Choose Efficiency and Safety
Ensure the highest quality meat from your hunt. Switching to non-lead ammunition is simple.
Why Use Non-Lead?
Recently there has been a lot of discussion on the issue of lead in hunting ammunition, especially rifle bullets. Regardless of who's saying what, most of us want to see the evidence of the biology, ballistics, and risks of lead ammunition. This site is intended to act as a place to gather that information together and take a look at reasons to hunt with non-lead ammo.
Lead Bullet Fragments In Game Meat
Recent documentation that lead bullet fragments frequently end up in processed game meat, particularly ground venison, has resulted in some hunters switching to non-lead. Once we hunters come to realize how bullets fragment when they strike an animal, and how small they can be, we can see how we might have missed them in butchering and processing. Trim scraps tossed into the "burger pile" can contain lead and even whole steaks have been found to have lead fragments.
We don't want to be seen as alarmist on this issue because no evidence currently exists that shows that any person has gotten actual lead poisoning from eating game meat. Medical researchers generally agree that children under age 6 and pregnant women are extra sensitive to effects from lead exposure and should take special care to avoid ingestion of lead. And while lead paint remains the primary pathway for lead exposure for children in the USA, the precautionary principle of avoiding known risk factors has prompted many hunters to use non-lead ammo.
One study that investigated the prevalence of this health risk brought 30 different eviscerated white-tailed deer carcasses to 30 separate meat processors and asked for steaks and burger packages. The packages were sub-sampled and the researchers found that 32% of 234 ground venison packages contained at least one metal fragment and 93% of all fragments were positively identified as lead.