Lead poisoning from eating game shot with lead core bullets?

I can't confirm or deny either way . But on thanksgiving day of 98 my dad fell out of his tree stand while rifle hunting . Life flight came and flew him to the hospital after packing him out to the nearest gas well location that was the only clear place to land for a few miles.
When they put him through all the bells and whistles at the hospital to see what all was broke and damaged the doctor came in and was very adamant that my father had been shot with a shotgun. Dad ask why him why he thought that he'd been shot with a shotgun? The doctor put up the x ray of dads mid section and low and behold it looked like he had been shot with a shotgun lead pellets all in his stomach area. The only conclusion was where dad had ingested them eating small game . If memory serves me right there was 24 of them total.
Dad passed away in 2010 but it wasn't from lead poisoning
So before his accident let's say for breakfast he Consumed something that had 24 lead particles and it was still in his stomach at this time of the accident or how could they accumulate and not be passed on through the system and expelled this is somewhat confusing and just does not add up for me Also if he was shot in the stomach with 24 pieces of lead from a shotgun I think he might know it
 
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I was big into casting lead bullets for a couple years. I was melting the wheel weights and making the alloy then casting the bullets. I never wore gloves or used any masks. I got my lead levels tested because I was handling it every day. They were normal. I did figure they would have to be a little elevated, but they were not.
Being in construction and a fisherman in Florida I have melted down lead from x-ray room drywall sheeting and made untold pounds of sinkers to fish with and don't have any problems that I know of I am diabetic I have my blood tested regularly and I've never been told of anything out of the norm
 
A great many years ago, there was a game warden in El Centro, Cal that wrote about lead poisoning. He fed wounded or hurt hawks and eagles from birds he shot with a shotgun. None die, they all recovered from there wounds. The point he was making that it's a bunch of bull on lead poisoning from lead shot and bullets. California (California) has gone off there rocker on lead bullets, and shots. Their hunting licenses sale are falling so bad in the last few years, they are having a hard time making it on the funds they are getting. I quite hunting there several years ago. Haven't purchase ammo or reloading supplies there either for 10 years.
 
I'm not a scientist but I have experience reading technological and scientific papers. That being said;

Your first link was a valid study result but it really didn't prove that animals taken with bullets were a potential source of health threatening lead poisoning. There are several points that I think make the study questionable.

1. The study says that all weapons used to take the animals were 7mm Mag rifles using 150gr cup and core style ammunition. Toward the end of the paper they mention that some of the meat used to feed the pigs with had bird shot in it. Just how accurate was their data when they claim that only bullets were used and yet they offhandedly mention that bird shot was in the meat.

2. Their experimental method was to take game killed and field dressed by average hunters to a game processor who then processed the meat and then they fed the contaminated meat (identified by radiographic methods) to pigs. They then tested the lead levels in the pigs for 8 days after being fed the meat.

A. They didn't verify that the meat that they turned in was the same meat that they received from the processors - could that explain why they found shotgun pellets in some of the meat that was, supposedly, all taken with 7mm Mag rifles.​
B. They fed the pigs almost 3 pounds of meat in one 24 hour day. Even accounting for the weight differences between the pigs and the average person, that would mean that we would have to eat around 1 1/2 lbs of contaminated meat in one day. Who eats 1 1/2 lbs of meat in a day. And even if you do eat that much meat in a day, how much would actually be contaminated with lead from a kill, I suspect not as much as what those pigs were fed.​
C. Their final conclusion was that the pigs that ate the contaminated meat showed lead blood levels of as high as 3.8 micro-gram/dL for one pig with an average of around 2.2 micro-gram/dL . The report states that the CDC says that lead blood levels in children becomes dangerous at 10 micro-gram/dL . What's more, the pigs only showed the higher levels for the about 3 days after ingesting the meat. So, in order to reach the CDC level that is dangerous for a child, the child would have to eat an average of 5 1/2 lbs of meat in a 24 hour period every three days in order to sustain a health threatening blood lead level. For an adult we would probably have to eat much more. And we would have to ensure that all of that meat was contaminated with lead. I find that pretty hard to imagine.​

I couldn't get to your second link, I don't know if it is dead or if my security software prevented me from getting to it but I couldn't check it out.

Your third link required me to pay for the report and I'm not about to do that so I couldn't read it but the summary that was available for free states that the report concludes that


That's not really anything that seems to be news to anybody that hunts game nor does it seem to conclude that eating game could cause lead poisoning.

Your fourth link doesn't really prove anything, it's just a summary of other papers and studies, it's simply a reference resource for the The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR). Quoting from other studies doesn't prove anything without including the process and conclusions.
Yeah. Nowadays most everything is skewed. I know two people who have been shot with shotguns; Warren all over his body and the other all totally in his head. Surviving the initial blast they both are living long, normal and productive lives. I'm just saying...
 
I'm not a scientist but I have experience reading technological and scientific papers. That being said;

Your first link was a valid study result but it really didn't prove that animals taken with bullets were a potential source of health threatening lead poisoning. There are several points that I think make the study questionable.

1. The study says that all weapons used to take the animals were 7mm Mag rifles using 150gr cup and core style ammunition. Toward the end of the paper they mention that some of the meat used to feed the pigs with had bird shot in it. Just how accurate was their data when they claim that only bullets were used and yet they offhandedly mention that bird shot was in the meat.

2. Their experimental method was to take game killed and field dressed by average hunters to a game processor who then processed the meat and then they fed the contaminated meat (identified by radiographic methods) to pigs. They then tested the lead levels in the pigs for 8 days after being fed the meat.

A. They didn't verify that the meat that they turned in was the same meat that they received from the processors - could that explain why they found shotgun pellets in some of the meat that was, supposedly, all taken with 7mm Mag rifles.​
B. They fed the pigs almost 3 pounds of meat in one 24 hour day. Even accounting for the weight differences between the pigs and the average person, that would mean that we would have to eat around 1 1/2 lbs of contaminated meat in one day. Who eats 1 1/2 lbs of meat in a day. And even if you do eat that much meat in a day, how much would actually be contaminated with lead from a kill, I suspect not as much as what those pigs were fed.​
C. Their final conclusion was that the pigs that ate the contaminated meat showed lead blood levels of as high as 3.8 micro-gram/dL for one pig with an average of around 2.2 micro-gram/dL . The report states that the CDC says that lead blood levels in children becomes dangerous at 10 micro-gram/dL . What's more, the pigs only showed the higher levels for the about 3 days after ingesting the meat. So, in order to reach the CDC level that is dangerous for a child, the child would have to eat an average of 5 1/2 lbs of meat in a 24 hour period every three days in order to sustain a health threatening blood lead level. For an adult we would probably have to eat much more. And we would have to ensure that all of that meat was contaminated with lead. I find that pretty hard to imagine.​

I couldn't get to your second link, I don't know if it is dead or if my security software prevented me from getting to it but I couldn't check it out.

Your third link required me to pay for the report and I'm not about to do that so I couldn't read it but the summary that was available for free states that the report concludes that


That's not really anything that seems to be news to anybody that hunts game nor does it seem to conclude that eating game could cause lead poisoning.

Your fourth link doesn't really prove anything, it's just a summary of other papers and studies, it's simply a reference resource for the The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR). Quoting from other studies doesn't prove anything without including the process and conclusions.
Been hunting since 1966 till now all animals shot with lead bullets haven't had any effect on anyone in my family
 
I practiced law for 40 years. Fake research has been in vogue for a long long time. The conclusions reached are the coclusions sought. If you have no personal knowledge of individuals developing lead poisoning from bullets in game and fear of getting ill, I have some oceanfront property in Utah you may be interested in.
 
This sounds like some Hammer bullet nonsense to me?

My grand father basically lived on what he killed. He used a R700 30-06 with Remington 180 grain Cor lokt his entire hunting career. Killed deer in season, out of season, you name it. That was his food source, call it whatever you like. But nobody in my family has ever had lead poison issues and I hate monos.

How old is your grandfather, and when did he start hunting?
 
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