There has been a lot of discussion on the Rimfire sites on lead bullets and the ban of lead bullets in some areas of California. An article in the local paper sports section today raises new concerns for us in the shooting community, not just hunters, and shows us to the length people are going to go to regulate/price us out of business.

Posted today in Dave Henderson's column:

Problem venison

One has to wonder if a hardly noticeable news item from last week won't turn out to be the tip of a very large and potentially devastating iceberg for the hunting community.

The report noted that North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa recently ordered food pantries to throw out thousands of pounds of hunter-donated venison. The ban followed a report by North Dakota physician Dr. William Cornatzer, who found lead in 60 percent of the 100 venison samples examined in an independent CT scan.
The North Dakota Health Department confirmed the results on at least five samples of venison headed for food pantries.


So, if you have been following this and think California's ban on lead bullets in one area for hunting only is the end of it, your living a very sheltered life.

We need to keep a very close eye on this, or as indicated this could only be the tip of the iceberg and the risk of us losing our passion and recreational activities.

Lets all move to mud built huts and wear sandles and eat leaves! Nevermind the leaves its living and there will be a ban on that too before long. And how much lead did they find. My guess is not anymore than in what is in everything else we eat.

Lets move with away with all the movie stars. Oh wait a minute they never went anywhere.

Kevin

From the Press & Sun Bulletin Dave Henderson column today
http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs. ... 0301/1003/

This really makes you wonder about the hidden agendas that are found out AFTER our politicians pass laws.

Questions arise on reasoning for lead-in-venison report

Dave Henderson

A blurb in this space last week, gleaned from an Associated Press report, noted that North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa had told their food pantries to destroy hundreds of tons of hunter-donated venison due to possible lead contamination.

The AP noted that the ban was occasioned by a report by North Dakota physician Dr. William Cornatzer, who found lead in 60 percent of the 100 random venison samples examined in an independent CT scan.

"Unless the deer was shot with a bow, or low velocity like a shotgun slug, as a physician, my recommendation would be not to eat it," Cornatzer, himself a longtime hunter, told the AP.

I was personally devastated. If 100 random samples out of hundreds of thousands showed a 60 percent contamination rate, the possibilities are devastating. We're looking at a conservation and health-threatening tsunami here.

Geesh, I eat 300 venison meals a year myself. But after the initial shock, I became skeptical. How would lead dust be detectable in the hindquarters of a lung-shot deer? Bloodshot meat or that around the bullet hole is routinely thrown away --certainly not grilled and eaten. How could more than half of the processed venison in any area possibly be contaminated by lead? It's impossible, folks.

Consider that New York hunters took in about 7,000,000 pounds of venison last season. And it's been thus for more than 70 years in varying amounts. Extrapolate the numbers and years and if there was even the tiniest grain of truth to this, virtually all hunters and their families would be taking dirt naps right now.

So I looked into the report a bit. I didn't have to look far, since plenty of investigators far more skilled than I already had.

And now, to paraphrase Paul Harvey, for the REST of the story....

It turns out that Dr. Cornatzer is a dermatologist, not an epidemiologist. Plus, however coincidentally, he is on the board of The Peregrine Fund, an Idaho-based leading activist group that is working hard to ban use of lead projectiles for hunting. They've been very successful in California and their ever-vigilant representatives never fail to send me a pat on the back whenever I write about lead contamination in waterfowl, etc.

What's more is that Dr. Cornatzer is a presenter at the group's annual conference in May entitled "Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans" (www.peregrinefund.org/Lead_conference/).

Is it possible that Dr. Cornatzer's study was designed to instill panic and/or outrage over home-freezer contamination leading up to the conference?

The source of the health scare is at the very least suspect. Iowa has since backed off its ban on hunter-donated venison, after running a few tests of its own.

Even if the report is a false alarm -- and it certainly looks and smells like it from here -- consider legislative impact and potential fodder for anti-hunters: there are bills already introduced to expand scope of "cop-killer bans" to include rifle ammo, projectiles with plastic or ceramic cores ("green" ammo for ranges), and solid coppers (Barnes X, etc).

Get rid of those AND the leaded variety and what's left to hunt with?

You're right to question the science here because it does smell like justification after the fact. Junk science is too easily swallowed whole by the public and legislators and it's hard to stop once it gets started.