Safe to Eat Game Killed With Lead Bird Shot?

[STBear]

Careful not to chip a tooth on a piece of overlooked shot. Otherwise don't worry.

[Gunsnwater]

The body doesn't absorb the metal. It absorbs the oxide. Ever see old crusty civil war relic bullets? That white powdery "lead rust" is the oxide. Melt lead and the oxide is in the fumes. Home casters need ventilation or be outdoors. Game shot with lead is safe. Think about it man wouldn't have gotten very far if it wasn't. If you eat a pellet by accident don't worry it's o.k. You won't get lead poison. Children are more effected by lead then adults because they are growing bone, the place lead accumulates. Sanding lead paint in the presence of children will endanger them, no question. Lead used to be used as a pencil and that didn't hurt anyone. Hope this helps.

[attaboy]

my neighbors best friend died from lead poisoning he caught him with his wife LOL

[bob308]

I grew up on a farm we ate squirrel and rabbit a lot. the biggest danger is breaking a tooth on the shot. shot ingested will pass through long before it breaks down and is absorbed in the blood .

[thefirstndsecond]

I've been eating game animals killed with lead since 1982. I am now balding, overweight, out of shape, have loss of memory, loss of correct spelling ability, loss of manual dexterity, erectile dysfunction, liver and blood tests are abnormal, and I see multiple doctors weekly.

I attribute all the above to eating game killed with lead. In fact, to ensure I am correct, I recently shot and harvested a 650 cow elk with lead shot.

CL

So this is what I have to look forward to.

Its a drag getting old.

[Hokkmike]

I got a couple of squirrels yesterday with lead bird shot that I cleaned and plan to eat but I want to know if squirrels/birds/etc. killed with lead bird shot are safe to eat or if I need to go buy some non-toxic shot for today.

thanks for the help

Kind of reminds me of the "when I was a kid we got dirty, ate mud, etc., and nothing ever happened to us." I am not a scientist but people have been eating this stuff for years, and years, and years....

[JenniferG]

I've been shooting and eating upland birds and waterfowl since around 1981. I wouldn't be concerned at all about injesting one or two pellets once in a great while. Clean the game before it's cooked it's easier to see where the pellets are before the meat is cooked. Plumbism is the the medical terminology for chronic lead poisoning. Lead shot isn't that hard but you still need to be careful not to bite down too hard it will chip a tooth. When us waterfowlers were forced to use steel shot you can bet we would look through our birds twice as hard for steel shot because that stuff will break a tooth, steel shot is very hard.

Now there is bismuth and an slew of steel and tungsten products. Do not shoot steel shot out your valued vintage shotgun. Steel shot can bulge older barrels. Bismuth is a 97% alternative to lead shot but it's much more expensive. Bismuth is an naturally occurring element and a byproduct of smelting copper. It's also the main anti diarrheal ingredient in Pepto Bismal or Drug store brand Bismuth concoctions.

If you have to use a non toxic shot go for the bismuth or tungsten matrix.

[XACEX]

i picked up a cheap box of 2 3/4" number 4 shot Fasteel and im going to give it a go today. a lot of the number 7 1/2 lead shot i used didn't penetrate the squirrel hide.

[XACEX]

side note, I BBQd the squirrels i already shot and brought them to a Christmas party - they were the first hors d'oeuvres eaten

[wis bang]

i picked up a cheap box of 2 3/4" number 4 shot Fasteel and im going to give it a go today. a lot of the number 7 1/2 lead shot i used didn't penetrate the squirrel hide.

That's OK. You have to remember the velocity involved too. Only a few pieces of shot need to strike the vitals. You don't want a super-concentrated pattern for upland hunting. The dense pattern is fine for a turkey but over-kill for upland game. those little beads of lead are still moving over 1000 feet per second [or so] when they make contact on the game.

Dad's favorite load for his Browning A5 'sweet 16' was a 7 1/2 field load as his 'all around' upland shot load for rabbit, tree rat, pheasant and grouse. His 'corn sheller' spewed out boxes of them every year for the 60 years he carried it.

My Pappy carried a Marlin O/U w/ twin triggers and he carried 8's & 5's loading the low brass 8 on the 'improved cyl' barrel [front trigger] and the high brass 5 in the full choked barrel for a follow-up at longer range.

I remember running into my dad's cousin one Saturday morning and he asked to borrow some low brass 12's from me as his partner and my father were both using 16ga. He ran out and his last shot was a 12ga. magnum left over from a water fowling trip and it blew the rabbit into two pieces not to mention the unexpected recoil of what was [back them!] the hottest 12ga. shot shell on his shoulder after racking out a few field loads.

Over concentrated shot means a lot more shot to dig out if there is anything left.

Dad always said "shoot em in the head, less shot in the meat".