Pellets???

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BigTub
Rank: Senior Hunter
Posts: 167
Joined: Sun Dec 11, 2011 1:41 pm
Location: NW Tucson, Arizona

Pellets???

Post by BigTub » Sat Mar 04, 2023 7:33 am

After the post about cooking pheasants, I was pondering eating meat with lead pellets. How about the lead pellets?

I prefer to use #6 so that most go through but there are bound to be some that stay and I cannot seem to find.

I got a javelina last year (bow hunt) and it was full of pellets. Apparently, it had been raiding the rancher's garbage or whatever. They are tough little boogers. I did the best I could to eliminate the pellets but it had a lot around the backbone. Wife made it into burrito meat involving long time stewing in rather acidic broth, so I was apprehensive about using it. FIRST BITE: GOT A PELLET! It got pitched.

Now, you sure don't have to cook pheasant (or any upland birds) nearly as long as javelina so I don't think the risk is nearly as much, except for dental hazards. The pellets, I think will pass through but I was not sure about dissolution. I have enough cognitive losses at my age -- just don't need any more.

What, What, What Would You Do? (If you are old enough to get that jingle, you too should be concerned about cognitive losses! :D )

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deseeker
Rank: 5X Champion
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Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:38 pm
Location: Blair, Nebraska

Re: Pellets???

Post by deseeker » Sat Mar 04, 2023 11:04 am

I don't worry about it, because if you swallow a lead pellet, it will pass thru you system fairly fast(unlike a gizzard in a bird where it stays a long time until it's totally ground up). If you are really worried about it, switch to shooting steel shot. :D

Chemist
Rank: Junior Hunter
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2022 10:15 pm
Location: Tri-Cities, WA

Re: Pellets???

Post by Chemist » Sat Mar 04, 2023 4:43 pm

As with everything, it is the quantity that matters. Most places I hunt require nontoxic and the handful of birds I shoot a year with lead are not enough for me to personally worry. If you are concerned, shoot nontoxic as suggested. It hurts to pay more for the shells, but I would argue it hurts more emotionally hurt than a logical argument. By comparison to gas, licenses, dog food, collars, vets, lodging, etc and everything else we spend money on the extra cost of even tungsten would be in the noise for most hunters that don't sky blast. Of course circumstances are different for everyone and the price of nontoxic would of put me out of the game when I was poor and young but had ready access to hunting ground near by.

It also isn't the pellet itself I would be worried about. The pellet has a low relative surface area and thus not a ton will dissolve in your stomach. It is the shards in the wound track I would give thought to. This article talks about lead blood levels in South Dakota in hunters. It shows that it is well below CDC guidelines, but above the average population.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... %20members.

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