Thread: Meat Contamination

I think the possible ingestion of lead by myself, friends, and family, from eating venison I have harvested is a very real concern.
A quick online search on lead poisoning from eating game meat will have alarm bells ringing, particularly since there is no safe level of exposure to lead.
From personal preference I continue to use conventional lead-cored bullets over monolithic copper bullets.
My advice would be the same as Max Headroom's: shoot your deer low and forward and leave the entire front end of the animal. This would I believe go a long way to addressing both of the points you raised.

Originally Posted by Puffin

I think the possible ingestion of lead by myself, friends, and family, from eating venison I have harvested is a very real concern.
A quick online search on lead poisoning from eating game meat will have alarm bells ringing, particularly since there is no safe level of exposure to lead.
From personal preference I continue to use conventional lead-cored bullets over monolithic copper bullets.
My advice would be the same as Max Headroom's: shoot your deer low and forward and leave the entire front end of the animal. This would I believe go a long way to addressing both of the points you raised.

THE trouble with online research like that is the thinly hidded agenda of the person publishing it...... I eat right up to the bullet hole...bruised meat is not worth taking as it will be black when cooked...a little is ok in the mince bucket but a dmashed up bloodshot shoulder isnt worth the effort.

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

THE trouble with online research like that is the thinly hidded agenda of the person publishing it...... I eat right up to the bullet hole...bruised meat is not worth taking as it will be black when cooked...a little is ok in the mince bucket but a dmashed up bloodshot shoulder isnt worth the effort.

The first two results you will likely bring up are from Scientific America and The American Journal of Medicine.

From the responses there seem to be plenty of members who are blasé and/or ill-informed when it comes to both the dangers of elevated body lead levels and the distribution of lead particles around a wound caused by a frangible bullet. That's fine, no real concern of mine, though I do think it is irresponsible to advise new members to follow your practices.

Sometimes, you see scientific reports that found a large percentage of meat packages from wild game contained lead fragments on XRay.
I wonder if this is where a hunter has brought in a whole animal for commercial processing and shot meat was included in mince, patties, sausages and so on.
The "shot meat" corresponds to the temporary cavity and would all be potentially contaminated with very small particles of lead.
You do want this temporary cavity to be big and, to kill the animal, you want lead bits to cut up the lungs, heart and large blood vessels.
So, as others have said, cut out all visibly bruised meat and leave it on the hill.
This is specially important if you are taking the carcass whole to someone top process for you.
Sometimes it seems a waste that most of a front leg goes this way, but the biggest waste of meat is the wounded animal that gets away or the one shot on a summers evening and recovered the next morning. Also, as said by others, often as well placed bullet will go through the guts as well as the heart and lungs and then possibly other legs too.