Lead on your hands

[AnEnemyAnemone]

I'm curious what you folks do about leaded fingers. I'm used to washing my hands when I'm done at the range, but I'm not used to handling lead directly... at least not this much. It's weird having lead-darkened fingers for an hour or two while shooting. Anyone do anything about it while shooting, or do you just accept it as part of pellet gunning and wash up afterwards?

 

[Roamin Greco 1]

I'm curious what you folks do about leaded fingers. I'm used to washing my hands when I'm done at the range, but I'm not used to handling lead directly... at least not this much. It's weird having lead-darkened fingers for an hour or two while shooting. Anyone do anything about it while shooting, or do you just accept it as part of pellet gunning and wash up afterwards?

Lead pellets are often coated with a graphite-like lubricant that prevents the lead from turning white. This is likely what is making your fingers dark, although some lead probably rubs off too. I don't eat or drink while I'm shooting (I don't smoke, but wouldn't do that either). If I have any cuts on my fingers they would be bandaged. Then, when finished, I just wash my hands with cold water (to keep my skin pores closed) with lots of soap a couple of times. Lead is not harmful unless it is ingested, breathed, or somehow gets into your body. Also, if shooting indoors I don't shoot into a metal pellet trap because at high velocity, the pellets may hit the metal trap, disintegrate, and then go into the air. I use a rubber mulch pellet trap in my basement range, it's quiet and can absorb thousands of pellets.

 

[AnEnemyAnemone]

Good point, I forgot about the graphite. That must be what I'm seeing. I've certainly never gotten such dirty-looking fingers from 60/40 lead solder!

 

[Roamin Greco 1]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying it IS graphite, just that it is LIKE graphite (although it may be).

 

[Chief 10-Beers]

George Carlin had the best advice on Germs. lol

 

[Jaabaa]

I worked on lead Telco cables for most of my life. It's those floating things and dusty particles we get ingested. Our requirements was similar to asbestos. With that said, I've kept those little disposable hand wipes with me for at least...6 years since I've retired.
Keep out of mouth and eyes. For what we do shooting a few hundred rounds in a sitting is nothing to worry about. Safety, I finally got a dedicated pair of Safety glasses just for shooting.

 

[Ezana4CE]

I load mags wearing at least one glove usually. Afield I'll handle the projectiles with my bare hands if I have to. When swaging, I handle more lead than anything else that I do. I wear at least one nitrile glove on the hand that I grab the projectiles with. Then I turn the disposable glove(s) inside out and wash my hands when I'm done.

 

[MountainSportAirguns]

I would imagine smoking and drinking is more harmful than handling lead pellets. Most all pellets/slugs these days have a coating that helps keep them from oxidizing and gives them more of a shelf life.

 

[Danman]

I've never noticed any lead on my hands from shooting sessions....I don’t eat ever while shooting though.
When cleaning my steel pellet trap faced with plywood the pellets are definitely very broken up, right up to fine dust...should probably wear a mask for that.
Cleaned some FX slugs recently, and there was tons of lead on my hands, but it was bigger flakes, and it came off with water/soap, no problem. I remember as a kid shooting springers with my cousin....he would stick the next pellet to be shot between his teeth while firing the first....I got him scared enough about lead poisoning that he stopped doing that!

 

[Dogowski]

I'm curious what you folks do about leaded fingers. I'm used to washing my hands when I'm done at the range, but I'm not used to handling lead directly... at least not this much. It's weird having lead-darkened fingers for an hour or two while shooting. Anyone do anything about it while shooting, or do you just accept it as part of pellet gunning and wash up afterwards?

I keep wipes i use on my hands after every reloading mags during shooting sessions. After i shoot a few hundred rounds or when im finished i go in and use dawn dishwashing liquid for a final scrub up. I never eat during shooting sessions so no danger of ingesting any lead there. I always have to shoot with my eyeglasses on so that keeps lead out of my eyes as well and i have to have them on to see anything anyway whether hunting or doing target work.

 

[AnEnemyAnemone]

lead Telco cables

Ok, I knew about leaded glass windows, lead roofs, and the origin of the word plumbing, lead water pipes. But I never knew we had lead-clad telecom lines.

 

[Jaabaa]

I would imagine smoking and drinking is more harmful than handling lead pellets. Most all pellets/slugs these days have a coating that helps keep them from oxidizing and gives them more of a shelf life.

Absolutely

 

[Jaabaa]

Ok, I knew about leaded glass windows, lead roofs, and the origin of the word plumbing, lead water pipes. But I never knew we had lead-clad telecom lines.

Next time your driving through a neighborhood and you see a nickle colored sheath cable instead of a black plastic one. That's lead sheathed cable. It's been around since the early 1900s
We have only used plastic insulated cables since the late 1960s. It also had paper insulation. So if a small .177 shot your cable and it rained...well you where working awhile to get that fixed.

 

[Ezana4CE]

Next time your driving through a neighborhood and you see a nickle colored sheath cable instead of a black plastic one. That's lead sheathed cable. It's been around since the early 1900s
We have only used plastic insulated cables since the late 1960s. It also had paper insulation. So if a small .177 shot your cable and it rained...well you where working awhile to get that fixed.

@Jaabaa So while working on these, linemen avoiding exposure to lead. But if a kid shoots it with a BB gun then it rains, the neighborhood is assed out? Someone should make a YouTube video highlighting that point to inform people that like to shoot birds off of wires that serve residential area. I imagine some of these folks would be the same ones to complain about the linemen taking too long to restore their power after about 3 hours.

 

[Ezana4CE]

Next time your driving through a neighborhood and you see a nickle colored sheath cable instead of a black plastic one. That's lead sheathed cable. It's been around since the early 1900s
We have only used plastic insulated cables since the late 1960s. It also had paper insulation. So if a small .177 shot your cable and it rained...well you where working awhile to get that fixed.

@Jaabaa So while working on these, linemen avoiding exposure to lead. But if a kid shoots it with a BB gun then it rains, the neighborhood is assed out? Someone should make a YouTube video highlighting that point to inform people that like to shoot birds off of wires that serve residential area. I imagine some of these folks would be the same ones to complain about the linemen taking too long to restore their power after about 3 hours.

 

[duchunter007]

As someone who use to shoot trap competitively and reload all of my shot shells, I use to not worry to much about lead posioning, until a close friend was not felling well and went to the doctor, he found out after a lot of testing that he had lead posioning, we both averaged 40,000 plus rounds of trap a year and he probably had more than that.
Six years ago, when I had a blood test done for my yearly check-up, I asked the doctor to check for lead in my system. I had no trace of lead after explaining all the reloading I had done. Since this happened to my buddy, I now fill the shot hopper wearing a mask, and I have always washed my hands, but I do that more thoroughly and with Hygenall LeadOff soap. However, there is a lot more lead involved in handling shotgun ammo and reloading. For the pellets I do wash my hands and try and keep them cleaned off the best I can.

 

[Solo1]

Just wash your hands you will be good.

 

[Jaabaa]

@Jaabaa So while working on these, linemen avoiding exposure to lead. But if a kid shoots it with a BB gun then it rains, the neighborhood is assed out? Someone should make a YouTube video highlighting that point to inform people that like to shoot birds off of wires that serve residential area. I imagine some of these folks would be the same ones to complain about the linemen taking too long to restore their power after about 3 hours.

Your correct. Sometimes hundreds of lines go down. We wore those blue plastic disposable gloves when working on that or in a boiler room with that old abestoes wrap. My of my fixes where after New years and July 4th some idiot goes outside and shoots his shotgun in the air at Midnight in the Dark. Paid for my house I shouldn't complain

 

[Jaabaa]

Well, it's good we talk safely once in awhile.
Any time this is talk about this, I think of growing up in the 60s licking the window sill I'm still living

 

[Solo1]

Don’t know how many times i spit shot out at the supper table or bit sinkers on fishing line