Lead poisening from venison

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  • Last Post 01 December 2013
Lefty posted this 18 April 2008

Those of you from the upper midwest may have heard all of this but others may not.

About 2 months ago a professor at the University of North Dakota xrayed several packages of venison from the freezer.  As he is a hunter - self assessment - I am not sure if it was his freezer or someone elses.  What he discovered was that more than 40% of the packages xrayed contained at least trace particles of lead.  This fact was seemingly independent of what cut of meat was being considered.  My first assumption was that he was looking only at ground venison from near the wound but that was not the case.

ND, Minnesota and Wisconsin have robust programs for hunters to donate venison to food shelves.  As you might imagine, the good professors findings have created quite a flap.  ND summarily destroyed all of the remaining venison in the food shelves.  Recently Minnesota, after xraying their own samples of venison, arrived at strikingly similar if not higher percentages of contaminated venison.  All of the venison in Minnesota food shelves has now been destroyed also I believe. Wisconsin is reported still studying the issue.

Am I correct that California banned lead bullets for hunting some time in the recent past.  Up here on the tundra we have assumed we are immune from that type of legislation.  The Minnesota DNR is at the very least broaching the topic of bullets which contain no lead.  We are not immune on the Tundra I fear.

I for one am not quite sure what this will all mean ultimately.  This revelation might die a quiet death, OR NOT.  I am not even entirely sure it should die a quiet death. Of course I will not quit hunting deer as  I like venison and the hunt too much for that.  I may rethink what I consider to be the optimal shot placement, however.

I hope there are readers who have more expertise regarding lead poisoning than I possess  and that these readers will weigh in.  I think it is important for us to be able to discuss this topic knowledgably when it comes up from the antis - and it will.

Good shooting and good hunting.

Lefty

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dan l posted this 01 December 2013

I'd rather die from lead posioning feeding myself then a handout. At least I'm enjoying the hunting and the outdoors.

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Jeff Michel posted this 17 September 2013

No, I seriously doubt it. I've was seeing birdshot in livestock 30 years ago. Long before the fringe wack jobs were common place. I place them in the same catagory as the glass insulator shooters.

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LBD posted this 17 September 2013

Jeff Michel wrote: Seems people think it's entertaining to shoot livestock with shotguns. It's very common place in hogs as well. I wonder if it's just for “entertainment” or rather if it's environmental terrorists/radical vegans trying to hurt us meat-eaters.

Nevertheless, it sounds like there's no shortage of A-holes in the country's heartland.

LBD

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LBD posted this 17 September 2013

Jeff Michel wrote: Seems people think it's entertaining to shoot livestock with shotguns. It's very common place in hogs as well. I wonder if it's just for “entertainment” or rather if it's environmental terrorists/radical vegans trying to hurt us meat-eaters.

Nevertheless, it sounds like there's no shortage of A-holes in the country's heartland.

LBD

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Jeff Michel posted this 17 September 2013

I frequently visit a plant that grinds and makes ground beef patties for a large fast food chain. They produce in the neighborhood of 800,000 to 1,000,000 pound per day. They have dozens of metal detectors in place to find bird shot, and they find a bunch, hundreds per day. Seems people think it's entertaining to shoot livestock with shotguns. It's very common place in hogs as well. No side effects whatsoever either at the consumer level or in residual amounts in lab testing.

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Brodie posted this 16 September 2013

Very few of these so called Environmental people that I have met have any formal training in life Sciences. They seem to have gotten their degrees from the Discovery channel, and their own publications. Poor sources at best. Furthermore they seem to “think” with their emotions. The Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson AZ is staffed primarily with Lawyers who are making their livings by suing the government. Under the “Parity in Legal Action Act” they are paid by us to 'balance the legal scale, and maintain fairness in law suits filed against a Federal Agency'. The above explains why these jerks file so many law suits. Brodie

B.E.Brickey

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LWesthoff posted this 16 September 2013

Re the “threatened” Spotted Owl:

We have 10 acres, mostly timber except for house, shop, yard and small garden. Our neighbor (who died a couple of years ago at age 100), told us this property was all logged off around 1945. We have at least one Spotted Owl living in our woods. It has very obligingly sat on a limb in plain sight while we got the Bird Book and the field glasses and made very sure of the identification.

Apparently. 70 year old Doug Fir, Cedar and Oregon Ash qualifies as “old growth timber” as far as the owl is concerned, even though the woods are far too young for the “Greenies” to think so. 'Course, they probably know a hell of a lot more about it than the owl does...don't they?

Wes

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Brodie posted this 16 September 2013

In all the years that I fished and hunted in the PRC I never saw a Condor.  Not a stinking one, and I am reliably told By a warden here in AriZona that they do stink. There is a small area in one National Forest where a few still are.    That being said the Greenie idiots are trying to do the same thing here in Arizona.  They want to lock the entire northern half of the state into mandatory lead free ammo.I  It doesn't matter that the dumb birds get their lead from game killed in Utah ( according to AZGFD).  The enviro freaks know better.  They never spent any time out in the field but they KNOW.

You can tell a condor from a turkey buzzard because the CONDOR is the big black bird with 14 Ornithologists standing around it taking notes. Brodie

B.E.Brickey

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RicinYakima posted this 16 September 2013

Yep, just read in our paper they are going to poison 4000 Barred Owls in Washington to increase range for Spotted Owls. Spotted Owls only live in old growth timber. So where are they poisoning the Barred Owls? 15 year old tree farms. Ric

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LBD posted this 15 September 2013

The ban on lead bullets is not state wide in CA (see the areas below bounded with a yellow border).

The Condor is an endangered species and people are not; therefore, the environmental terrorists (emboldened by the EPA) probably care more for their Pleistocene buzzards than they do for deer hunters/consumers of venison.  BTW, the former of which (the buzzards) are living the good life in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park.

California has been enacting stupid regulations imposing ridiculous restrictions on its citizens for a long time.  The first I can remember is the Kangaroo Rat debacle in the 70's.  Back then property owners paid big bucks to relocate Kangaroo Rats but the morons running the show didn't realize at the time that the rats are very territorial.  Yup, they killed each other and now the latest reports from CA conservationists are that, they believe the Kangaroo Rat habit has been restored... “end of story". :puke:

LBD

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madsenshooter posted this 15 July 2013

Elemental lead is poorly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, most, if not all is excreted. What the greenies don't get is that it's the organic forms of lead that are toxic. Along those lines, I had an old friend who was a mechanic. I think washing his hands in leaded gasoline everyday for 40yrs is what finally got to him, but even at that, it didn't get him until he was 82!

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oscarflytyer posted this 11 July 2013

IMO... Lead poisoning from eating venison - total bunk. And, I have no fear. I cut out all shot up meat.

Maybe this study was on meat from a butcher that mixes/grinds all the meat it gets?!?

Any/either way, I could care less. People have been eating tons of hunted/bullet killed meat for decades - and I personally do not know of anyone who has died of lead poisoning from eating hunted meat!

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R. Dupraz posted this 10 July 2013

In the words of one of my hero's, the late General Stormin Norman Schwarzkoph........

BOVINE SCAFOLA!

RD

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tturner53 posted this 10 July 2013

The reality of it all isn't really the issue. The politics is. Powerful and determined BUSINESSES such as the center for biological diversity have discovered the potential goldmine of milking anti hunters and are carrying the non-lead flag for all it's worth. We just dodged that bullet here in our legislature by a hair. They're coming.

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onondaga posted this 10 July 2013

Lead poisoning is a strong argument to support the use of Lyman #2 alloy and a strong argument against the use of lead bullets made from any alloy more brittle than Lyman #2 or softer than #2 for harvesting game that will be eaten.

Jacketed bullets with a soft core that splatters as the jackets rip open is where the lead contamination comes from. That and cast bullets soft enough to splatter or brittle enough to fragment.

Lyman knew this over 100 years ago when they invented their #2 alloy with 90% Lead, 5% Tin and 5% Antimony.  #2 alloy only needs an easy to achieve with hunting rifles 1,000 foot pounds impact energy to expand double in caliber and retain 100% bullet weight. #2 does this because of the balance of Tin and Antimony in the alloy that is malleable when it strikes game and doesn't splatter or fragment.

Over 100 years now Lyman has been correct yet there is still people shooting Linotype and harder, more brittle alloys at game along with softer splattering alloys too.  You don't need to experiment to find the perfect hunting alloy , It has been around for over 100 years.

Gary

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LWesthoff posted this 10 July 2013

When I was a kid, my cousins and I ate a whole lot of dove, quail, cottontail and an occasional ringneck, and enjoyed every bite. When we came to a piece of birdshot, we spit it out on the plate, but I'm sure we didn't get them all. Later, after I grew up, I enjoyed an occasional deer or black bear, which were harvested with lead core bullets with an exposed lead tip.

I'm 85 now, and I just had open heart surgery, aortic valve replacement and a bypass, and the Doc has told me I should be good for another 15 years, if I don't step out in front of a truck.

Just think, if I hadn't eaten all that lead contaminated meat, I'd be able to look forward to living to a ripe old age

Wes

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olesmokey posted this 10 July 2013

We are all gonna die sooner or later. From my experience with old timers there doesnt seem to be much point in living past 90 or much likelihood for that matter, so eat lead while the sun shines...>

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green onions posted this 19 June 2009

I would not worry about lead poisoning.  Just cut out the meat that had contact with the bullet.  You would have to eat a lot of meat with lead in it.  The body will filter lead out on it's own.  There is not enough data on this subject (game with lead).  There is difference  between lead poisoning and lead exposure.

I been given blood test for lead exposure before and after we do lead abatement.  I will eat game witlhout any worries.  I would not give it to my children if it was from a few inches of contact of lead bullet.  You and I can take some amounts of lead exposure but young kids can not. 

In the mid 90s' we had lead scare when contractor tore down part of walls of a building at the place I work at.  We did not have any data back then, and we did alots of testing along with blood work.  We learn alot after this happen and we been given lots of traning on the subject.  My lead level in my blood had drop after we had been given training and knowledge of route of entry and I am around or exposed to more lead than ever before.:D

Just my 2 cents

 

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Suo Gan posted this 25 November 2008

There is so much bad news lately that I hate to think about it.  But, after some research I have discovered that the antis are indeed behind this lead scare, and it has several prongs.  First, I live in Northern California.  My area is not affected by the ban on lead hunting bullets yet.  Because the California Condor resides just south and west of me, encompassing the lower part of the state http://www.2ndamendmentsports.com/news.php/2007/12/18/wider_lead_ban_in_condor_range>http://www.2ndamendmentsports.com/news.php/2007/12/18/widerleadbanincondorrange.  This was when I started paying attention to this (is'nt that always the case).  So I started looking more closely, and discovered that this phenomena is occuring throughout the country.  In Wyoming:http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2008/11/12/news/wyoming/150acba7055851e28725750000048096.txt>http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2008/11/12/news/wyoming/150acba7055851e28725750000048096.txt

I just listed a couple of the anti lead bullet articles of the hundreds that list lead bullets as the number one killer of endangered birds of prey, and mammals like grizzly bears, wolverines, lynx etc.  To my knowledge every US state has at least one potential endangered specie that could and probably would eat the offal of big game shot by hunters.  These people are really acting as if the lead bans that have happened so far are saving thier particular species.  They are calling for a total ban of lead bullets, bar all.  This is how they are attempting to skirt the 2nd Amendment in my opinion, and its working.  Who can argue with a sick bald eagle?  They will just shut 'er down, period. 

Then there is the second prong of the attack and it concerns the banning of wheel weights from auto tires.  This will come at the end of 2009, or possibly later due to greivances etc.  But this is coming.  I would expect that wheelweights will be no more by 2012.  Thats about four years for some of us and one year for others. 

It seems that lead is becoming public enemy number one.

There is no one that gives a damn about this but us.  Think about it, why would even an average hunter really care?  They have a Barnes Quadruple Z Mooseslayer right?

I ecourage everyone to research this topic further.  Please read these;

http://wildlifepreservation.suite101.com/article.cfm/ban_lead_save_endangered_wildlife>http://wildlifepreservation.suite101.com/article.cfm/banleadsaveendangeredwildlife

http://www.idahostatesman.com/102/story/380671.html>http://www.idahostatesman.com/102/story/380671.html

http://www.wisconsinbirds.org/LeadPoisoningPaper.htm>http://www.wisconsinbirds.org/LeadPoisoningPaper.htm

http://californiahuntingtoday.com/hogblog/2008/05/20/lead-ban-chronicles-peregrine-fund-lead-ammo-conference/>http://californiahuntingtoday.com/hogblog/2008/05/20/lead-ban-chronicles-peregrine-fund-lead-ammo-conference/

http://californiahuntingtoday.com/hogblog/2008/05/20/lead-ban-chronicles-peregrine-fund-lead-ammo-conference/>http://californiahuntingtoday.com/hogblog/2008/05/20/lead-ban-chronicles-peregrine-fund-lead-ammo-conference/

http://californiahuntingtoday.com/hogblog/2008/09/05/lead-ban-chronicles-north-dakota-lead-testing-results-coming-in/>http://californiahuntingtoday.com/hogblog/2008/09/05/lead-ban-chronicles-north-dakota-lead-testing-results-coming-in/

Ps I am sorry for hijacking your initial post. 

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CB posted this 27 April 2008

We have been eating stuff that has been taken with lead bullets for many years, as well as lots of birds with shoot shells. I haven't seen too many people with blue finger nails and gums around here, so it must be sloppy lab work or a poor butcher.

 

Jerry

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