[surg_res]

Odd question for a curious audience. Does anyone have any first-hand knowledge of toxic or even detectable levels of lead in ground water, surface water, or other soil products produced in or around moderately utilized gun ranges?

I'm looking to create a shooting lane at my farm, really the only safe spot, offering 300 yards with 50-60ft hillside backdrop. Caveat is that there is a small pond running through a draw between the potential shooting station and the wooded hillside back-stop.

As a physician here's what I do know. Lead is not readily leeched into water unless it is very warm--i.e. plumb means lead and as we all know it was used extensively in the past for plumbing; however, life expectancy was also 45 around 1900.

I have had a patient in the past who was filled with bird shot in his back (his chest x-ray looked like a silhouette filled with #7.5 shot). Working him up for anemia, I was certain he would have lead poisoning, but it was undetectable in his blood. He was not bright, but unable to declare causation under the circumstances.

Our local gun range "mines" the lead out of its berms every so many years, but i think this is mostly for scrap value, rather than environmental concerns.

Waterfowl poisoning is from direct consumption of lead pellets by the birds, not from lead levels in the surface water as many think.

Most human 'poisoning' is from consumption of lead paint chips, mostly children, living in old houses. The chips flake off the walls and taste sweet. Since organic lead compounds were removed from fuel, lead poisoning has become much less common.

So key question is about lead in the soil leeching 20-30 yards forward into the pond and affecting my livestock / fish, etc. Let me know your experience on the subject.