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From: d7stfax@dtek.chalmers.se (Stefan Axelsson)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Lead bullets at ranges (was Re: H&K P7 Question)
Message-ID: <34655@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 19 May 91 16:53:07 GMT
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Organization: Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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In <34643@mimsy.umd.edu> boardman%cancer.unm.edu@ariel.unm.edu writes:

##Interesting, too.  I spoke with a civil engineer who designed the
##ventilation system for an indoor range in Minnesota who indicated to me
##that most of the particulate lead in the air of a range comes from the
#      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
##actual impact of the bullet on the target or backstop, not from the firing
# ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
##process.  My guess, then, would be that even FMJ's would shed enough jacket
# ^^^^^^^

##--Eric Heine

#	This is the exact opposite of what I read recently somewhere (I can't
#  cite the source - I read too many gun mags ;^)), which stated that almost
#  all the lead exposure in indoor ranges was due to the Lead Styphnate used
#  in primers.  Does anyone know what the facts really are????????

I felt compelled to include my $0.02. Having virtually no experience
with fire arms I can't comment on whether the lead comes from the
primer, or bullet impact. I can however do so in the case of air
rifles. If you have seen a high speed photo of an air rifle pellet
impacting you would be, at least I was, surprised by the amount of
molten lead that shoots backwards from the pellet in a thin spray,
when the pellet hits the backstand. OK there is a considerable
difference between an all lead pellet hitting a steel surface, loosing
some 4/5:ths of its length, and a bullet from a fire arm dissipating
its energy in sand or whatever, I grant that.

The Swedish regulations however say that if you are firing air rifles
in an indoor range you must provide ventilation that extracts the air
at the target stand. Of course no one follows those regulations, but
still.

Always taking the chance to speculate :-) I wouldn't think there would
be much lead deposited from a jacketed bullet striking a medium
designed to not deform the bullet. I can't see that happen when the
bullet travels down the bore either. But when the crime lab guys here
in Sweden test fired some thousand .357 magnums taken in by the police
as part of the investigation in to the murder of our prime minister
Olof Palme in 1986, they had to rotate the lab technicians because of
increase levels of lead in their blood. I'd bet on the primers.

Now if anyone really knows... :-)

P.S. You wouldn't know where I could get into IPSC style shooting here
in Sweden would you. D.S.
--
Stefan Axelsson,			Chalmers University of Technology,
d7stfax@dtek.chalmers.se		Sweden