Lead and farm animals.

[Murphey]

Hi all.
I get to hunt on a small ranch. The Starlings always land on a fence in front of the pigs. The starlings always seem to fall where the pigs eat them. I shoot a FX Royale .25 at 50 yards on the hi power setting. I worry about the lead staying in a starling and poisoning a pig. Do you suppose it is possible a pellet may not pass through? I have been looking for non lead pellets in .25 and there doesn't seem to be any choices. Any reccommendations?

thanks 
Darren

 

[NMshooter]

Chances are, using a .25 FX Royale at high power, the pellet will pass through most small birds and mammals. At low power, say 12 FPE, is when you may have some concerns of the pellet lodging in the animal. Matt Dubber's latest video talkes about this subject. He was shooting a squirrel in the UK using a sub 12 FPE .22 AA and the pellet lodged in the animal. He talks about how he doesn't see this much in South Africa as he shoots at a much higher power. I would not be concerns about lead poisoning using your curent set-up.

Doc

 

[Barbarian]

I had a cat who ate hundreds of birds from me that were taken with a weak Chinese break barrel. He lived to a ripe old age with no visible affects, then I seen on the discovery channel a condor that had eaten a gun shot deer and they showed how the tiny lead fragments were ingestested by the condor poisoning it. Sounds like a tree hugger sprang to me, but who knows for sure.

 

[blackdiesel]

The particles must be very small to get into the bloodstream to be dangerous to most animals. For example, if you eat some old lead based paint you will get lead poisoning. But I was a police officer for a long time and got shot in the hand with a shotgun in the early 90s. There's still 5 lead pellets in my hand and the doctor said it wasn't worth cutting through tendons and muscle to get them out. Of course I asked about lead poisoning and he said the body can't break down solid lead so there was no chance of me getting poisoned by the the pellets.

 

[Murphey]

Thanks for the replies. I do feel the chance of the pellet not passing through are very slim. The only way i see that happening is if i shoot at them with another starling direcly behind and having the pellet lodge in the second bird. I have actually killed three with one bullet using my 22 rimfire. Reguarding not being able to absorb lead from pellets? Maybe in our body it is ok. I know there are lots of waterfoul with lead pellets stuck in their rump. Unless we are being fed BS i do think there is evidence of waterfoul dying from injesting lead BB's. Maybe thats because the gizzard breaks it down. Just guessing on these things i don't have any hard evidence. I do know however my shooting privelages will be revoked if i poison the pig. I put up a feeing tray to lure them away from the pigs but the pigs are fed fig newtins and the starlings love it. I do put figs in my tray but after i shoot a couple they resort to the pig pen.