Don't let her cut her theeth on bullets and you should be all right. All kidding aside just wash your hands good after shooting or cleaning your guns and you will not have a problem. The wacko's make more of this than needs to be.

Wash your hands and face thoroughly after shooting, and the hands after cleaning guns or handling ammo. Use cool water to keep your pores from opening and allowing residual lead into the skin. That should do it. I've been shooting for 20+ years, including lots and lots of unjacketed lead bullets, and neither my daughter nor I have had any issues with lead contamination.

I reload both metallic and shotshell and the risk of exposure is more direct during the reloading process. Essentially I don't eat when I'm doing any of the reloading, etc. steps, I usually wear an old golf glove to handle cast lead bullets and I always wash my hands after shooting, cleaning or reloading. The main risk of lead comes from the old primers and obviously lead bullets and shot. After three years I decided to have my doctor include a lead blood test in my annual physical to be sure I was taking enough precautions. The test was non-detect so use good hygiene techniques and you should be fine. I think you are smart to limit exposure of small children.

I'm a newbie to pistol shooting and I was wondering about this just the other day. Great question and great answers.

Also, is there any inhalation risk of lead and other heavy metals from the burning propellent? My local range is indoors and it sometimes feels like their ventilation is lacking.

Thanks.

Change you shirt. If she's near any shooting, put a super large T-shirt on her. (And eyes & ears) Then remove it. That should keep most of the lead off her street clothes.

Originally Posted by drummin man 627

Change you shirt. If she's near any shooting, put a super large T-shirt on her. (And eyes & ears) Then remove it. That should keep most of the lead off her street clothes.

I'm not taking her to shoot, I'm just worried about bringing it home to her. I'm already paranoid about the fact that I've made two indoor range trips in the last two weeks and walked around the house (especially areas where she crawls around and plays) in the same shoes I wore to the range. I've read that shoes gather a bunch of lead dust from indoor ranges in particular.

Oops. I missed the "8 month old" part.

Yes, the floors of indoor ranges are usually covered with lead. You might dedicate a pair of shoes "solely" () to shooting if you shoot inside. I mainly shoot outdoors and don't have this problem.

If I use an indoor range and track a bunch of lead dust out of there, is it not enough to cause problems when I wash it off my shoes (into the side yard)?

The water used to wash my range clothes ends up back in the general supply. Is that not problematic?

Sometimes having OCD sucks.


Okay, it always sucks...