Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Lead Poisoning ?

Ok this may be kind of a dumb question but here it goes.

We have been shooting quite a bit at my pond in the last 3 years.(ie snakes, turtles and such) Just mainly a 22 long rifle. Could i end up having a lead poison issue in my 1 acre pond? Does anyone know how many bullets i would have to shoot before i would have a problem? In the last 3 years i have put about 500 rounds in my pond. Thanks in advance for any responses.

Don't think it would cause any problem unless the fish were eating them. Of course, the lead might affect some of the baby fish and they may not do well in school. Just couldn't pass this up. I tried.

So i may end up with dumb fish??? that's my kind of fish the dumb ones. Well i just wasn't sure so you know what they say no question is a dumb one. This one may be close but.... still Thought i better ask.

thanks,

It's not the lead per se, it's the lead oxide - the white powdery stuff on the outside of the lead.

500 rounds is a VERY insignificant amount of lead, even if it was all oxidized.

You're talking about 2.85# of lead.

Thanks esshup just wanted to make sure. I been working to hard to do something stupid to my fish at this point.

I appreciate it.

The political side of lead is crazy. God forbid if the EU detects it in a product, even in the smallest amounts. Wouldn't want lead "contaminating" the soil... even though it naturally occurs there. If it doesn't naturally occur there, it is left over from when we burned massive amounts of lead in gasoline.

Esshup is correct, only the Lead Oxide is the stuff that will wind up dissolved in the water, but there is also lead dust which is created when the bullet leaves the barrel. Outside it is not a problem as it blows away in the wind, but an indoor range you can wind up inhaling a lot of it. I have a few friends that have been tested for lead and have elevated levels from a lot of indoor shooting.

A while ago there was a lot of craziness going on about the amount of lead in the water in the Adirondacks from years and years of duck hunting. Now you can no longer use lead rounds up there. It is likely the combination of acidic water and the small pellets made for easily detectable amounts of lead in the water.

I wouldn't worry about it since the contamination of mercury and lead in large bodies of water is much worse than the lead in your pond. Your fish will be by far safer to eat on a regular basis.

Several years ago Bob Lusk wrote an excellent piece about lead in ponds in Pond Boss magazine. As always, it was a very informative writeup. Maybe Bob, Cody, or Eric remember when and where it actually appeared.

At the risk of being ostracized, I still use lead split-shots... and crimp em' with my teeth.

I'm not downplaying the negative aspects of lead, only that I'm sure lead poisoning will have to wait its turn, waaayyy down on the list of things waiting in the shadows to do me in.

Hmmm.. I wonder if I should warn my dentist about the teeth crimping?

Sprkplug - I'm with you, probably won't cause me as many problems as when I broke off one of my front teeth "cutting" 8# line.

My understanding is that the primary issue with Lead shot is that ducks pick it up off the bottom mistaking it for seeds and that is why lead shot is illegal for duck hunting. This is from the US fish and wildlife website: "Efforts to phase out lead shot began in the 1970s, but a nationwide ban on lead shot for all waterfowl hunting was not implemented until 1991. Canada instituted a complete ban on the use of lead shot in 1999, after banning its use near bodies of water and on national wildlife areas earlier.

In order to measure the effect of the ban on lead shot, researchers examined thousands of ducks harvested in the Mississippi Flyway during the 1996 and 1997 waterfowl seasons, the fifth and sixth seasons after the 1991 ban on lead shot. Based on the survey's findings, the survey estimated that the ban on lead shot reduced lead poisoning deaths of Mississippi Flyway mallards by 64 percent, while overall ingestion of toxic pellets declined by 78 percent over previous levels."

I'm pretty sure the lead shot would end up in their gizzard, and it would stay there like gravel and slowly get ground up, increasing their exposure to it.

Isn't lead shot supposed to wind up in their gizzards?