Bad Meat : A bull steadily w alked six hundred yards to my stand. That was plenty of times to study him. A shot directly through the bull’s eye pupil shattered his head. I knew something was wrong as I walked up to him – it was bloated. I could not roll over his liquid-filled carcass, so I skinned it as it lay and removed the meat without seeing its other side. I ordinarily do not nick the abdomen quick silver, taking great care to preserve this bacteria and dirt barrier. Three fourth up and just forward of the thigh was a small neat hole, through which entrails bulged when restraining skin was peeled back. The bull had been previously shot, probably through the bladder, so its gut filled with urine. There was no way I was going to do an autopsy on that explosive creature to prove my interpretation. I salvaged the meat I could and dragged it three miles to base camp. That was a wasted effort. The meat was very tough and tasteless, from both the rut fighting that had broken all antler tines and from the onset of internal gut sepsis. I should have staked a note to other hunters near the bull and informed the game warden when I could got to phone reception. I dragged the bull three miles though a sticky mud trail. It took me a year to get my invalid, over-strained knees back in shape. No, you do not always win! Lead Shrapnel Meat : One of the boys I previously mentioned gave me an elk to process. He unfortunately shot the bull dead-square in the thigh bone. The lead bullet shattered the bone and lead shards spread through that leg and also into the other thigh. The meat was as bloodshot as if a tractor trailer had struck the bull. Naturally I did not have an x-ray machine, but I believe a lead-detecting image would have looked much worse than this x- ray image. I had to dump very much of the meat into the garbage. PLEASE CONSIDER using non-lead ammunition for the health of your family and friends. Lead shards gets ingested, particularly in ground hamburger and sausage which is a main meat preparation of all hunters. And children love hamburgers. It is illogical to ban lead in paints, avoid eating lead-laden fish, but then eat it in your red meat food. Please visit this linked site to learn more about the advantages of all copper bullets. Addendum: The bull hanged in the upper reaches of the ranch barn for a month as Linda and I cavorted in the warm West Indies. The meat that was salvaged was as sweet and tender as you could not hardly guess! Lead Bullet Fragments Desolve During Cooking: Cooking game with acidic things like tomatoes, wine or vinegar dissolves some lead and makes it easier for the body to absorb the lead. Do not use meat near shattered bones to make soup sstock, because lead fragments may have infiltrated the surrounding flesh. The UK Foods Standards Agency warns that large amount of lead-shot (shot gun) game should not be eaten. It should never be given to pregnant women (including women planning to have a baby), toddlers and adolescents who are developing their brains during the growth period. Visit these sites for more warnings/images of lead ammo. Http://nps/pinn/naturescience/leadinfo.htm Http://www.huntingwithoutlead.org h  t  t  p  :  /  /  w  w  w .  n  p  s  .  g  o v  /  p  u  b  l  i  c  _  h  e  a  l  t  h  /  i  n  f  o  /  f  a  c  t  s  h  e  e  t  s  /  f  s  _ PINN_Lead_Ammo.html Meat Lead May Increase Heart Disease: The Harvard Health group discloses that people with elevated lead in their body have increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. About half the ingested lead leaves the body in a month or two, but the other half remains for decades. Bone is the repository of lead, but constantly remodels itself and this releases lead back into the system in the process. Hunters who continually ingest lead may be jeopardizing their health – especially if they also are unaware of other compounding sources of lead. Think about cut-rate lead contaminated lipstick, hair dyes, medicinal coal tar shampoos, herbal remedies (especially Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese herbs, and old traditionally decorated cooking pottery made with lead glazes). Harvard health newsletter February 2018

Game Meat Problems