Blue Mountain Wildlife has been helping wild animals for years. In recent years, they’ve seen an increase in how many birds have lead poisoning.
Lynn Tompkins says birds come for separate reasons from lead poisoning but when they test, they come across positive results.
She says if you don’t want lead in your water to drink, why would you hunt your food with it.
“The easiest way to not worry about that is to not use lead ammunition,” she says, “and it didn’t use to be like that, you know 30-35 years ago there weren’t a lot of options for hunting without lead.”
Lead has been used in ammunition since the first guns were introduced and it continues to be used because of how accessible it is.
However, lead-free ammunition is nearly 4 times the price of lead ammunition.
A gun shop employee, who wishes to remain anonymous told me most people rather buy led ammo because of how expensive lead-free ammo is.
Blue Mountain Wildlife suggests hunting lead-free because most birds they get are predators and feed on carcasses.
However, some states have hunting restrictions. California banned the use of lead ammunition in 2019. Making sure you know your state’s laws before hunting is encouraged.
