Trust me - ducks ingest lead pellets. Dan's article has all the statistics on how many pellets they found in gizzards and such, complete with pictures if I remember correctly. He went around the marsh during hunting season and got hunters to let him cut out the gizzards and livers and did extensive testing. The paper is full of pictures of diseased livers and such. I'd guess that pellets settle in the mud and they get them when they pull shoots out and somehow keep them in their gizzard because there isn't much grit to be had in a muddy marsh area. I was a complete skeptic on the issue until I read his paper on it. Dan's a straight shooter and not a greenie. He hunts himself and does good waterfowl work.
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