I traveled up to Ithaca, NY, to the DEC Reynolds Pheasant Farm over the weekend and attended a training seminar about Bald Eagles and lead bullets. It was held for Hunter Education Program instructors like me because the DEC wants us to spread the word to students in our classes about how we, as hunters, can help reduce lead poisoning in eagles.

Perhaps you’ve heard about it. Here in NY, the DEC is offering a $60 rebate on loaded ammunition or bullets for reloading that are pure copper through a non-profit group called Hunters for Eagle Conservation. I am one of the original participants since the first year.

What a great presentation. NY, PA, and the other states are trying to learn from the mistakes that happened in California. California banned lead-based bullets outright, and they have a low compliance rate with the law. Right or wrong, hunters see such a ban as a form of anti-gun legislation.

The consortium wants to use education instead of legislation to get buy-in from hunters and improve compliance. I think that’s smart. And the seminar was indeed educational. We looked at videos. We looked at X-rays. We shot real bullets from a deer rifle into water traps and clear ballistic gelatin blocks.

I’ve hunted deer with lead-based bullets in rifles my entire life, before going lead free. I never had any issues. I’m always super careful to trim all of the bloodshot meat from around the wounds and discard it. But I’ll tell you something. Those x-rays and gel block tests were eye-opening.

There is an amazing amount of fine lead particles scattered throughout an animal from a lead-based rifle bullet. Those gel blocks looked like someone shot them with a shotgun loaded with tiny shot pellets. The permanent wound cavity was coated in lead particles as if someone had sprayed it with grey paint. The x-rays of deer shot behind the shoulder showed lots of particles of lead in the back straps, shoulders, and neck meat. Wow.

The lead in venison is especially bad for children and for nursing mothers that will pass the oxides and lead salts to babies through their milk. As I said, I always thought that carefully cutting away the damaged meat around the wound got rid of all of the lead that was missing from the bullet, but that is clearly not the case from the tests that we did and what we saw x-rays of deer shot behind the shoulder showed lots of particles of lead in the back straps, shoulders and neck meat. Wow.

There’s a whole lot of lead in the gut piles that we leave in the field, also. The problem is that animals and especially birds of prey, that eat those piles, get poisoned by the lead fragments in them. Birds are far more susceptible to poisoning because their digestive tracts grind up the lead along with their food, causing it to oxidize and create lead salts far more quickly.

As hunters, we can help. Copper bullets work. Manufacturers have had decades now to perfect them. If the majority of hunters look at the science and the data and adopt lead-free ammo, we can save eagles. And peregrine falcons, and …. If you have a rifle in a caliber that you can’t get lead-free ammo, take a contractor bag and bring your gut pile out of the woods and dispose of it in the garbage.

Together, we can make a difference and help out wildlife. Copper bullets cost a little more, but they are now readily available and they work well. 

Won’t you bond with your inner Teddy Roosevelt and join me in making the switch? The DEC program will even reimburse you for a box of ammo or bullets. Give it a try. And shoot your lead ammo at targets for practice.

Let’s all enjoy the outdoors!

John S. Van Etten is the current president of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc.