Meat Contamination

Hi all,

Looking for some advice on meat contamination please.

Firstly, with regards to Soft Point (lead tip) ammo, how serious an issue is meat contamination? I'm new to shooting, so I'm not really confident enough to go FMJ/Ballistic yet (shot placement accuracy).
Do you cut a certain amount of meat around the embedded projectile as fast as possible?
I'm no duck hunter, but surely there's a pile of lead from your bird shot in a downed duck?

Secondly, I've just come across a new term 'bloodshot', whereby hunters cut around (and discard) meat around a bullet wound that has become contaminated with coagulated blood. What's the deal there? Is it like a Kahawai that hasn't been bled fast enough and tastes bad? Is it poisonous?

lead poisoning from a bullet wound is nothing to be worried about. if its bruised enough to be damaged, any powdered lead in there will be gone.
Non issue
as for pellets in ducks, it is similar as the pellets are solid and are passed out. Lead is only an issue if its a vapour or fine powder.
Bruised meat is damaged. why eat it?

OK, firstly I would not be too concerned about any form of poisoning from the use of lead projectile in and of itself. Dealing with your second point, there is typically trauma (bruising and coagulation) that occurs around the would and that is what I have always trimmed away from the meat that I harvest. Other (non lead based) forms of poisoning are what I would encourage you to be aware of. These can typically be caused by a number of reasons such as the animal not being recovered quickly enough in the summertime, poor shot placement busting a gut bag, the meat not being being cooled quick enough, the animal being sickly, etc. if your nose tells you the meat is off then don’t harvest and similarly if your eyes tell you the meat is off (e.g. green bone) don’t harvest it. These things are generally caused by micro organisms deep within major muscle groups putrefying.

Now that I have said enough to scare the shit out of many a novice, I will add that if you recover, gut and cool any animal quickly, you will undoubtedly get to harvest a great deal of useable meat.

My grandfather used to have a bowl in the middle of the table (When eating roast rabbit or duck) for the whanau to spit the lead pellets into so he could re-load them.
Dinnt do us nae harm derpderp!

I look at it in simple terms. Meat (muscle) is "clean" in terms of bacterial colonisation, the outside of the animal and the guts are not. A bullet passing through an animal will introduce bacteria in to the meat. Additionally, damaged meat provides a nice environment for bacteria to grow. It might be OK to eat if you're fast enough with chilling, but why risk it? I discard anything which is damaged. With ducks, I only ever find a few STEEL shot and cut out the damaged meat in the same way.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mimms

My grandfather used to have a bowl in the middle of the table (When eating roast rabbit or duck) for the whanau to spit the lead pellets into so he could re-load them.
Dinnt do us nae harm derpderp!

---

It be interesting to run a rear earth magnet over the ducks especially breasts as you could then easily remove the steel shot

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ocium

Hi all,

Looking for some advice on meat contamination please.

Firstly, with regards to Soft Point (lead tip) ammo, how serious an issue is meat contamination? I'm new to shooting, so I'm not really confident enough to go FMJ/Ballistic yet (shot placement accuracy).
Do you cut a certain amount of meat around the embedded projectile as fast as possible?
I'm no duck hunter, but surely there's a pile of lead from your bird shot in a downed duck?

Secondly, I've just come across a new term 'bloodshot', whereby hunters cut around (and discard) meat around a bullet wound that has become contaminated with coagulated blood. What's the deal there? Is it like a Kahawai that hasn't been bled fast enough and tastes bad? Is it poisonous?

---

Here's a very simple truth, take it for what you will:

If you've zapped a deer in the chest and dropped it, the majority of the meat is in the back legs and back steaks, well away from the site of the bullet strike. So from this point of view, no problem.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rushy

OK, firstly I would not be too concerned about any form of poisoning from the use of lead projectile in and of itself. Dealing with your second point, there is typically trauma (bruising and coagulation) that occurs around the would and that is what I have always trimmed away from the meat that I harvest. Other (non lead based) forms of poisoning are what I would encourage you to be aware of. These can typically be caused by a number of reasons such as the animal not being recovered quickly enough in the summertime, poor shot placement busting a gut bag, the meat not being being cooled quick enough, the animal being sickly, etc. if your nose tells you the meat is off then don’t harvest and similarly if your eyes tell you the meat is off (e.g. green bone) don’t harvest it. These things are generally caused by micro organisms deep within major muscle groups putrefying.

Now that I have said enough to scare the shit out of many a novice, I will add that if you recover, gut and cool any animal quickly, you will undoubtedly get to harvest a great deal of useable meat.

---

These are very good points. Can I add the following to them : learn what a healthy animal looks like on the hoof and only shoot healthy animals in good physical body condition. For deer this means an animal that is filled out and rounded at the tail and rump, not sunken around the tail with the hip pin bones visible. 2: learn what healthy organs look like lungs, liver and the windpipe. If the animal is thin, organ colour is not right or has lesions on organs, Discard

I would be more worried about the chemicals in your supermarket meat

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.

Other things are going to kill you before lead poisonlng will except from lead dust or vapour. I've been carrying around bits of lead in my body from shotgun pellets for over 35 years and i'm still doing ok. Lead is basically inert in the body, or that's what the doctors told me anyway.

Lead poisoning is a very real thing after all look at what happens to the deer once they get it in there system ...not good .

Lead in the body, (ie lodged in your flesh or against bone)is different to lead in the stomach, (ie ingested). Both should be avoided.

Well I reckon if you put a shoulder shot leg in an x Ray then you would find a whole lot of lead dust.

Even a solid copper projectile wouldn't be ideal to ingest bits of.

I think it is just part of the whole baggage that comes with hunting.

I usually just use the shanks and leave the front legs.

Quote:

---

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.

Quote:

---

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.

shoot a red deer through the vitals WITHOUT hitting shoulder bones...eg through the crease and you will loose approx 1 cup of meat from entire carcass...did it twice in last couple of years... shoot same deer through shoulder bones you will loose at least half a shoulder...so you loose a little but not a huge amount. shoot a deer or pig through rear ham (done it too many times to count) you will loose quite a bit of meat that is bloodshot or contains fragments of bone of projectie...its pretty easy to spot what is mashed up/cut up.
neck shoot deer you loose sweat stuff all.
the whole "must use mono projectiles or steel shot" thing has gone a long way in last few years and has less to do with meat contamination than it does with do gooders trying to remove lead from enviroment...... if you look into it the big birds of prey eating carcasses was a MAJOR point used.....they would have to eat a lot of shot up carcasses to get enough to be an issue.
to the origonal poster...dont overthink it,as others have said,if it looks like shit...it probably will taste like shit and could be shit.
if it looks like good clean meat....all good.

I love shoulder meat, best part of the deer after the heart. But I don't take it if I've put a bullet through it, not because of lead but its just not worth all the effort of salvaging shot damaged meat. So I assume that way my family and I are not getting much lead in our diet.

Neck and head shots save a lot of meat, but I like big targets...

If you are really concerned use monolithic copper bullets; no lead, usually shed very little weight (think very few tiny bits of contamination), and usually exit.

I’m not to worried about bullet lead in the meat. What I don’t like is gut bag contamination, like last week I shot a couple of deer one was high above me quartering on I shot her through the shoulder and out the other side just before the leg but a bullet fragment went through the backsteak pulling through some gut bag, so had to cut that out. Then next day another red deer chest on shot seconds before it disappeared, clean through the centre of the of the deer and out the back leg. When skinning and boning the leg the gut bag followed the bullet that leg was no good. A proper broad side shot or a lesser caliber would of been better but I like quick kills with my long range rig.

I like to make the most of every deer/pig I shoot as I don't get that many opportunities to hunt large game. I take back legs, back steaks and shoulders. I'd take the whole animal if I didn't have to carry it so far. At least one shoulder has been munted on all the animals I've shot. On the first couple, I cut the damaged meat out of the shoulder and realised there wasn't much left at all. Totally smashed with blood and bone fragments all over the place. I just leave the shoulder(s) now if there is any significant meat damage.

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.

How much lead transfers from your hands when loadinng up a magazine and you eat your lunch... same applies for handloading. Unless your entire diet consists of game animals i wouldnt worry about it.

Good point about the bruised meat being used in mince though

Agreed on the mince. Seems plausible. You have to consider that lead exposure makes you dumber long before it makes you sick.

Its a sensible concern, I'm more cautious about lead these days.

if you are concerned about lead contamination then just use lead free bullets, but yeah you do run the risk of ingesting lead dust when you shoot with regular bullets.
I am not personally too concerned about it as long as you don't eat the damaged meat.

Here are some lead free options,
if you reload you can buy Barnes TSX,TTSX, LRX, Nosler E Tip, Hornady GMX etc projectiles as they are lead free.

Factory Ammo, Winchester Razor, Hornady Superformance GMX are both lead free.

Im sure there are others too

Ingesting lead is probably a much greater risk if you are eating waterfowl downed using lead shot. Many people have bitten down on a pellet! Rabbit and hare shot with super fast ammo that basically disintegrates is also more like to add lead to your diet than an expanding hunting bullet. Like everything in life, nothing is completely risk free, but my estimation is that lead poisoning from meat is at the lower end of the scale.

Sanding a house with lead paint, casting dive weights or sinkers, shooting in an unventilated indoor range... Now that's risky in comparison.

I just re-rehabilitated Harry the Harrier Hawk from a bout of lead poisoning, most likely from eating pigeons and rabbits shot with small shotgun shot.

You would probably ingest more pollution whilst driving to your hunting spot, than through eating the meat. Even in 100%Pure NZ ;)

Thanks to everyone who replied; this forum rocks. Learned more in past two weeks than I have scouring the net for months and the best thing about it is that it's locally applicable knowledge. Golden NZ Nuggets of wisdom - sweeeet!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by woods223

Other things are going to kill you before lead poisonlng will except from lead dust or vapour. I've been carrying around bits of lead in my body from shotgun pellets for over 35 years and i'm still doing ok. Lead is basically inert in the body, or that's what the doctors told me anyway.

---

I've lasted 58 years and doing okay with the lead I have. Wouldn't have it any other way. :yaeh am not durnk:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Russian 22.

Well I reckon if you put a shoulder shot leg in an x Ray then you would find a whole lot of lead dust.

Even a solid copper projectile wouldn't be ideal to ingest bits of.

I think it is just part of the whole baggage that comes with hunting.

I usually just use the shanks and leave the front legs.

---

Until you drill it a little too head on and the bullet transverses the animal. Saw one with a perfect shoulder shot and the bloody bullet exited the rear right rump. Bugger.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by outlander

Until you drill it a little too head on and the bullet transverses the animal. Saw one with a perfect shoulder shot and the bloody bullet exited the rear right rump. Bugger.

---

True. Its a bit of a pickle