I have recently been working with a scientist who has been consulted by the US NRA and the CIC about lead contamination in game meat. I would value the opinions of AR members on this subject. It has been discussed before on this forum, but I would like to find out whether or not people have personal concerns about lead contamination in the game that we harvest and feed to our families.
My wife and I will not give up eating game, but we made sure that we examined the data quite carefully and made comparisons with other data sets from different studies of lead contamination from atmospheric sources. Is this a concern for any of us? Also, should we be concerned about how our customers, the non-hunting consumers of game meat and retailers, might view our harvest / product if they thought that there was some contamination in there that would not be present in, say, organic beef or lamb?
How available are copper bullets / lead substitutes in UK and elsewhere?

I guess the short answer is I do not have significant concerns.

Looking at big game shot with a conventional bullet in either the heart/lungs or neck - as long as you trim generously around the wound channel (and don't get tempted to put bloodshot meat into your sausage meat), I don't see how lead particles can magically migrate into the haunch or the loins, where the main cuts of meat are found. Yes, sometimes you have to throw a shoulder away, but with decent shot placement and good butchery skills you shouldn't end up with packs of mince with bullet fragments mixed in, or shrapnel in your steak...

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Originally posted by Cranborne Chase:
I have recently been working with a scientist who has been consulted by the US NRA and the CIC about lead contamination in game meat. I would value the opinions of AR members on this subject. It has been discussed before on this forum, but I would like to find out whether or not people have personal concerns about lead contamination in the game that we harvest and feed to our families.
My wife and I will not give up eating game, but we made sure that we examined the data quite carefully and made comparisons with other data sets from different studies of lead contamination from atmospheric sources. Is this a concern for any of us? Also, should we be concerned about how our customers, the non-hunting consumers of game meat and retailers, might view our harvest / product if they thought that there was some contamination in there that would not be present in, say, organic beef or lamb?
How available are copper bullets / lead substitutes in UK and elsewhere?

There's very little worldwide scientific evidence that isn't sponsored by pressure groups of one sort or another. While that doesn't invalidate it, the way you frame the questions you ask largely determines the answers you get.
Those studies I view as interesting islands in a largely unexplored ocean and in no way conclusive.
There is no doubt that ingesting lead isn't a good idea and can cause harm so I try to avoid it.

Regardless of its cause, I cut out all damaged meat, not because it might have lead in but because those I offer it to aren't going to find it attractive to eat (apart from the dog who will eat almost anything).

If I'm preparing shot birds, I remove all the feather plugs and pellets as I process them.

As far as deer and boar are concerned, I use Barnes 180g TSX and TTSX almost exclusively because they give the most accurate results from my rifles and because they knock the beasts down dead.

As a bonus, I've not seen any evidence that they break up at all, either in Deer or Boar which is a bonus to me because it limits the amount of meat damage.

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people have personal concerns about lead contamination in the game that we harvest and feed to our families

No.

Thanks for the replies. The CIC have been working on this for some time now. They convened a workshop to consider the matter world-wide on 5-7 November 2010 and this was followed up by a meeting on 4 February this year where the European hunting organisations drew up a road map for how the various organisations will work together to addreess the whole issue. I would urge all AR readers to have a look at the report of the November work shop. Get the report from the CIC web site at =sustainable&sword_list[]=ammunition]Sustainable hunting ammunition pdf

If that does not work, then PM me and I can send it to you.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Cranborne Chase:
They convened a workshop to consider the matter world-wide on 5-7 November 2010 and this was followed up.....QUOTE]

Crikey Cranborne, if they can see that far into the future, why don't they look a little further round the curve and tell us what the outcome is?

Seriously though, thanks for the links and update.

One of my main concerns would be more to do with the some of the Alternatives and materials used
such as the magnetic properties of such especialy if digested, not sure how a MRI scan would effect such factors??

Also the design issues with some materials, as the harder the material used, being of a hollow point design may implode just as much as they explode so in affect causing it to react as a solid than expanding