Viable lead alternatives exist

The big doe dropped in its tracks a split second after I'd tried something new. I'd been using lead bullets in my muzzleloading rifle for years. When ammunition companies developed copper bullets I bought a box and tried them when sighting in my rifle. They were accurate, but would one humanely kill a deer?

Sure did. I'm certain the doe died instantly without suffering pain. That was about 15 years ago, and I've not used a lead bullet since. I've put the meat of about 20 deer in our freezer without ever losing a wounded one or scattering lead in the landscape.

Calling a bullet non-toxic may be the ultimate oxymoron. Non-lead bullets are usually made of copper. It is a selective metal that is deadly as a projectile yet kind to any scavenging creature that feasts on deer entrails or an unrecovered animal. In contrast, lead is poisonous to many animals, especially raptors.

When a lead bullet strikes an animal, it often fragments into tiny pieces. Some can end up in the entrails, which hunters usually leave in the forest. Scavengers feed on them and ingest lead. The metal's toxic impact on California condors is well known, but a new study on Upper Midwest bald eagles proves that it also is deadly to bald eagles.

Over a two-year period, federal biologists examined 168 dead eagles and found lead in 48 percent of their livers. Twenty-one percent had lethal levels. A secondary study found lead fragments in 36 percent of entrails recovered from the Lost Mound unit of the Upper Mississippi Refuge in Illinois. When you consider the hundreds of thousands of gut piles left in the field and the enthusiasm eagles show for feeding on them, the impact is enormous.

Banning lead hunting ammunition is controversial, and I might not favor it if effective alternatives didn't exist, but they do. Copper bullets are now readily available for muzzleloaders, shotgun slugs and rifles. They are a little more expensive than lead counterparts but bullets only constitute a tiny percent of the cost of a hunt. Hunters can choose right now to not use lead; that would be preferable to a ban. Lead is perfectly acceptable at target ranges where it is confined to small areas and not eaten by wildlife.

I hunt for food, not trophies, and the deer I shoot are free ranging, organic and local. Wild meat is a sustainable resource, and taking a deer is consistent with gardening, foraging wild plants or butchering a humanely raised rooster. I learned marksmanship in the army and take pride in my ability to precisely place a bullet so my quarry dies quickly with minimal, if any, pain. When kneeling over a freshly killed deer, I thank it for giving its life to sustain my family and promise that I will do whatever I can to maintain the land so future generations of deer can lead healthy lives until converted to chops and steaks.

Using copper bullets helps keep the world safer for living things. We got lead out of paint, gasoline and waterfowl ammunition years ago. It's time to get it out of the deer woods.

' Rich Patterson is a member of the Outdoor Writer's Association of America's Circle of Conservation Chiefs. He is co-owner of Winding Pathways. Comments: windingpathways@gmail.com