Are we killing ourselves with lead

D

dogger1

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I've been reading about led poisoning,and was wondering how much lead goes into the game we shoot at?
Does lead vaporize mildly when entering animals and if fragmenting can we consume it accidentally .im going toward the new lead free bullets like the Barnes .i get enough lead vapour in the indoor shooting range as it is. I'm just asking if anyone knows.Our family eats a lot if wild game .
 
Just get your lead level checked.
I did, and I was surprised how high it was. Several guys I shoot with had the same experience. l

If you shoot regularly indoors, chances are your level is high unless you already exercise meticulous hygiene around lead.

Unless you very heavily depend on game you hunt, I really doubt that's a significant source of lead for anyone.
 
I'm not. I'm killing myself with age and wear and tear. I could eat wild game every day for the rest of my life and the only way lead will catch up is if I get shot.
 
You will receive a heck of a lot more damage from an indoor range then you will from chomping on the odd bit of lead from your game every now and then.

Also wash your hands after handling lead is a good practice.
 
Not worried about the lead.
More so about mercury they put in fillings, second cawf cawf hand smoke
and such.
Oh, the nagg'n round hear izz gitt'n qwite nuff tah jump.......
 
It can't be too bad, there are a lot of really old guys at my club that still appear to be in pretty good health. I'm not too concerned about it myself, I do wash my hands when I'm finished, and thats about it, no sense in worrying about it .
 
While I might be concerned about airborn lead in vapor form, I am not concerned about the small amount we might ingest when eating game.

Our digestive tract tends to eliminate lead undigested, unlike birds, who grind up lead shot/particles in their gizzard.

I do not shoot indoors, and the last test I had done showed next to no detectable lead in my system, despite the amount of reloading and shooting I do.

Additionally, I have been eating game shot with lead cored bullets since I was about 12. Guess not much stayed around from that either.

Regards, Dave.
 
I've almost busted a tooth a couple times on bullet fragments when eating meat....that's a bigger concern. You cut away all the shot stuff but birds can be bad, use steel shot if your worried about birds.
 
Shooting .22 without washing your hand and vapourized lead in indoor ranges are the big lead dangers, IMO. The tiny amt of lead I get from a couple of 71/2 in game is nothing by comparison. And fortunately the near non availability of .22 has no doubt raised my health to unprecedented levels.

If you're worried you can always use steel shot and FMG ammo, but then you're risking just crippling game more than usual.
 
It's those super fast lead expanders that usually vaporize in the meat that is the problem. I made the jump to lead free just because I feed the meat to small children. Barnes and Nosler e-tip is what I've been using for mono metal bullets.
 
Check those links.

This is third part of three parts YouTube presentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdKlubTRkk8&feature=related

Read this

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0005330

Discussion from above study

"Fragmenting lead bullets have been in use for hunting since the early 1900s [40]. Although hunter numbers have diminished slightly in recent years, there were 10.7 million big game hunters in the United States in 2006, the majority of whom still use lead-based bullets [31], [41]. Many state wildlife agencies annually issue multiple deer harvest permits to individuals, effectively offering venison as a year-round protein staple for some families; game meat is the principal source of protein for a considerable proportion of Alaska's population [42]. Hunter-donated venison to food pantries and shelters for low income families in most states produced an estimated minimum of 9 million venison meals associated with the 2007/08 hunting season [33]. With these concerns, we anticipate that health sciences will further examine the bioavailability of lead from bullets and shot, the epidemiology of exposure, and the possible consequences among hunters, their families, and others who consume venison."

As to performance newest lead free bullets are very accurate and have deepest penetration.

Link to performance on goat is below 150 gr Barnes TTSX.
http://youtu.be/37JwmSOQ3pY

This is Barnes TSX 180 gr after penetrating 30" of MD
IMG_1050.jpg

IMG_1056.jpg


We only hunt with lead free bullets due to performance.

Some will follow with comments, that you don't eat wound channel,(meat for those study was processed by professional butchers and meat from donations was given by hunters that were certain that they don't eat wound channels and 30-50 % samples had lead fragments)
Others will chime in that lead kills and killed for so long.
Yes it did but lead fragmentation study are relatively new 2008 and since then I and my hunting partners use only lead free bullets for hunting.
Serving venison I know that is organic and lead free.

And for those relying on BLL Blood Lead Level

Venous BLL testing is the most useful screening and diagnostic test for recent or ongoing lead exposure as opposed to past exposures.
So it tells you nothing about how much lead is stored in your body.

During pregnancy lead might be released from storage causing harm to the baby.

I think that post mortem chemical analysis of whole body would indicate how much lead we retained/accumulated in our bodies over lifetime.
 
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Holy f looks like I'll be switching ammo ,our family gets between 14-18 deer for the freezer as we use wild game as staple protein,looks like I will be changing some things ,I could not believe the part about ground meat done at the butcher with wild game.Deffinatly going to get a lead test on myself,more about the shooting range than venision
 
One of the very first signs of lead poisoning is "paranoia" like when you have ongoing thoughts of what hidden evils are slowly killing you. These thoughts are also a good indication you have far to much time on your hands (and perhaps lead) to sit around and think about all this sh!t.
Single malt scotch and red wine will dissolve wash out any accumulated lead in your system.
 
Well, house paint used to be lead based and not just a little lead was used, the solids in it were mostly lead. Buried water pipes were lead too (many still are), and for about 80 years lead was in every ounce of gasoline sold. No amount of lead is good for you, but that doesn't make it a panic issue. I cannot believe that lead in the amount of game most of us eat can do any harm, although I would avoid it when feeding children because it can affect early development. Anyone who's concerned should get a blood test with their next checkup and stop worrying.
 
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