by Greg Basky, Canadian Light Source

https://phys.org/news/2022-08-exposure-bullets-big-game.html

The lead in some bullets used for hunting deer, moose, and elk is toxic to the humans who eat the harvested meat and to scavenger animals that feast on remains left in the field.

A team of researchers from the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) and the College of Medicine at USask has for the first time used synchrotron imaging to study both the size and spread of bullet fragments in big game shot by hunters. Their findings were published today inPLOS ONE.

Like a scene right out of the hit television series CSI, the research team fired bullets into blocks of ballistic gelatin—the same material used bylaw enforcement agenciesfor ballistic testing—and examined the resulting fragments using…