Lead has become a boogeyman of sorts. Metallic lead isn't toxic, but the various compounds of lead (and many other metals) are toxic. The compounds are much more soluble than metallic lead once they are in your digestive system. Lead is particularly bad for kid and their brain development.
Metallic lead when ground-up in a birds digestive system, and along with the digestive acids that are present, create the toxic compounds of lead that cause the problem.

wow! I've been a plumber for 40 years. I don't work with lead like we used to, but there is still whole cities that have lead joints in there water mains and lead goosenecks on there laterals to the houses. Youngstown ohio still uses lead goosenecks. Michigan comes to mind also.plattsbugh new York had lead joints on there cast iron water lines.i would cost billions to replace all them lines.

When I was guiding pheasant. I always made sure that none of the guys had steel shot. If one of my dogs was shot I wanted it to be with lead. Lead for the most part is very clean. Steel starts to oxidize as soon as it enters the body

Some loons die from lead,more so my think die from eagles,....even steven.

no Canada went away even before USA did. first over water then over land.

but what is spent over water still stays there, and when water levels go down in some reserves, massive die offs occur

all those little white pebbles in the boreal lakes are old lead pellets oxidizing really slowly over hundreds of years.

interesting that swans when they feed go down 4 feet when they dip and pick up lead..........green wash on their rears they are in trouble, less than 7 days left to live.

Back in the change over period, the enforcement used sonograms from a distance to hear who the lead shooters were and what was steel.

Was it lead Flint, Michigans water supply was supposed to be contaminated with?

Lead pipes, lead paint, them old punt guns shot a couple of pounds of lead with every shot, lead sinkers.

If you all can’t smell the anti hunting crowd in this you’ve cut off your nose to spite your face. They would have you believe the only source of lead for raptors and ducks is found by picking up lead shot. And wouldn’t that be great if it was? This is an end around that’s been going on for a long time.

This lead boogeyman argument gets to me about the same as the save the possums crusade. I am sure lead shot has killed some birds. Poisons killed a WHOLE lot more. Cars also kill them and windmills. Poaching kills many.

I believe it is (bad) science being twisted to support the anti-hunting argument. First they ban the lead, then they ban copper. Then what do we shoot? Rubber bands?

The argument about lead being broken down over time by grinding in the gizzard is something I hadn't thought about. But don't raptor's gizzards especially the owl, function differently than waterfowl?

I would have also thought that lead would have worked it's way deeper into the ground because of its heavy density, much like gold works it's way down to bedrock eventually.

I'm liking the conversation going on here, and I hope no one thinks I am attacking their stance on the topic. For me, it is easier to learn if I can debate, with someone who disagrees with me, as long as it is an open,honest conversation.

Minklessinpa, the pipes you are talking about with gooseneck traps sound like wastewater lines rather than supply lines. Lead joints in wastewater lines are no health issue. Most lead in water supply lines comes from lead bearing solder used on copper pipe in the past. Low pH (acidic) water will leach out the lead and it will accumulate in pipe sections that are not used frequently. Periodic flushing the entire system keeps lead levels perfectly acceptable.

Lead kills, Steel wounds. Banning lead shot is yet another libtard hoax. Raptors came back because people moved to the cities. Before that everyone shot raptors on sight to protect their chickens. Endangered Species Act didn't hurt. Lead and DDT had nothing to do with it. Rachel Carson admitted she lied about DDT. Just another libturd hoax.

In the book Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America, it talks about lead poisoning a little. It says ducks do die from lead poisoning and was most common in baited areas where more than normal amounts of shooting occur. It talks about feeding penned ducks shot to see how many it takes to kill them. From what it says one piece of shot will not kill a duck. Since we can not hunt over bait is would guess it is a non player for the most part. I have gone and picked up dead ducks in the summer with the G&F that died of botulism by the hundreds. But have never heard of a die off from lead poisoning.

I live on a huge but shallow lake and botulism it a big killer when it gets hot in the summer, the lake at one time was covered in cattails that got so thick you could not see the water even. When the lake cycled out and flooded so deep the cattails died off leaving that rotting vegetation in the water that went toxic. Thousands of duck and pelicans would be scooped up over the summer, I could hear the air boat powering up and down all day scooping them up.

I've kind of followed this lead thing for years myself being I've poured lots of sinkers and jigs, dive weights.. My sister is big into the eagles and birds of prey and we've had the lead discussion . Living here along the Mississippi river I unlike other in the US have always seen Bald eagles my whole life.. I will say that right now there are more eagles than ever there ever was when I was a kid. We see them now in places way away from the river where never seen them even 30 years ago..So I don't really feel there is any shortage or raptor.. During spring migration there are places here you can stand and literally count a hundred birds.
As for where all those birds they like to show piled up dead are picking up the lead I just don't get that?
Right here in town we have an old trap range that fired thousands of rounds over the marsh. It's literally a short walk from the university and they take students there regular to study and monitor that old lead left from gun club.. So on that piece of marsh where hundreds of water foul rest and feed in the fall that old lead shot has been looked at a lot. They get them students all whooped up about that lead. Ok I get it to a point..but when I say well why don't you all just go in and dredge it out of there if it's such a issue?? They say well for the most part it has settled down out of reach of the birds?? Ok... dredging it would stir it up and make even a bigger toxic mess?? How is that if you sucking it up??? I'm no scientist or chemist do have a niece that is. She tells me leads bad stuff and yes I get that... Us old timers at least some of us survived lead for years no ill effects even expose to lots of it. So I think this generation thinks any lead is bad no matter the level. That is their crusade not to just lessen use like we did, but to eliminate it????
I did do a bunch of reading up on lead in gasoline when I first bought my airboat. It has and air craft engine that still requires fuel with lead. What I did find in all that reading was that the fuel industry and the government knew lead in fuel was a big problem. One of them true dirty secrets in the petroleum industry.. Wasn't until engine technology got to where they could run the unleaded fuel the big push to get lead out of fuel came.. I've often wondered how much lead readings you could get in a road ditch in area that hasn't been disturbed since lead was out of fuel.
There is no doubt in my mind lead is toxic and there is places it don't need to be used. I also don't think it's the boogieman the young people think it is.. It's like so many other things us old timers got ours it didn't kill us. So we want all we had no change. won't live long enough to see what it does to the rest the folks.. you know they drank from lead cups way back in time. aren't any of them folks that lived to the ripe old age of 30 left to tell us how it effected them.
I'm still biting my split shots on to my fish line. May have lost a few body parts to cancer and don't always remember where I set my coffee cup down. Right now I got to go put my trash out I think it's full of asbestos and I want it gone...:-)

Mac

I once helped someone track a deer behind an occasionally used skeet range. I saw many, many pellets just laying on top of the soil. Since doves are weak scratchers and eat small seeds and grit from the soil surface, I’d be very surprised if doves weren’t eating lead shot—perhaps more than other types of birds.

Honestly, I’m surprised lead shot is still legal for dove hunting here. How many lead pellets hit the ground on a good dove hunt? Few hundred thousand? How many pellets does it take to kill a dove? 1 or 2 ingested?

I'm sure its not good for you but I'm still biting closed my split-shots.

My great great grandpa lived to 94 with a yankee ball of lead in his shoulder and after the war farmed his whole life.

One of my babies had elevated lead levels from old wood floor finish, tested to confirm the presence of lead, kid crawled on floor, got finish dust on his hands because finish was getting worn off, then put hands in mouth, once he started walking and not sticking his hands in his mouth all the time lead levels went down to zero.