Lead shot in Black Bear meat

[nhn2a]

Has anyone found lead shot in their bear meat before? I killed my first black bear in November here in NC and have been slowly working my way through all the meat since then. I was making a roast and found it riddled with lead shot as I was trimming the fat off. Havent found shot in any of the other meat packages so far so it looks like it took a shotgun shell at close range at some point in its life. The hide had no sign of a recent shot. I've found shot before in birds but never in my big game meat. Unfortunately this roast ended up in the trash. I tried to trim it away but after an hour I was still finding shot all throughout the meat. I'm assuming this bear either got into something it was supposed to or it startled a hunter while they were dove, turkey, or rabbit hunting as bears around here are normally pretty skittish so you dont need to shoot at them to get them to run off.

 

[ScottP]

I helped a friend butcher a mule deer that had an air rifle pellet in one of the HQ pieces. Then when I ran a bunch of that deer through the grinder, there was a small collection of 7-1/2 shot in the auger when I was done. Because I feed this to my family, I took the whole lot of wrapped packages from that deer over to my local wildlife rehab center and they ran it through their x-ray. No more lead, but that was weird.

 

[PrairieHunter]

May have been the bear in uncle buck?

 

[NEWHunter]

My Dad shot an older bear here in WI that had quite a bit of birdshot in one of the roasts. Didn’t notice until we started eating it and just about every bite had shot in it. Unfortunately had to junk that roast. I shot one that had been hit by a slug. Another bear my Dad shot had a few pellets just under the hide - had the butcher run it through the detector and the meat was good.

Folks here (unfortunately) will shoot them when they are after bird feeders.

 

[alwayshunting]

My dad shot a buck two years ago that had 30-40 number 6 shot in the backstrap. Was pretty frustrating not only picking through it but also thinking how it got there.

 

[scubohuntr]

May have been the bear in uncle buck?

I believe that was The Great Outdoors, actually.

 

[PrairieHunter]

I believe that was The Great Outdoors, actually.

You are absolutely correct.

 

[JTHOMP]

I've heard of multiple old stories (early to mid 90s) of people killing bear in the southeast that were full of buckshot and small game loads. I'd say your assumption is right of someone getting fed up with it, but didn't want to kill it for legal reasons or someone was scared and trigger happy in the woods.

 

[PrairieHunter]

 

[DRS]

Has anyone found lead shot in their bear meat before? I killed my first black bear in November here in NC and have been slowly working my way through all the meat since then. I was making a roast and found it riddled with lead shot as I was trimming the fat off. Havent found shot in any of the other meat packages so far so it looks like it took a shotgun shell at close range at some point in its life. The hide had no sign of a recent shot. I've found shot before in birds but never in my big game meat. Unfortunately this roast ended up in the trash. I tried to trim it away but after an hour I was still finding shot all throughout the meat. I'm assuming this bear either got into something it was supposed to or it startled a hunter while they were dove, turkey, or rabbit hunting as bears around here are normally pretty skittish so you dont need to shoot at them to get them to run off.

If I may ask, what part of NC did you kill the bear?

 

[nhn2a]

If I may ask, what part of NC did you kill the bear?

In Washington county towards the coast.

 

[DRS]

OK, the reason I asked is because a few years ago my wife and I heard a presentation by the USFW supervisor at Pocosin refuge where she stated that they used birdshot to run the bears away from their baited traps around Pungo lake where they were catching waterfowl for tagging.