Just cut around it when it is butchered and your good.
Charlie, It would be very nice if that were true, believe me when I say it. Unfortunately back in 08-09 the MN DNR did a study where they they shot sheep and deer carcasses with a variety of common rifle bullets and a shotgun slug and then x-rayed them and found this isn't true. If you like to read, the summery of their findings is here.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/lead/short-summary.htmlHere's a choice quote.
"The ballistic tip bullet (rapid expansion) had the highest fragmentation rate, with an average of 141 fragments per carcass and an average maximum distance of 11 inches from the wound channel. In one carcass, a fragment was found 14 inches from the exit wound."
What convinced me was the images they had in the preliminary report. The only place I have been able to find them since is in this online slideshow.
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/lead/index.htm The images I found most convincing were slides 8 and 13.
Here is the image from slide 13.
Of course, bullet placement, bullet design, muzzle velocity all play a huge role but they didn't go that in depth. I wish they would have tested a hard cast bullet. I doubt they would leave any particles in most situations, unless you had a poorly made bullet.
The other part of this discussion, is how harmful is lead, specifically how harmful is it in small children? I don't think we will ever have a well controlled study to tell us (can you imagine asking a mother if you could enroll her child in a study to test the effects of small levels of lead exposure?) but it is well understood that our body (which uses and benefits from many elements at trace amounts) has no use for lead and that high levels are definitely a big problem. In the end, given that there are viable alternatives, the risk wasn't worth for me.
