Know your target and beyond: How hunters can continue to lead the way in conservation

On May 10th, 2024, representatives from the North American Non-lead Partnership, The Peregrine Fund, and Sporting Lead-Free gave a compelling pitch to Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff. Hunters themselves made the case for putting a copper round in the rifle when hunting in the field instead of lead. While their logic felt obvious, I hate to say I had not given it much thought before that day.

I was tasked with ensuring that Colorado Parks and Wildlife met its obligations under House Bill 23-1036, the Nontoxic Bullet Replacement Hunting Program. As part of this legislation, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is required to provide range days to demonstrate the efficacy of non-lead ammunition. I reserved the ranges, ordered lunch, and arranged with our Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) partners, but I still had not yet made the switch myself.

So, why not? I think my reasons were understandable, maybe even relatable to a lot of hunters: I used what I learned with and what I always use; I thought non-lead ammo wasn’t as common or as cheap as lead; and what is the actual harm anyway?

The Experts Fill Me In

Neil Thagard, with The Peregrine Fund, has heard all of these same barriers many times. He showed me a spreadsheet of local stores he had visited the previous day. It included lead ammo alongside a variety of available non-lead (copper) alternatives. The prices were comparable, there was a similar selection of caliber and weight. Neil started telling me about ballistics and he told me that the bottom line is that for what hunters are trying to accomplish, the efficient and effective killing of the targeted game animal, there was no meaningful difference in price or availability.

Chris Parish, also with The Peregrine Fund and the co-founder of the North American Non-lead Partnership, recounted his time with Arizona Game and Fish studying the California Condor, an endangered species. This species is so endangered almost every individual is tracked and monitored. They could actually look at causes of mortality for the entire population and found lead poisoning was a significant factor. They were able to narrow down where that lead was coming from as largely being from gut piles left in the field by hunters. Arizona Fish and Game then began a program where they encouraged and incentivized hunters in a California Condor Recovery Area to either use non-lead ammo or remove the gut piles from the field. They saw high levels of cooperation and they saw benefits to the condor. While we don’t have condors in Colorado, we do have struggling golden eagles and other species susceptible to lead exposure.

Bryan Bedrosian is a raptor biologist and the co-founder and director of Sporting Lead-Free out of Wyoming. Over the years, he has collected some pretty compelling data showing how lead builds up in the bloodstream of raptors and other scavenging birds and how lead levels in these animals spike annually following the fall hunting seasons. Bryan and his organization are also after the hearts and minds of anglers to get them to use non-lead tackle (Did you know a lot of wire for fly tying contains lead? I did not.).

Seeing is Believing

In the afternoon we went on the range. Chris shot a 6.5 CM Hornady lead round (129 gr) and a 6.5 CM Hornady copper round (120 gr) each into a water barrel and ballistic gel. We recovered the spent rounds and the lead bullet lost 30% of its weight in the form of an uncountable amount of tiny fragments. The copper round maintained 99% of its starting weight. From the ballistic gel we could see a clear path both bullets took. The lead round split up and fragmented, which is good for causing tissue damage but all those tiny pieces of lead were spread through the gel, well beyond the bullet’s path. In an animal these fragments would be in the meat, the organs, the hide. The copper round’s path was equally as large and damaging as the lead’s but no stray fragments were embedded in the gel. In other words, had this been meat it would have been free of extra pieces of metal, especially pieces of toxic metal. It’s not just scavengers that end up eating this lead, and lead is toxic to everyone.

Seeing is absolutely believing, and that is really all it took for me. Leland Brown, also with NANP, observed that of the four firearms safety rules, one is that every shooter should “know their target and beyond.” Most of us consider that to mean knowing what we are shooting at (elk vs moose, doe vs buck) but also what is behind that animal, what is next to it, is there a safe backstop. Leland challenged us to consider that “beyond” our target meant taking responsibility for the bullet from the time we pull the trigger to the time it hits the target…and after. What unintended harm does that bullet cause beyond?

The Next Evolution in Hunting

Like any hunter, I am also a conservationist. I hunt for many reasons but primarily to experience the natural world and the wildlife within it in a unique and connected way. When I harvest an animal, I do it with intention and I care about the environment from which it came. I want to take care of the habitats I spend time in and harvest food from. So for me, that will mean making a different decision when I load a round into the chamber of my rifle this fall. It also means helping to spread awareness on this topic and encouraging other hunters to consider what NGOs such as NANP and Sporting Lead-Free have to tell us.

Just to be clear, this isn’t about a mandate—no one I spoke with is interested in that—and it isn’t about shame, blame, or judgment. It is about information and continuing a long tradition of hunters protecting and conserving wildlife and their habitats. Our tools have evolved over the years, and we have along with them. To me, this is just another step in a long journey of hunters protecting landscapes for everyone to enjoy now and into the future.

You’re Invited!
If you want to see for yourself and hear from these experts, please consider joining us at the next public range day at Cameo Shooting Complex on June 8, 2024, at 9 a.m. For more information, contact kristin.cannon@state.co.us.

Written by Kristin Cannon. Kristin is the Northeast Region Deputy Regional Manager for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife.