Anyone using a lead free pellet?

[Joe n TN]

I have someone wanting to buy all my rabbit guts and heads for dog food. He doesn't want me to use lead pellets to dispatch the rabbits. I am not going to stop using the pellet gun, that is what I am comfortable with.

I have read about some lead free pellets online but have no idea how well they work. Anyone have experience with these? I am worried about penetration and effectiveness. Thanks,

Joe

 

[MamaSheepdog]

No personal experience to share, but I found this article that might help you make a decision on which ammo would be your best option:

http://crosmanrepair.net/articles.htm

 

[dayna]

My husband said they are "alloy" so they fire faster high speed but they don't flatten like lead inside the animal or environment.

I feed my dog the heads . The pellet usually exits the head and goes into the ground. Look for an exit wound.

 

[JessiL]

Never, ever use lead pellets, bullets, or shot with anything you plan to eat, or plan to let anything else eat. I work as a wildlife biologist, and have been reading many scientific papers that show that the residue (sometimes just as fragments as small as dust) from lead ammo travels long distances inside the bodies of shot animals. And the pellets/bullets don't always pass cleanly through even small game. Other papers show that people who eat lots of lead bullet-killed wild game have higher blood lead levels than those who don't.

Do buy the non-toxic ammo. The design has come a long way over the years, I'd be amazed if anyone outside of an Olympic sharp-shooter could tell the difference when shooting non-toxic if they weren't told about it ahead of time. We use the club method, so I have no experience using the non-toxic ammo at close range, but I have had good success plinking squirrels with my .177 and GAMO non-toxic pellets.

 

[dayna]

Well. I shoot my animals in the head and I can't imagine the pellet traveling long distances in the body through the head when I see it come out clearly the other side of the head.

As for have some lead residue in the head cavity, yes I can see that. However I feel the risk is minimal for myself and my family/animals, having read some of the same articles/studies you are probably referring to.

I did a quick search on the ammo. We did actually buy the alloy one once and it didn't fit my air rifle properly. We spend extra money on hollow point in order to have a quick, humane kill. I'm not sure alloy would offer me that same assurance.

 

[LPH_NY]

We only buy lead-free ammunition. We use lead free pellets to dispatch our own rabbits... until we find a method that we like better. I hesitate even to give the lead-free heads to my dogs, but I doubt they pose much risk. We almost never have exit wounds because our pellet gun is not as high power as we'd like - I think around 475 fps. Still gets the job done, but I know the projectiles get stuck in the noggin.

It is very sad what lead can do to animals. Obviously, if you use a weapon to do NOTHING other than dispatch your own food at point blank, then there may be little worry. But lead ammo left out in the environment is horrible. Particularly if you shoot wildlife and leave the carcass. Animals that clean up the mess die long, slow and horrible deaths from lead poisoning. I used to volunteer for a wild bird rehabilitation facility and vultures, hawks, eagles, ravens, crows, etc would come in with lead poisoning from eating a carcass left in the desert after someone "dispatched" a nuisance wild animal. Their prognosis was always very poor.

 

[dayna]

Yeah, I'm not big on shooting wild animals.... just rabbit dispatch. Though I have hunted feral cats with it, but I also collected the dead feral cats.