal. There is really no way to avoid those unless, like I said, you just throw away the front half of the animal. Even the backstraps and tenderloins are shown to regularly experience lead ingression.

Again, I'm not for forcing anyone to do anything. But, any group that wants to stay relevant has to police itself, and voluntarily switching to lead free ammo is a really easy way to do that while also improving your health, your family's and the environment's.
 
Back before the 80s they would shoot ducks with lead shot. Supposedly then and now ducks dig the lead out of the mud and eat it, leaving lead in the meat. Ive never see a condusive study proving this. Now we dont. But, we do shoot pheasants with lead shot. Similar sized bird and similar sized shot.

As far as meat exposure to lead shot, having 3-20 pellets #4 diameter go through the meat, most people i hunt with tend to just dig the pellets out and call it a day. that would mean meat is being ate that had contact with lead.

On my big game kills, i aim for heart shots. In one side of ribs, out the other. I cut around the blood shot meat. one time in the last 20 years i shot a shoulder lengthwise. Ended up discarding it. my 180 grain hornady interlocks all weigh over 173 grains when i recover them from lengthwise shot animals. The ones ive dug out of soft dirt were also the same. ones that hit rocks explode. Since i can see the devastation from that big bullet i cut around it. I also run a metal detector over all my game meat to prevent tooth damage from shot.

Thats why i think i have less lead exposure from big game than birds. its also so minimal im not worried.
You are a bit off the mark regarding lead shot and migratory waterfowl. It has been illegal to hunt waterfowl with lead shot since 1991. During the 80’s, many thousands of gizzards were collected by the USF&W service ( I collect hundreds myself) . Studies concluded that waterfowl ingesting spent lead shot from marshes did indeed cause lead poisoning in significant numbers of ducks.
 
Information and science have never been so easily accessible to those interested. That being said, some people aren't that interested to be informed.

Short AnswerIMG_0467.jpeg
Those things kill far more eagles than hunter gut piles ever have or ever will. The green/renewable energy companies and the conservation groups supporting them have decided it is easier to buy eagle take permits and criticize hunters about lead ammunition than to kill less eagles.
 
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One big difference here is that lead shot used on game birds is traveling anywhere between 700 and 1000 FPS on impact. A high powered centerfire rifle round doing three to four times that speed splashes and fragments, sending thousands of tiny lead particles throughout the animal. There is really no way to avoid those unless, like I said, you just throw away the front half of the animal. Even the backstraps and tenderloins are shown to regularly experience lead ingression.

Again, I'm not for forcing anyone to do anything. But, any group that wants to stay relevant has to police itself, and voluntarily switching to lead free ammo is a really easy way to do that while also improving your health, your family's and the environment's.
Id be interested in reading the lab tests published on these thousands of tiny pieces of lead in the back straps.
 
Id be interested in reading the lab tests published on these thousands of tiny pieces of lead in the back straps.

IMG_5395.png

My guess is you seem like the kind of man that doesn’t change an opinion based on reading anyhow.

Perhaps a photo would be proof that lead does indeed penetrate further into the meat than is typically trimmed away?
 

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