Lead ammo for hunting

http://www.ussafoundation.org/Page.aspx?pid=1654

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) undercut the hysteria surrounding the issue of lead in venison, issuing a report about neighboring North Dakota hunters that consumed significant quantities of game taken with lead ammunition. It showed that none of the 700 individuals tested had levels that concern the health agency

What are people doing, eating the projectile if they recover it? Having a pretty good understanding of ballistics I seriously doubt that any residual lead found in the entrance/exit area of a consumed game animal will make it to the plate. The entrance/exit area is always discarded due to trauma/damage anyway. Hell, I just dont eat the head. :wink:

Ain'tcha never heard, "Bite the bullet"? :lol:

According to the CDC study, the affect on blood lead levels from eating game meat is less than the affect of just living in a house build prior to 1977.

Link to CDC Study

The stuff I've read says that most of the issue is with ground meat. I'm guessing that there are a few factors at work.

First, some people tend to put bloodshot meat into the pile for the grinder on purpose because they don't want to waste it.

Second, a lot of the people processing meat for soup kitchen donation programs don't spend much time trimming because they're not getting paid to cut steaks or chops. The programs don't accept whole meats, they want only ground meat, so it all goes through the grinder (parts is parts).

There are a lot of folks in the Dakotas and similar geographic areas who use smaller caliber, higher velocity, lighter bullet loads that tend to fragment more. Small bullet fragments would tend to be harder to notice or pick out when putting meat into the grinder.

But in the end, I still don't see a point in making more laws. You shouldn't need a law to warn someone that an animal shot with a coyote bullet and run haphazardly through a meat grinder might contain lead fragments.

I know steel shot is bad for your teeth.

I know it's real bad for my wallet!

Why do they continue the premise that non-toxic shot is so vital to maintaining the hunting of waterfowl ?

The premise of the requirement of steel shot was to bring back the Birds of prey, during that time, their populations where affected by certain pesticides and some lead poisoning from their prey, ducks. They have banned almost all of the pesticides responsible for the thinning of eggshells and resultant problems concerning reproduction of birds of prey.

How many birds of prey or waterfowl do they find dead because of lead poisoning now from lead ingestion?

Now I can still see why they would still want to restrict lead shot in areas of heavy shooting, Merrymeeting Bay etc (their original target zone) ( but from what I've heard you are lucky to hear a shot on second season) but to continue to believe that there is a scientific basis to have a lead shot ban state wide is absurd.

Whatever guvmint does they will never rescind, the eagles are back, but once enacted, a law is rarely changed.

The idea that there is a significant danger of lead ingestion that affect the health of a consumer is also absurd, but the fact that I'm writing this opinion could be prima facia evidence that I'm a victim of lead poisoning.

Can I get SSI income for this affliction, will they allow me to still hunt ducks, could I get a social worker to set out my decoys for me and work my dog, if I promise to use steel shot?