What alarmists don't seem to understand is that we all are walking a path that has the same destination (heaven or hell). I suspect that the hunters and fisherman tend to enjoy the stroll down this path more that any alarmist. They need to learn to enjoy life and worry less about the path ending because it IS going to end.

My apologies. I should have titled the post "New UK study on how to ban all lead shot and then hunting". However, I do think the article is interesting from a ballistic point of view.

If we were really worried about dying I don't think we would be shooting 100+ year old shotguns.

DB

Now wait just a daggoned minute.... are you sayin' these old guns are dangerous?? :eek:

Dean,

I was just agreeing with everyone else that hunters/outdoorsmen push the envelope more than the average person in order to get the most enjoyment out of life. I would venture a guess that many of us that enjoy shooting Parkers do it not only for the enjoyment of shooting a quality piece of American history, but also for the thrill of trusting that quality after 100+ years. I'll be experiencing that thrill tonight during a round of sporting clays with my Damascus bbls.

DB

Good Man David!

We all shoot them because we enjoy it but mostly because we can with the utmost confidence - much to the horror of the uneducated :cool:

The uneducated are oft' horrified. Many alarmists focus on the small picture to spread panic. For instance, all the worry over west nile virus, bird flu, chronic wasting disease and renewed concerns over lead as a few examples. Take any of those "small stuff" issues and research the fatal outcomes world wide. Then compare that outcome to fatalities resulting from something as well known as drunk driving (totally preventable). Qualifies as a jaw dropper if you never considered it. Another alarmist focus is on the individual versus the species. It would be sad to see a dead loon with an ingested lead sinker and call for an immediate ban on such a deadly product. The loon, as a species, is doing well. Now let's consider a big picture species level issue such as the current Gulf of Mexico oil contamination. There will be a drastic outcome for many individual life forms and there is also a potential species level disaster for the brown pelican, only just removed from the endangered list. But we humans aren't about to give up on oil. Now I don't want to be alarmist, but that little incident may kill more individual living creatures than the last century of sport (i.e. non-commercial) hunting and fishing has. Of course I can't provide the numbers, so I guess I could be held out to be offering mere conjecture as rebuttal for the proven dead loons rationale - sorry.

I did read the UK article and it did not deter me from eating game. A few scientific weasle words used and there was no effort taken to remove any pellets, just cook them all. Then, you had to replace all meat meals with just shot game and on and on. Now there was one pheasant in the study that was tenderized in the field. The average number of pellets per pheasant was 3+ but one bird had 18 pellets - 10 yards full choke??. But who would cook 18 known pellets. That skews the results somewhat, as well as not removing pellets as a first step skews the entire study somewhat.

I will do a small study in a few weeks. Since I have some routine blood tests due, I asked the doctor to add lead testing, given the concerns out there and that I have eaten so much game in my life. If I can remember, I'll give a report.

Cheers,
Jack

Waiting for your report... if it ever comes :rolleyes:

Dean,

How do you fix them loons? All the recipies I've tried didn't come out to well.

DLH

Destry, like I told Jack, "With a grain of salt." ;)

With a grain of salt, cooked on a shingle perhaps?