Thread: Meat Contamination

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!

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.

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.