quote:

Originally posted by Gun_Barrel_Ecologist:
Must say I'm watching this thread with interest from afar. The anti's here haven't jumped on the lead free bandwagon yet.

The only lead free bullet country I know of is Japan, and in the overall scale of their gun laws that is just the icing on the cake.

From the recent journal articles I've read on the topic, they theory has shifted from the danger of ingestion of intact bullets (by endangered raptors) to ingestion of dust fragments supposedly quickly absorbed into the blood of humans (and endangered raptors of course) consuming game meat. From memory there is an article in the Journal of European Wildlife research discussing the "relative distance travelled from the bullets path" in boar and red deer and concluding that one sprinkling of lead dust on a shoulder from a chest wound is too much for public health according to EU standards

(http://www.springerlink.com/content/cgn3m6j87731u322/?p=728bd21a533947d4925bb2ef4c2bfc89&pi=1)

Some other recent stuff you might want to look at includes:
Title: Determining Tissue-Lead Levels in Large Game Mammals Harvested with Lead Bullets: Human Health Concerns
Author(s): Tsuji LJS, Wainman BC, Jayasinghe RK, et al.
Source: BULLETIN OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION AND TOXICOLOGY Volume: 82 Issue: 4 Pages: 435-439 Published: APR 2009

Title: Bullet fragments in deer remains: Implications for lead exposure in avian scavengers
Author(s): Hunt WG, Burnham W, Parish CN, et al.
Source: WILDLIFE SOCIETY BULLETIN Volume: 34 Issue: 1 Pages: 167-170 Published: 2006