Metal Poisoning

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Sure Shot Mc Gee

New member
There's always been a big-to-do about lead fragmentation in big game animals. Since I'm a traditional ball shooter. I see no need to worry about such a problem. Or should I? :confused:
On the other hand those who do use bullet or H/Base conical projectiles on big game. Should they be concerned? :eek:

What's your preference to use?
 
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stagpanther

New member
I think the lead issue is mostly a health threat to children with "developing minds." My mind is so far gone it probably isn't going to make much difference. : )
 
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teeroux

New member
I remember handling lead pellets when I was a kid. Used to hold a few spare in my mouth for follow up shots. Unthreading a can was painfully slow. As far as I know there have been no ill effects. This day I reload and cast bullets. A little more cautious due to the amount of potential exposure but lead fragments in a game animal seems an insignificant amount.
 
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bedbugbilly

New member
When I was a kid - 50 = years ago - we shot rabbits, pheasants and squirrels with shotguns. As careful as we were when cleaning, we still missed pellets but usually found them when eating the cooked game. I've often worried about this and last week, when I as at my Doctor's office for a check up, I asked him about it as it weighs heavy on my mind. That's when I got the bad news from him . . . I only have another 30 or so years to live . . . . :eek:

No disrespect intended Shur Shot . . but I always chuckle when I hear folks get worked up about this . . most of them worry about lead but think nothing of cramming fast food down their throats, eating all the prepared foods from the grocery store with all the additives and preservatives in them, eating a high fat diet that will clog their arteries up . . . and the list goes one and yet they get worked up over an element that is naturally found in the earth that they can easily avoid for the most part.

Last year, my wife stopped in to a bar and grill to get a salad for lunch and a ice tea (in AZ). There was a group of fellows that came in the same time that we did - all of them having at least three beers for lunch. I couldn't help overhearing their conversation as they were discussing the quality of water in their area and were concerned about their health and their families' health. Mind you , each had three beers in about 45 minutes - then they got up and left, got in their cars and drove away. Of course that wasn't dangerous to their health . . .

I'm sure that I have eaten my share of pellets when I was a kid (I don't hunt anymore) and I've cast bullets for 50+ years . . and my blood tests show that I am well within normal range. Now I did know a fellow that died from "lead poisoning" . . . but he got caught with his neighbor's wife . . . :D :)
 
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Bella

New member
I have a friend that had a lead pellet shot into his hand when he was ten. He is now 56. The pellet is still there and so is he.
 
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Beagle333

New member
I remember handling lead pellets when I was a kid. Used to hold a few spare in my mouth for follow up shots. Unthreading a can was painfully slow.
Click to expand...

+1. You don't have time to be digging a can of pellets out of your jeans, in amongst all your other prized possessions that kids carry in their pockets, when you are a kid with something in front of the sights that needs a second or third pellet in it!!! ;)
 
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B.L.E.

New member
I would definitely wash my hands before eating after handling lead. It's not an acute poison that makes you drop dead like cyanide. Its a cumulative poison that builds up in your body after years of exposure and causes health problems more than mortality.
Also, it depends on the pH of the water just how much lead leaches. Alkali water ignores lead in plumbing but acidic water will form soluble lead salts. A lot of moonshiners got lead poisoning because the acetic acid (vinegar) in their moonshine would form soluble lead acetate when it hit the lead soldering joints in their stills.
 
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Pond James Pond

New member
As I understand it, lead is an issue when ingested. Gastric acid reacts with it, it gets absorbed through the GI wall and then you get the detrimental neurological effects. Hence why washing hands after handling lead is important: it is not absorption through the skin, it is risk of ingestion.

Holding a lead pellet teeth, whilst not recommended, is not as as bad as swallowing the pellet and a lead imbedded in the tissue is probably fairly inert.

That is my understanding, but someone may know better.
 
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darkgael

New member
lead

I have my blood tested a couple of times a year. I had a run in with a high lead count a few years ago. A normal serum blood count for an adult is about 10 micrograms/DL. Below 20 was considered safe for and adult. Mine was over 40. To this day, I do know why it got that high.
I have a friend who had his count up over 70... he became ill... vomiting, etc. He had to undergo a Chleation treatment.
Lead can make you sick... it can affect the heart, it can predipose one to stroke. It affects blood pressure, muscles, nerves, fertility, memory.
It is just not supposed to be there and there are no safe levels. We can only minimize what we have.
Pete
 
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44 Dave

New member
How many of you city dwellers have lead water service pipes, many city installations up into the early 60's were were with lead water lines.
That is why there are so many "wackos" from Chicago!
 
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Gaucho Gringo

New member
When I was a kid we used our teeth to clinch lead split shot on our line for fishing. Used to handle lead when fishing and shooting without washing our hands before eating lunch when we were out in the field. When I was older I was around lead in the construction & remodeling business for years. At age 63 I am still here with no problems due to lead exposure.
 
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Hellgate

New member
Don't smoke while casting lead. The NRA did a study years ago on lead exposure from casting and found that those with excessive lead levels were smokers who handled lead where it rubbed off onto the cigarettes and they subsequently smoked the cigs and adsorbed the lead that way. So, washing before eating is strongly advised.
 
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johnwilliamson062

Moderator
Pure lead outide the body isn't much of an issue. Lead is extremely stable. You need a reactive chemical, such as gastric acids, in order to make it dangerous. Lead became an issue because industry started putting it in products with other chemicals. Gasoline, paint, etc.
Lead pipes are mostly 75+ years old. If they were losing any significant amount of material they would have been long gone.
There was an informal survey here several years ago where several people participating in different shooting activities were tested. Reloading, casting, shooting, etc. Although very limited in scope and not all that scientific, the only pattern that developed was those shooting indoor had "dangerous" levels. It was suggested that lead is used in most primers in combination with the exact type of volatile chemicals that would make it dangerous.
I too am past my brains "developmental stage." I have been working with pure lead rotor weights at work recently. I am not at all worried about it. I just make sure I wash up well before breaks, and try to keep from disturbing dust. It isn't like pure lead floats for long. Use PPE of course.

IMO, don't shoot indoors and avoid ingesting it with regularity. I imagine you would have to survive off of small game harvested with shot for an extended period of time in order for ingestion to be a problem.
 
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Magnum Wheel Man

New member
my understanding is the lead oxide is most dangerous... as mentioned, lead pipes, & lead solder have been used for many decades... I never put lead shot in my mouth as a kid, but those split shot sinkers were designed to bite them open & closed weren't they ???

anyway... the lead poisoning that killed the deer, is the most likely way to kill someone with a bullet...

if you wanted to chase this further... the alloys used in bullet casting, both dilute the percentage of lead, & likely make it more stabile

if you are worried, just don't use fuzzy white balls :eek:
 
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maillemaker

New member
I've started having my lead levels checked as part of my annual blood work since I started casting for BP shooting.

I have not had an issue yet. But I don't smoke, and I always wash my hands after handling lead, and I always ventilate the work area while casting.

Steve
 
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4V50 Gary

Staff
Hellgate is right. Wash your hands (and face) before you eat and drink after casting lead. I prefer to change my clothes and shoes. Rinse off the bottom of the shoes and take the clothes to a coin operated laundrymat for cleaning (beats cleaning it in your own machine where you can expose the kiddies).
 
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swathdiver

New member
I don't worry about lead poisoning while casting and eating my lunch at the same time. When the Lord decides to take me home, none of these things are going to make a difference.

Think of the folks alive from the 1500s through the 1800s who largely subsisted on meat that they shot FOR THEIR ENTIRE LIVES. Lead poisoning is as ludicrous as being poisoned by cooking food over a fire as some fools tried to proclaim about ten years ago. Since the flood, man has been cooking his meat over a fire!

We had a wonderful weekend shooting our cap and ball pistols with friends and family. It was especially fun teaching youngsters how to do it and watching those faces of apprehension turn into ear to ear grins as the smoke cleared from their first shot!
 
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