On opening day in Tennessee, which was the 25th of September, I killed two does. When I was skinning the bigger doe, I found No. 6 shot pellets in her hide. I wasn't worried about it since I figured that for one, I had grown up eating rabbits and squirrels that I'd taken with a shotgun and I had bitten down on more than one pellet in my lifetime. I also didn't think that a number 6 load would have penetrated the meat. Well, I was wrong. We grilled the first of the steaks from that doe last night and in one package of steaks I found four shotgun shell pellets the hard way. What would you do if this were you? Would you throw it away or would you keep it and chew carefully? I really hate to waste all of that meat. I know one thing I'd like to do and that is find the moron who shot at a deer with shotgun loaded with small game shot.
I'd still eat it...but then again, I'd eat most anything. Hopefully the fool didn't put more than one shell in it. I always catch a little shot eating pheasant and quail and the steel stuff in ducks. It, too,shall pass if you know what I mean. Just watch your pearly whites!
Ya' boy we ate a ton of the stuff growing up in rappits skurrerls and phasents it ain't affectin us none.
Just my 2 cents... but there is a big difference in "killed" versus "wounded" here, I think. Lead shot that kills an animal is not absorbed into the meat -- the animal is dead and the biological process of absorption stops immediately at death. However, lead shot that wounds an animal and embeds in the tissue DOES leach into the meat over time as the body's systems attack it and surrounds it with new tissue. Depending on how old the wound was, and if it was lead shot or not, I probably wouldn't eat the meat. I don't mess around with lead since even a couple PPM is enough to cause problems. Maybe I'm just a health freak, though.
