Nathan foster’s website? Any opinions?

Wyohunt

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Has anybody here been on the terminal ballistics research website? This guy is really down on solid copper bullets and claims that they are inhumane. I started hunting with copper 12 years ago due to fears about eating lead. My dad is a biochemist and gave me an explicit description of lead poisoning. I also saw the Utah game and fish X-ray study. No lead for me. When I switched to copper I quickly noticed that we were getting more drt kills than with lead bullets. In the last 12 years my family has taken prob 30-35 animals with copper. this has been a win/win for us.
this guy seems upset with the politics of copper bullets and seems to think that lead poisoning is a political conspiracy. He backs up his claims with having shot thousands of animals.
I get the feeling that this guys research is not solely based on physics. Something about copper really pisses him off. Any opinions Or thoughts?
 
I use Barnes Triple Shock all over the world while taking countless big game and they have worked fine. Many PHs in many parts of Africa speak highly of them and they witness taking a lot of big game. Should add I also use Swift bullets in rifles that shoot them better than copper Barnes. I personally know several famous gun writers but do not know Mr Foster so know nothing of his expertise. Everyone is allowed there own opinion based on their own experience. Copper has worked for me in most rifles. Kindest Regards
 
Can't speak to Nathan, but my son and I have killed over a dozen animals with TTSX (since switching from lead) from 115 lb pronghorn, to a 450 pound elk cow, up to 800+ pound wild African Kudu and 1000+ pound wild African zebra with Barnes TTSX and none have gone more than a couple of steps. Most animals dead where they stood. Barnes TTSX is a proven big game killer all over the world - our professional hunter in Africa says TSX, TTSX and Partitions always work - he is not too fond of many other options his customers try to bring over. And Hammers are showing similar abilities. As for lead poisoning, it's up to you, but I have seen the xrays of MN white tail and the cloud of lead in supposedly clean meat - I won't feed that to my kids. Shoot TTSX or Hammers with complete confidence that they are proven drop dead killers, safer for the environment and safer for your family.
 
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A gun writer with an inflexible opinion about a topic??? Nooooo!!!! Say it isn’t so! 🤯😱😏

Use copper the way it’s intended to function with light for caliber/ high velocity and they are devastating. The only less than stellar results I ever experienced was from dead animals that I recovered some bullets from that hadn’t expanded as much as I thought they should have.
The animals were all dead though. Most times I’ve had great expansion and quick kills.
 
I’ll never understand the level of bullet bias out there. We’ve taken elk, deer, and lope with accubonds, ttsx, and vld’s in the last 2 seasons. Each time, the bullet performed like the manufacturer stated and the critters went nowhere. There are so many great options anymore that you can pretty much pick whichever high quality bullet shoots best out of your gun and go hunt.
 
Well I have personal taken a copper bullet out of a Caribou that had zero expansion from a 30-06
My opinion shoot what you like. As far as lead poisoning North Dakota did a study and there lead levels were below the National average.
And there hunting population is a higher percentage than other states.
 
I definitely get more DRT/bang flop kills from Accubonds than TTSXs (I’ve yet to get a bang flop with them in my 30-06, but my daughter got a bang flop last season on a doe with the 308 and a 110 TTSX), but I definitely wouldn’t call them inhumane. I do believe that politics plays a large role in some areas requiring lead free bullets, but since when do we expect politicians to act rationally?

I went away from lead bullets a couple of years back when I started to hear some of the articles about lead-tainted meat, and then my daughter found a piece of lead in her venison spaghetti. It scared me. I tried TTSXs. They were finicky to load for, cost a lot of money, and didn’t give me the on game performance that I wanted, but I thought they were best for my family.

A couple of years later I began to read some more stuff on the subject talking about some obviously overlooked items, like:

-the fact that people years ago ate far more game meat than most people do today, and all of it was killed with lead bullets or shot. The old timers often tell stories about frequently picking out lead shot from meat from the pot. They didn’t get lead poisoning because...
-lead poisoning comes from your body taking up lead in methods and sizes that can be dissolved/distributed (I’m sure that I’m using the wrong technical terminology) in the blood stream, and it also has to be in quantities sufficient to cause the poisoning. Sanding lead based paint, and then it being inhaled or ingested is a good example of ways that your body can do this. Lead oxide is also bad juju. I’m sure that there are many other ways, as well.

But larger pieces of lead are passed through the body before it can “absorb” them, and that is the reason that it is difficult to get lead poisoning from game meat. At least that was the jist of the articles.

It made sense. I went back to Accubonds. I still have some TTSXs, and will use them up some day. Accubonds are less finicky to load for, much cheaper to load and buy, and give me the on game performance that I have come to expect from them every time.

But different strokes for different folks, and I’ve never heard of the guy who wrote that article. Use what you like or are required to by law.
 
Well I have personal taken a copper bullet out of a Caribou that had zero expansion from a 30-06
My opinion shoot what you like. As far as lead poisoning North Dakota did a study and there lead levels were below the National average.
And there hunting population is a higher percentage than other states.
Zero expansion bullet out of a dead animal? Interesting. mtmuley
 
You could wash it off and shoot it again.
I originally posted about this bullet on Nosler form after I came back from Alaska a year ago.
 

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I’m slowly sliding away from lead to copper bullets. By next fall I’ll probably be 100% copper on my animals I eat. Haven’t found a copper bullet that’s good enough on coyotes for fur yet
 
When I shoot through all my Accubonds, partitions and VLD's I might consider going to all copper. Probably 30 to 40 years, maybe longer. Tags are getting harder to come by.
 
I’m slowly sliding away from lead to copper bullets. By next fall I’ll probably be 100% copper on my animals I eat. Haven’t found a copper bullet that’s good enough on coyotes for fur yet
I used to shoot a lot of coyotes (and deer) with the 53 gr TSX in my .22-250. They were easy on fur. I want to get my .22-250 rebarreled to a 1:8 eventually to use some 70 gr Barnes or Hammers.
 
I’m slowly sliding away from lead to copper bullets. By next fall I’ll probably be 100% copper on my animals I eat. Haven’t found a copper bullet that’s good enough on coyotes for fur yet
A challenge for Steve. mtmuley
 
Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

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