lead consumption from game

[hydrotech]

does anyone ever worry about lead ingestion from deer, hogs, or other game shot with ballistic tipped hunting bullets like the SST or Nosler BT hunting? I usually throw the ribs away so if its a straight broad side pass through i doubt there is much in the edible parts. However if it hits a front shoulder do you trim around the hole and grind that or do you scrap it? What if the bullet is not a straight pass through? Do any of you tripm and consume meat from around the bullet travel area?

[rebelsoul]

I throw away anything that could be contaminated by the debris resulting from the impact. I process my own meat, so I remove the outer layers of tissue on most cuts. My theory is that any lead compounds formed by the energy of a bullet impact, would be to large to permeate very much tissue without some sort of carrier. I'd like to hear from some of the bio-tech guys on this subject. I have consumed ( accidently) lead shot when eating doves, that's what makes me so smart and good lookin'!

[hydrotech]

Does anyone know if there has been any science research on the spread of microscopic lead particles through bullet channel in an animal for lead solids vs. Ballistic tips? Also would you classify SST's as ballisitc tip fragmenting bullets since they have the interlock ring? what about the noslers? does only the tip fragment and the core stay together?

[Mountain Man]

I'm not sure whether anyone has considered this yet but people have been eating birds downed with lead shot for hundreds of years. The federal law requiring steel shot on migratory birds was to protect the birds from eating whole pieces of shot that could become stuck in their digestive tract and cause rapid lead toxicity levels in these 3-15 lb animals. When I blast a grouse with a 20 ga., I pick out the shot I can easily find and everything else gets spat out as I'm eating. This is how most people (that I know) eat rabbits and other small game killed with a shotgun.

I don't think you need to worry. But then again I'm no expert, I just have never personally heard of someone getting lead poisoning from eating game shot with lead projectiles......

[Double Naught Spy]

Does anyone know if there has been any science research on the spread of microscopic lead particles through bullet channel in an animal for lead solids vs. Ballistic tips?

I would be fairly certain that no such study has been made.

Also would you classify SST's as ballisitc tip fragmenting bullets since they have the interlock ring?

I don't know how they are classified, but all mine seem to come apart.

[Slappy]

Everyone I know that has been eating wild game since they could eat seem to have no problems. BANG BANG!!

[TacBlade]

Just spit the bullet fragments out as you eat!!! I've eaten worse in the military!!! LOL!!!

[mongoosesnipe]

I don't eat meat from the wound channel no matter the bullet, the meat is destroyed and kinda gross and I am not that hungry, that said there are plenty of great non toxic bullets available if you are concerned about lead, though there are have been many a person who's primary protien was shot wild game especially before jacketed bullets, even if you happen to eat a little bit of lead it will result in a leadchloride shell forming around the lead and no further reaction will occur, it won't be digested an any significant quantity, I'm not saying go out of your way to eat it but the trace a out you may consume from game won't hurt you

[Slappy]

Anyone worried about this probably should not hunt, all stuff aside. But for those that are and they shoot something better get in touch with me and let me take the meat and check it out for you. I will let you know if it was good or not. BANG BANG!!

[sneaky one]

There is a few x ray vids of lead spray thru the deers body that can be checked out- online-- I chose to go lead free because of these vids.- I like the all copper results also.

[Double Naught Spy]

Like these...

http://www.gilroydispatch.com/lifestyles/werc/lead-a-toxic-threat-to-wildlife-and-humans/article_16c5bcc2-b1b4-11e2-9828-0019bb30f31a.html?mode=image

http://www.wildlensinc.org/blog/tag/lead-ammunition/

[Joseph5]

I have been eating game meat that has been killed with lead bullets since before I can remember an I am now 45. If there was as much lead in it as is shown in these pictures I would have been suffering from the effects of lead poisoning a long time ago. There are hundreds of thousands of people at the minimum who have subsisted on game meat that was killed with lead cored bullets for decades that show no signs of lead poisoning. I would look to the ulterior motives behind these videos/pictures of X-rays. What kind of bullet was used for the shot. It would be very easy to manipulate the results to prove your point either for or against lead depending simply on your choice of projectile. I will look at the last 150 years of history of game consumption by the general public for the answer. If eating meat from animals killed with lead cored bullets was bad, you would have heard about it long before the green mafia took over the EPA and started waging their war on lead, coal, take your pick using bad science and fabricated data.

[Mountain Man]

I have been eating game meat that has been killed with lead bullets since before I can remember an I am now 45. If there was as much lead in it as is shown in these pictures I would have been suffering from the effects of lead poisoning a long time ago. There are hundreds of thousands of people at the minimum who have subsisted on game meat that was killed with lead cored bullets for decades that show no signs of lead poisoning. I would look to the ulterior motives behind these videos/pictures of X-rays. What kind of bullet was used for the shot. It would be very easy to manipulate the results to prove your point either for or against lead depending simply on your choice of projectile. I will look at the last 150 years of history of game consumption by the general public for the answer. If eating meat from animals killed with lead cored bullets was bad, you would have heard about it long before the green mafia took over the EPA and started waging their war on lead, coal, take your pick using bad science and fabricated data.

Nailed it.

[Double Naught Spy]

I have been eating game meat that has been killed with lead bullets since before I can remember an I am now 45. If there was as much lead in it as is shown in these pictures I would have been suffering from the effects of lead poisoning a long time ago. There are hundreds of thousands of people at the minimum who have subsisted on game meat that was killed with lead cored bullets for decades that show no signs of lead poisoning. I would look to the ulterior motives behind these videos/pictures of X-rays. What kind of bullet was used for the shot. It would be very easy to manipulate the results to prove your point either for or against lead depending simply on your choice of projectile. I will look at the last 150 years of history of game consumption by the general public for the answer. If eating meat from animals killed with lead cored bullets was bad, you would have heard about it long before the green mafia took over the EPA and started waging their war on lead, coal, take your pick using bad science and fabricated data.

Given that so many people haven't a clue as to what lead poisoning can or is doing to them, the statement is fraught is problems. Most doctors do not test for lead poisoning when a person comes in with simple issues such as high blood pressure, moodiness, headaches, loss of a few IQ points, constipation, joint pain etc. Why? Because these are really common issues that are suffered by people with issues other than lead poisoning as well. So lead poisoning is often missed until it is really significant. Besides, in the parts of the world and time periods where people were apt to get the most exposure, testing was never done or isn't being done.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lead-poisoning/basics/symptoms/con-20035487

http://www.humanillnesses.com/original/Kid-Men/Lead-Poisoning.html

With that said, the stuff you see in the x-rays isn't the stuff apt to give you problems. That is the stuff you cut out of the meat, spit out when you chew, or is simply big enough to just pass through your system. That isn't what the OP was concerned about which was the microscopic stuff.

The microscopic stuff, for most folks, isn't going to be an issue because either they cut it out of the meat.

It is a lower level risk these days, no doubt, but you can't discount it as not being a problem or never having been a problem when the people most apt to be affected by it weren't/aren't being tested. It wasn't until the late 70s that lead was banned from paint, 80s that lead solder for plumbing was banned, and 90s for lead to be banned from sealing food containers. This is how poorly the problem of lead has been misunderstood and gone unrecognized.

[hydrotech]

I have been eating game meat that has been killed with lead bullets since before I can remember an I am now 45. If there was as much lead in it as is shown in these pictures I would have been suffering from the effects of lead poisoning a long time ago. There are hundreds of thousands of people at the minimum who have subsisted on game meat that was killed with lead cored bullets for decades that show no signs of lead poisoning. I would look to the ulterior motives behind these videos/pictures of X-rays. What kind of bullet was used for the shot. It would be very easy to manipulate the results to prove your point either for or against lead depending simply on your choice of projectile. I will look at the last 150 years of history of game consumption by the general public for the answer. If eating meat from animals killed with lead cored bullets was bad, you would have heard about it long before the green mafia took over the EPA and started waging their war on lead, coal, take your pick using bad science and fabricated data.

solid lead core bullets are not what i worry about. as you said they have been used a long time. what I am interested in is the newer hunting ballisitc tip bullets like the noser 120 BT and 123 SST. my guess is that there is a big difference from the old soft point lead solids and the new ballisitic tip that shatter and fragment. How much difference as far as spread of lead into the meat is my concern.