Hunters Helping Hunters, Inc. currently has an opening on the Board of Directors
for the Vice President of Fundraising. The candidate must be able to dedicate at
least 20 hours per month towards fundraising activities and commit to a 3-year
term. Hunters Helping Hunters, Inc is a not-for-profit, 501c3 organization and
all Board of Directors are made up of people who volunteer their time and energy
to fund this charity.  Board members of HHH do not receive salaries or any other
compensation for their work. If interested, please send request for copy of the
Job Description and questionnaire to kzeringue@tx.rr.com.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Fairfax, Va. — The National Park Service has announced its intention to ban traditional ammunition containing lead in all its parks. The move would needlessly push hunters to use more costly ammo like tungsten, copper, and steel. The restrictions, set to take affect by the end of 2010, were announced without regard to science or soliciting feedback from sportsmens’ groups.

“The NPS announcement demonstrates either complete ignorance or complete arrogance as to the effect that this policy will have on hunters,” says Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “There is no science to support NPS’ contention that the use of lead ammunition in hunting is causing environmental contamination, having a negative effect on wildlife, or posing a threat to the health of visitors or park staff. This policy, and the lack of communication in advance with the sportsmen’s community, is a deliberate attempt to reduce the number of people who will want to hunt in the 60 parks that are open to hunting. This plays directly into the hands of radical anti-hunting organizations like the Humane Society of the US which is advocating that hunters be banned from using lead ammunition.”

The NRA will continue to be a voice of opposition against this unnecessary action and is committed to protecting the rights of hunters to use the ammo that is best suited for their hunting needs and budget.

-NRA-

 Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military.

Copyright 2009, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.

One of the most selfless acts hunters can do for their community is donate venison from the deer that they harvest to feed the needy. After a questionable study regarding the health factors involved in venison from deer killed by traditional ammunition, the federal Centers for Disease Control ran its own study, which gave venison a clean bill of health — and the National Shooting Sports Foundation has addressed those results on its new blog. An article in the Poughkeepsie Journal highlights the welcomed efforts of one unified group of sportsmen, typical of hunting groups across the nation, that are making a difference in their community because of its venison-donation program. Despite the exhaustive federal study, Minnesota has adopted an expensive procedure of X-raying donated venison, at a cost of 30 cents a pound, before it is distributed!

Well at my local web based hangout, Woody’s.  The topic of lead in the deer meat has come up again.  Ive tried to tell them that everything they need to know about lead in deer meat is right here at Help4hunters.com

Then somebody posted a video that got a few of them scared to death and switching to Barnes all cooper X bullets.   So since I like videos, I thought I would post the link here and add to the Lead in the meat collection I got going.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/lead/index.htm

Later,

Wildlife Management Institute.org

The North Dakota Department of Health (NDDH) and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) have recently released independent studies that provide recommendations for minimizing lead exposure to hunters and other individuals who consume game meat harvested with lead-based bullets, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.  Both studies began following the discovery of lead fragments in venison donated to North Dakota and Minnesota venison donation programs in March 2008.

In early October, the MN DNR completed an assessment of lead fragment levels in deer and sheep carcasses that had been shot using various combinations of commonly used firearms and ammunition.  Using radiography, researchers detected lead in tissue samples,” as much as 18 inches away from the exit wound, and noted that most of the particles were too small to see or feel.  However, “the probability of having a tissue sample test positive for lead at 10 inches was quite low (~7%).”  The study also found that rinsing the wound channel reduced lead fragments locally but seemed to increase lead contamination in other areas of the carcass.  Surprisingly, trimming 2 inches of material around the wound channel eliminated only 30 percent of lead contamination.

In an effort to shed light on the potential health risks caused by the presence of lead in game meat, the NDDH and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began a study on May 16, 2008 to “determine whether an increase in blood lead levels (PbB) is associated with the consumption of wild game.”

Released November 5, the study found that, of the 736 participants who volunteered to have their PbB tested, those who consumed game meat harvested with lead bullets had somewhat higher levels of lead in their blood than did those who consumed little or no game meat.  Additionally, higher PbB were associated with more recent consumption of game meat.

No individuals participating in the study showed PbB above 10 micrograms per deciliter, the CDC recommended threshold for individual case management, and those who consumed game meat had only 0.3 micrograms per deciliter higher PbB than did those who had not consumed game meat.  Due to a limitation in study participants, a trend toward higher PbB in children could not be confidently determined.

“Ingesting lead particles in game meat is not the most important source of lead exposure to humans,” said Dr. Stephen Pickard, M.D., epidemiologist for NDDH.  “Sources like lead-based paint are far and above more critical, but lead particles in game meat are a real source.”

Both the North Dakota and Minnesota studies contain recommendations for hunters and others who consume game meat harvested with lead-based bullets.  Among the recommendations is an advisory that children under the age of six and pregnant women should not consume game meat harvested with lead bullets.  The studies encourage liberal trimming of wound channels in game harvested with lead-based ammunition.  Also noted was that ground venison is the most likely of meats to contain lead.  Other sources recommend that the grinding surfaces of meat processing equipment be cleaned routinely, perhaps even between individual cuts of meat.  
To read the full list of recommendations from the each of the studies, visit the following websites: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/lead/index.html (for the MN DNR bullet fragmentation study) and http://www.ndhealth.gov/lead/venison/ (for the NDDH study).  (mcd)

New regulations concerning venison donations by meat processors have led many area processors to stop their donation programs.

Deer hunters would donate venison to a processor, which then gives meat away to area food banks. The state reimburses processors for the time it takes to prepare the meat.

BRIAN BASHAM/TRIBUNE Jeremy Rodewald transports a deer carcass from cold storage to the cutting block at Hoffman’s Town & Country Meat Market in Detroit Lakes.

“The regulations made it hard for us to put out a good product,” said Henry Hoffman, owner of Hoffman’s Town & Country in Detroit Lakes.” 

The new rules have come about because of concerns over lead contamination in venison.

Alice Hammer, an administrative assistant at the Becker County Food Pantry, said that over 2,000 pounds of venison was donated to the pantry last winter.

The donated venison used to come to food banks in a variety of forms such as whole cuts, stew meat and ground venison.

However, the concerns over lead contamination have led the state Department of Agriculture to prohibit donating ground venison.

Hoffman said he questions the value of providing the stew meat.

Read the rest of this entry »

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) — the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry — issued the following statement in response to study results from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released by the North Dakota Department of Health, showing no evidence that lead or “traditional” ammunition pose any health risk to those who consume harvested game meat.

Recognizing that hunters and their families may be concerned or confused by recent news reports about the study, NSSF encourages every individual who may consume harvested game meat to read the NSSF statement, fact box and CDC report made available in this news release.

The CDC report on human lead levels of hunters in North Dakota has confirmed what hunters throughout the world have known for hundreds of years, that traditional ammunition poses no health risk to people and that the call to ban lead ammunition was nothing more than a scare tactic being pushed by anti-hunting groups.

In looking at the study results, the average lead level of the hunters tested was lower than that of the average American. In other words, if you were to randomly pick someone on the street, chances are they would have a higher blood lead level than the hunters in this study.

Also of note, the lead levels of children under 6 in the study had a mean of just 0.88, less than half the national average. Children over 6 had even lower lead levels. The CDC’s level of concern for lead in children is 10.

A media advisory released by the North Dakota Department of Health cited the highest lead level reading of an adult study participant as still being lower than the CDC lead level threshold of concern for a child, and significantly lower than the CDC accepted threshold of concern for an adult. Furthermore, during a tele-press conference hosted by the ND Department of Health, officials stated they could not verify whether this adult even consumed game harvested with traditional ammunition. Correspondingly, the study only showed an insignificant 0.3 micrograms per deciliter difference between participants who ate wild game harvested with traditional ammunition and non-hunters in the non-random control group.

Also demonstrating their understanding that game harvested with traditional ammunition is safe to consume, the ND Department of Health, following the release of the CDC study results, encouraged hunters to continue donating venison to local food banks as long as processing guidelines were adhered to.

NSSF was critical of the ND Department of Health when earlier this year the Department overreacted to a non-peer reviewed study by a dermatologist who claimed to have collected packages of venison from food banks that contained lead fragments. North Dakota health officials did not conduct their own study, but merely accepted the lead-contaminated meat samples from the dermatologist. The ND Department of Health then ordered all food banks to discard their venison. Serious questions were raised in a subsequent investigative journalism piece published this summer about the scientific validity of the testing of venison samples from the ND food pantries, including concerns regarding the non-random selection of the samples.

It has since come to light that the dermatologist’s efforts were not the independent actions of a concerned hunter, as he claimed. It was an orchestrated strategy by the Peregrine Fund — an organization dedicated to eliminating the use of lead ammunition for hunting. The dermatologist serves on the Fund’s Board of Directors.

For more than a century, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely consumed game harvested using traditional hunting ammunition, and despite there being no scientific evidence that consuming the game is endangering the health of individuals, special interest groups like the Peregrine Fund and anti-hunting groups are continuing to press state legislatures around the country to support a ban on this common, safe and effective ammunition.

These politically driven groups understand that while an outright ban on hunting would be nearly impossible to achieve, dismantling the culture of hunting one step at a time is a realistic goal. Banning lead ammunition is the first step of this larger political mission. We can only hope that with the conclusive CDC results concerning the safety of traditional ammunition, legislatures across the country will listen to science and not anti-hunting radicals.

The notion by some, that any amount of lead is a “concern,” is scientifically unfounded rhetoric that runs contrary to nationwide, long-standing standards of evaluation. The NSSF is pleased that hunters and others can now comfortably continue consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition that has been properly field dressed and butchered, yet we remain unsettled that for so many months good and safe food was taken out of the mouths of the hungry as nothing more than a political gambit by special interest groups.

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