Thread: Lead Contamination In Game Meat

Originally Posted by Barry the hunter

no apologys about the 6.5 crudmore joke - but seriously in the xray what is one actually looking at - is it lead or bullet jacket fragments which will be copper ? Nikel ? -dont think I have ever seen lead fragments rather pieces of the projectiles outer case - the lead core I have found intact but mushroomed - anyway I seldom bother with shoulder shot deer rather just take backsteaks and hind quarters -only take shoulders if I head shoot a really tasty looking model - sharp knife and very prudent removal of anything that looks remotely shot up way to go - goes of quick anyway

Unfortunately the xray cant tell the difference between lead and copper, so what we are looking at could be a mixture of both, however looking at the projectile i took from the animal, i would have to guess a fair amount of it is copper. the lead part of the core seems to be still relatively intact for the most part, where as the lead core has just mushroomed over. 143gr projectile and it now weighs 119gr so it has stayed relatively intact for this type of projectile.

On the lead core intact but mushroomed, i would agree. Thats what i have found, generally its only ever been bits of copper jacket i have found when butchering close to the wound channel. Come to think of it, not sure i have ever found lead seperate to the projectile, not that i can recall anyway.

Basically the whole point of this to see how far the projectile spreads in a realistic nz hunting situation with common nz projectiles/calibres, rather than going by the carnage that the internet would lead you to beleive. Wether thats copper or lead is hard to determine without more than an xray.