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Author Topic: Hunters Movin From Lead?  (Read 4742 times)

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Offline Lee Borgersen

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      Poisoned Wildlife and Tainted Meat: :scratch:

 :Hunter: Why Hunters Are Moving Away From Lead Bullets. :fudd:

 :coffee: ......
ZUMWALT PRAIRIE, Ore. — Aiming a rifle loaded with a copper bullet rather than the standard type made of lead, Chelsea Cassens fired at an elk from 70 yards away, hitting it squarely behind its shoulder. To avoid spooking the animal if it was only injured, Ms. Cassens waited several minutes before approaching as her father needled her skeptically, suggesting her newfangled ammunition might not have immediately killed it.
Moments later, Ms. Cassens, her father, Ed Hughes, and the three others in their hunting party descended on the fallen 450-pound beast, carved it open, inspected the internal damage, and found the spent bullet.

 :popcorn: .....
“Will you look at that!” Mr. Hughes said, pleasantly surprised. The copper bullet had expanded on impact, as it was designed to do, opening a gaping hole in the elk’s lungs and killing it almost instantly.
“Her bullet did the trick just fine,” Mr. Hughes, 63, conceded, adding later that he also planned to switch from lead to copper bullets, a transition more and more hunters are making amid mounting evidence that lead bullets are poisoning the wildlife that feed on carcasses and polluting the game meat that many people eat.

At least 30 states regulate the use of lead ammunition, including Oregon, where Ms. Cassens and her father met for a week long elk hunt this fall. In Oregon, hunters are not allowed to fire lead bullets in a number of state wildlife areas. Neighboring California, which already enforces some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws and was the first state to prohibit lead ammunition in specific regions, recently imposed a statewide ban on that type of bullet that will go into effect next July.

 :police: .....
Across the country, state wildlife agencies have tried a range of tactics to encourage hunters to switch from lead ammunition. In Arizona, non-lead ammunition is free in some areas, and is delivered in bulk to a Native American tribe that lives near habitats with the most vulnerable scavenger species. In Minnesota, game wardens host shooting clinics for hunters to compare copper and lead bullets, hoping to show that lead bullets break apart in ways that make them more prone to contaminate the animals they kill.

According to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, lead exposure is the leading cause of death in California condors, the largest land birds in North America, which three decades ago were on the brink of extinction. And between 10 million and 20 million animals, including eagles, hawks, bears, vultures, ravens and coyotes, die each year not from being hunted, but from lead poisoning, according to the Humane Society. :confused:

Yet many hunters are reluctant to stop using lead bullets. They cite a range of reasons, from being unaware of the potential health threat or harm to scavenger animals, to having a stockpile of traditional ammunition they do not want to waste. Some also see the push away from lead bullets as a ruse for limiting gun rights or banning hunting more broadly. And many hunters question the availability, accuracy, price and lethality of non-lead ammunition.

Indeed, regulating lead ammunition has long been a hot-button point of contention among both conservationists and hunters. The topic was so charged, in fact, that President Barack Obama’s administration waited until its last day in office to impose a ban on lead ammunition on federal land. Just hours after taking office as the Trump administration’s new secretary of the interior, Ryan Zinke overturned that prohibition in his first action.

And in California, the organization representing the state’s game wardens has pushed back against the impending statewide ban, breaking ranks with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and writing in a letter to the governor that there is “insufficient data to justify such a drastic action.” :confused:

About 95 percent of the 10 billion to 13 billion rounds of ammunition purchased every year in the United States contain lead, which primarily comes from recycled car batteries, according to industry estimates. These bullets are often jacketed by a harder metal like copper or steel.
« Last Edit: November 11/25/18, 02:19:26 AM by Lee Borgersen »
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Offline Leech~~

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I have no issues going to copper to keep all the Tree huggies happy.  :bonk:

But people have been eating Deer, Elk, Bison, you name it shot with lead bullets since the first ball went down a tube. Just don't give the "Tainted Meat" scare crap when there just is no proof when the billion of people that have eaten all these animals have not dropped dead!   :bs: :bs: :mad1:
Cooking over a open fire is all fun and games until someone losses a wiener!

Offline Rebel SS

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Well, the price of copper is sky-high, and lead is cheap.....they gotta make a buck somehow.   I think they're more worried about the scavengers ingesting meat with lead, which has always made me wonder...if someone shot it, they take the meat, right?  :scratch:
« Last Edit: November 11/25/18, 08:11:31 AM by Rebel SS »

Offline Gunner55

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Yeah Reb, the Tree Huggers are tryin to get people to believe that most hunters cann't shoot straight so it's not a clean kill & the meat isn't harvested. :scratch: :bonk: :bs: :moon:
Life............. what happens while your making other plans. John Lennon

Offline deadeye

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It's probably more about preventing other animals from ingesting lead fragments than people being poisoned.  I have used (and currently require all hunters on my land) copper for the past three years.  We have killed quite a few deer with copper bullets and have not seen any difference between lead and copper as far as kills go. 
***I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.***

Offline glenn57

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So tell me is this copper or lead?? I really haven't paid a whole lot of attention to this debate. This is the business end of what I found in the deer I shot that's was wayyyy bigger then boars little deer! :smoking:

[attachment deleted by admin]
« Last Edit: November 11/25/18, 12:39:23 PM by glenn57 »
2015 deer slayer!!!!!!!!!!

Offline LPS

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Looks like copper.

Offline mike89

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why don't ya just look at the box the bullet came in!!!!    :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :scratch:
a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work!!

Offline LPS

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Offline Rebel SS

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Looks like solid copper to me....can you peel any away from the "core"? Remington Core-lokt ammo is copper sheathing over a lead core....a lot of brands do that, but it usually peels away and exposes the lead core.
« Last Edit: November 11/25/18, 12:55:28 PM by Rebel SS »

Offline Rebel SS

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:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

If you don't quit posting 5 secs ahead of me, I may haveta give ya a noogie!!!  :mad1:

Wait a minute.....it was in the deer that HE shot himself??!??! Whaddya do, borrow bullets from people???!!  :bonk:
« Last Edit: November 11/25/18, 12:57:40 PM by Rebel SS »

Offline LPS

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Ya maybe someone else shot the deer. Since Glenn doesn't know what copper looks like it must not be his bullet.  The deer must have just dropped and died by Glenn's stand.   :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

Offline Rebel SS

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Ya, couldn't of been from HIS deer gun..... :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

[attachment deleted by admin]

Offline glenn57

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why don't ya just look at the box the bullet came in!!!!    :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :scratch:
well Mr smarty-pants. When I buy bullets I put them in those plastic shell boxes and throw the cardboard one out. :doofus: :pouty:

 :pouty: :pouty: and don't da rest of you gotta vacum the living room or sumfin?? :taz: :taz: :confused: :rotflmao:
« Last Edit: November 11/25/18, 01:16:23 PM by glenn57 »
2015 deer slayer!!!!!!!!!!

Offline Boar

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its ok buddy, just one thi g tho....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAAAAHAHAHA!!!!!!
2019 GRAND MASTER BUCK CHAMPION!!
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Offline glenn57

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its ok buddy, just one thi g tho....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAAAAHAHAHA!!!!!!
awe go smome you noggin!! :rotflmao:
2015 deer slayer!!!!!!!!!!

Offline mike89

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why don't ya just look at the box the bullet came in!!!!    :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :scratch:
well Mr smarty-pants. When I buy bullets I put them in those plastic shell boxes and throw the cardboard one out. :doofus: :pouty:

 :pouty: :pouty: and don't da rest of you gotta vacum the living room or sumfin?? :taz: :taz: :confused: :rotflmao:


 :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :happy1: :happy1:

I always read the box so I know what I'm buying!! 
a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work!!

Offline Rebel SS

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I always read the box so I know what I'm buying!! 
[/quote]




Poor Glenn just gets himself in deeper! I better get Mr. Sparkles and the tow strap ready.  :rotflmao:
« Last Edit: November 11/25/18, 01:27:20 PM by Rebel SS »

Offline glenn57

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I do to, but I can only find the 220 grains in 2 places of all the places I look, and it's been all of 3-4 years since I replenished my supply.
2015 deer slayer!!!!!!!!!!

Offline glenn57

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I always read the box so I know what I'm buying!! 




Poor Glenn just gets himself in deeper! I better get Mr. Sparkles and the tow strap ready.  :rotflmao:
[/quote]that thing couldn't pull out a bicycle out of a 2 inch water puddle on I-94!!! :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :sleazy: :mooning:
2015 deer slayer!!!!!!!!!!

Offline mike89

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I do to, but I can only find the 220 grains in 2 places of all the places I look, and it's been all of 3-4 years since I replenished my supply.

OK I can sorta understand that...
a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work!!

Offline Rebel SS

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I always read the box so I know what I'm buying!! 




Poor Glenn just gets himself in deeper! I better get Mr. Sparkles and the tow strap ready.  :rotflmao:
that thing couldn't pull out a bicycle out of a 2 inch water puddle on I-94!!! :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :sleazy: :mooning:
[/quote]   


  :shocked:       :moon: :moon: training-087

Offline K.O.W.

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Fine with whatever but we nearly need an eagle season don't we ? If you live out of town seeing bald eagles and numbers of them is common. Compared to when I was a kid eagles are 10X more plentiful. California condors they are saying are ingesting lead from hunting bullets ? Copper whatever is fine just don't try to convince me that there's all these bullets in gutpiles when out of the 40 roughly deer I've taken I think only once it didn't go through the deer and we gut them often in our back yard so why don't our cats die lol or dog ? Eagles are flourishing in Minnesota like never before. My guess is jigs that are in fish offer as much or more harm possibly then a bullet to an eagle.

Offline snow1

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this arguement has been gooing on for years I REMEMBER the lead ban when it started in the mid 80's and centered around waterfowl refuges in the begining brutal times more ducks and geese were killed bye sky busters shooting steel as if they were still shooting lead crippling 100's of birds that would bleed out from the lack of kinectic down range energy from steel infact we had a big goose contest in LacQui Parle back then and collected 500 goosegizzards so the local vet could research  the gizzards of these dead geese well outof 500 gizzards he found 3 lead pellets lord know's there was a ton of lead on and around the refuge.some so called experts declared the ducks and geese were injesting the lead pellets as they fed in fields and shallow sloughs.WE DIDN'T bye it then or now we always check the gizzards of our waterfowl and upland birds,never found one pellet lead or steel out of 100's of birds.