I found out the other day that our Hunting and Fishing Federation is going to make a motion that all hunting ammunition be non-toxic.. Read no lead.
Our Hunting and Fishing Federation has input to change the game laws of our province.
This is for all hunting. Include shotshells and rifle cartridges. It seems that the eagles around here are getting sick eating unrecovered game, entrails, and eating game that has been wounded and got away that has small slivers of lead still in them. (I have seen eagles eating a deer carcass but never have I seen them eat roadkill. )
Haven't heard how they plan to deal with .22 LR. which is used for rabbit and by trappers for dispatching their catch.
So the question is ...... is this a legit problem? Or is someone using junk science to further their agenda here?
IMHO...I think its not a legit bill... raptors never had health issues from lead in the 60 s... I dint think... but as long as bullets are reasonably priced I'm OK with it
Unfortunately, there are studies that back this up for eagles along the upper Mississippi River. I was at a conference a couple years ago looking at this exact problem. They used an X-ray to scan meat from deer shot with lead bullets and found that much of it from around the bullet channel was riddled with lead fragments. That would include entrails left behind. Since eagles scavenge quite a bit, areas with heavy hunting can cause a lot of damage. As a non-wealthy hunter and also a scientist, this creates quite a dilemma for me.
Just keep in mind, LOTS of scientists are also outdoorsmen, especially field scientists. They feel the same effects of the non-toxic ammo laws, but have an obligation as a scientist to perform good scientific practices and report what they find, like it or not. Although it would greatly hurt a lot of hunters, if the lead is having negative effects on raptor populations, a solution has to be found. Whether or not that means instantly jumping to non-toxic ammo laws I can't say. Maybe burying the entrails would help...
. As a non-wealthy hunter and also a scientist, this creates quite a dilemma for me.
I too am a non-wealthy hunter. And I have an assortment of lead ammo that would last me for a number of years to come. I would hate to junk it. And storing it for a zombie apocalypse would have the same affect (until the S.H.T.F. )
Hopefully the regulation wouldn't go into effect until the following year (2015) which might give you time to use it up. I guess as hunters, if we are in areas with high eagle populations, we need to take extra time to recover game, hide or bury entrails, and just realize that an ounce of prevention can save us all in the long run.
this is highly suspicious coming and going. Don't hawks like owls puke up any undigested things like lead shot or just **** it out? They scammed us Americans about 1975 when they banned lead shot for water fowl..why? Because the business discovered really cheap steel in Africa but at the same time wanted to save the American steel worker!
About the same time it became common practice to poison sheep carcasses to kill off the mass of coyotes and wolves killing farmers livestock. But eagles and other birds of prey or vultures ate it too so they blamed "lead shot"....how convenient. The lead shot that they did find in an eagle up Montana way was likely some pissed off farmer not the kind of lead poisoning they said.. You cannot trust government.
There is a huge movement underfoot to eventually ban hunting=no hunting most guns become 'useless'...get it?
They did it over here, total ban on lead for waterfowl,it has caused in my opinion nothing but suffering to the ducks and geese, as the alternatives do not seem to have the same stopping power,and a lot of Wildfowler's hate the steel alternative also the price of the cartridges are ridiculous,most people are of the opinion that the claims of lead shot causing problems of poisoning,are not right and we think its just another European over reaction,unfortunately our B A S C backed it, instead of challenging it, now there's plans to remove its use everything as in shot and bullet,a claim that is denied avidly as the original ban has been very unpopular so they will probably try get it in through the back door somehow,anything make shooting unaffordable,
I struggle to understand, however, how a few deer bodies are going to ruin the raptor population. Ever since the elimination of DDT the raptors have had a real come back. There was a lot more lead out there during the come back years than there is now. Are the raptor populations in peril or even in decline?
Human populations will always have the potential to do harm to wildlife populations whether it be thru habitat destruction, pollution, food chain tampering, or even lead bullets. Some issues are a big concern and IMO other issues folks like to turn mole hills into mountains. Lead is a mole hill. There would have to be some new major data for me to accept that lead is doing sooooo much damage that we must ban its use.
