Here in Minnesota it’s been in the news that venison that was donated to food shelves was tested and up to 1/4 of the samples had disturbingly high levels of lead in them. Not environmental lead or visible fragments, but tiny motes of lead dust, presumably from the ammo they were shot with. How big a problem is this, and other than banning lead bullets from hunting altogether, what can be done?
Easy solution: shoot & season, all at once.
Okay, that is kinda cool.
That seems like a bad idea to me. A gun barrel isn’t food-grade. Couldn’t you end up with lead residue from a dirty barrel, or powder residue, going into the bird? Not to mention feathers and whatever else was on the outside of it.
I’m going to have to call B.S. on that site. No ordering information, no online shopping cart, the product is “in development” with no specific release date or even a timeframe scheduled and the site has been there since 2006. Like the dog meat and human meat websites, this is bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. There’s no such thing as season shot and never will be.
This has nothing to do with donated deer. You’ll get what ever the legal shot is in the state.
You’d have extra spicy where it hit and nothing where it didn’t. I’ve always considered it a waste of their time and money.
No duh. Something like that would not fly right and have almost no range, accuracy or impact.
(There’s a reason bullets are made of lead.)
Back on OP, hunters have been eating wild game shot with lead shot since the invention of firearms, with very little evidence of harm. While I’m sure that it may temporarily raise your blood lead levels, in the long run it is probably very much like the Fish Mercury situation - as long as you’re not eating the stuff every day for every meal, you’re OK.
To me, the whole thing is unfortunate in that it is possibly going to end a very good program over exaggerated fears of lead poisoning.
The reason lead shot is being banned is not for fears of human lead poisoning, but animal lead poisoning! Ducks and other wild animals (including Condors) are being poisoned by eating lead that is either at the bottom of lakes or in animal carcasses killed by lead shot.
Not sure how you got there from my post, but I am well aware of that. Between lead shot and lead sinkers, we’re covering the bottoms of our lakes and ponds with small lead bits that are quite easy for animals to take up in their food.
The point about there being a reason bullets are made of lead is that it is a soft, easily formed material, very cheap, and here’s the important bit - it’s heavy. Mass of the shot is important to it’s flight characteristics and delivered energy on impact.
If Gold was as cheap as lead, we’d be making gold bullets.
In the lead region of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois lead lies about on the ground and is most certainly in the lakes. The animals and people are not all retarded, and messed up in that area. I think they should never quote studies unless they allow the data to be printed, so you can see how it’s being twisted for a purpose.
Ducks and Geese have a gizzard, and everything they ingest is ground up, Is that so with a condor?
In the city limits of Virginia Minnesota, on Silver Lake is the trap club. They have been shooting over this lake for 50 years. There is also a municipal power generation plant using this lake, so the lake is mostly open all winter. There are ducks and geese on this lake year around. One would think with all the lead shot in this lake there would be dead waterfowl everywhere :rolleyes:
My take on; “The lead in donated venison”;
All donated venison must be ground, It is done mostly by volunteer programs. I don’t think there is a lot of cleaning and sorting done. A little area with lead can be mixed into a lot of good clean product.
My venison is trimmed very throughly, and no ground venison here.