Lead-free bullets might lessen the threat to condors and other birds.
By JIM MATTHEWS
Outdoor News Service
As deer season progresses zone by zone in California, the word is finally getting out about the effect of lead bullets in gutpiles or in shot and lost game.
Most hunters have heard about the problem, especially with condors, but there is still profound disbelief that lead from their rifles could be a problem. But the scientific research is compelling enough that a lawsuit has been filed by condor advocates, and it is likely to go before a judge for a ruling.
Hunters have accepted that lead is toxic if consumed by wildlife. We shoot steel or other non-toxic shot for ducks and geese.
So why do most hunters believe that lead from big-game rifles can't be a problem? Their skepticism focuses on two issues:
Many hunters still believe the lead question is an excuse to try to ban hunting. But most of the scientists and agency staff working on the issue are hunters themselves or have no interest in banning hunting. Most hunters don't understand, or don't think through, the part of the equation that puts lead residue in parts of game we leave in the field.
I recently weighed about a dozen slugs of several types that I've recovered from game. Even the best lead core, copper-jacketed bullets lost 20 to 30 percent of their weight; most of them lost more. In most of the bullets, that amounted to 30 to 40 grains of lead from the core of the bullet that disappeared somewhere along the way.
It was left along the wound channel. When we field-dress a buck, we trim away all of the bloodshot meat around the entrance and exit wounds. We pull the insides out and leave the guts in the field. A condor or golden eagle will drop down on that gutpile and eat the soft, bloody tissue because it's the easiest to pick apart. That's also the tissue with the most lead.
The best remedy is to shoot one of the new premium bullets that does not leave lead along the wound channel.
Shooting lead-free or lead-encapsulated bullets isn't the only solution, however. Hunters can bury the guts, or simply put gutpiles and trimmed meat where the birds won't go. While this protects condors and eagles, we don't know what effect this might have on coyotes or other scavengers.
The last part of the debate over how to protect condors and eagles from hunter's lead is over varmint shooting. With a ban on most poisons, many ranchers and farmers now use hunters for rodent control. Condor researchers argue the elevated lead levels in wild condors could be coming from ground squirrels left by varmint hunters.
We don't need a lead ammunition ban for all hunting. We do need solid research and hunter education.
