Sources of Lead
I shoot a ton of California Saber Tooth ground squirrels with .223 50 grain VMax and .243 70 grain NBTs here in Kalifornia. The tree huggers are leaning toward mandating the use of non-lead bullets for hunting in the state, claiming that condors are dying of lead poisoning from eating shot carcasses.
I wonder how much, if any, lead remains in the carcass chunks left after a skwerl gets thwacked by a VMax or NBT travelling in excess of 3000 feet per second.
What do you guys think?
Does anyone know of a study or article ever done on this subject?
Clem
I believe that we need some good lawyering on this one.
A couple of notes on the Condor that I discovered has me wondering about the support that this lawsute will get. From what I've read, the game officials do not want this law for a variety of reasons.
One big one is that they can't tell the difference between lead-free bullets and bullets containing lead in every instance. So, they don't believe that it can be enforced.
A second reason is due to the concerns of "angering hunters and ranchers", which can have a devastating effect on the birds in due to another source mortality involving lead.
Not to downplay the threat any, but they have a lot of proving to do. There assertion is that the lead comes from bullets, but I find that hard to imagine, since their primary food source is supposed to be from larger mammals, not from murdered rodentia. Besides, the sources of lead are difficult to prove, since the birds migrate to Arizona as well, which happens to be loaded with copper and lead mines.
But I know their arguments..."If we can just save one life of one bird, isn't it worth it!!"
And, it only takes one worthless judge to swing a vote that can result in bench legislation that will promote their lifestyle of eating nuts and twigs.
I guess we better get a little busier as activists ourselves... Me included.