Gutpile Care, yes there is such a thing.

[Goshawk]

Greetings,
I've a request of sorts to my fellow hunters. When you gut your big game animal this fall, don't leave it out in the open on a stump, road, or rock for every bird in the area to see and feed on.  A buddy lost his Redtailed Hawk last season to lead poisoning. It's more common than you'd think.  A solid hit with lead bullets leave fragments in the lungs, liver and other organs that birds of prey will eat.  Once eaten the bird's body saves the bits of lead and uses them in the gizzard as grinding stones to help process other meals.  The gizzard can't tell the difference between small rock particles and lead particles. Since the lead is not passed quickly like it would for a coyote, it's being slowly ground down and dissolved then kills the birds. Hawks, owls, falcons, and eagle populations are all taking a hit between windmills and poisons, so cut them a break and just tuck those guts under a bush, or cover them with some dirt so they won't be seen from the air.  Killing off Nature's greatest rodent killers doesn't do anyone any good.  Thanks for reading.

[brokentrail]

Can I assume we should do the same with a gutless method leftovers and just cover it so it can't be seen from the air?

[dreadi]

How common or frequent does it happen?


Black Hammer Arms
www.blackhammerarms.com
The Guy On HuntWA Selling Suppressors
@blackhammerarms

[teanawayslayer]

What’s that like 1 in 10,000 a bird will eat a gut pile and die. What does it matter where the pile is. Birds find dead animals plain and simple. 

[Goshawk]

Can I assume we should do the same with a gutless method leftovers and just cover it so it can't be seen from the air?

Unless you're shooting copper or archery, then yes.

[Goshawk]

How common or frequent does it happen?
Black Hammer Arms
www.blackhammerarms.com
The Guy On HuntWA Selling Suppressors
@blackhammerarms

If a bird of prey eats just a few lead particles, they will die. The lead fragments left in the lungs and liver of deer and elk are small, but when the bird only weighs a pound or two it's like you eating a walnut size chuck of lead. 

[Goshawk]

What’s that like 1 in 10,000 a bird will eat a gut pile and die. What does it matter where the pile is. Birds find dead animals plain and simple. 

If that gut pile has lead buckshot, or lead fragments from the mushrooming bullet it's going to be enough to do neurological damage and kill it.  It's not that the bird eats something dead, it's eating lead containing tissue that does them in. Remember, they won't pass the fragments since the gizzard is dissolving and absorbing ever sliver of lead they eat, whereas the coyote just passes it out the next day.  Also remember eagles, falcons, and all hawks have no sense of smell. They hunt by sight. If you just cover it, or push it under some brush you're good to go. Odds are the coyotes will have it cleaned up in one or two nights.

[RobinHoodlum]

Goshawk - I don't disagree with anything you're saying about lead poisoning in raptors (or other critters for that matter). It's why lead ammo is partially to fully banned in many states. And, for me, I've found that copper bullets perform just as well as lead and am 100% lead free for big game. I'm not evangelistic about it or anything. Steel shot is another story and I still use lead for upland birds.

I have had some exposure to falconry and I'm trying to understand how your buddy's RT got poisoned? Did he allow it to feed on a carcass? Did the bird jailbreak on him and he didn't observe his situation? Did he salvage meat from a carcass and use it for hawk food? Actively hunting hawks are under observation 99% of the time by the falconer so I'm having a hard time comprehending this scenario. Not being a wise guy, just trying to understand!

[mikey549]

My story from many years ago from the book of amazing *censored*. A buddy and I killed a bull a few yards away from the headwaters of the South Toutle. Maybe three feet wide and a foot and a half deep. If you don’t know, if one Raven witnesses they all know. We buried the heart at the bottom and piled rocks on top of it. The next morning there was a giant Golden Eagle on the rib cage and several Ravens waiting for their chance. The heart buried on the bottom of the South Toutle looked as if it had been shot with buckshot 2 or 3 times. Good luck hiding anything from those birds. From that same book, witnessing a Golden Eagle trying to kill a basket buck whitetail near Asotin some years ago. You not hide *censored* from the birds!

[highcountry_hunter]

This past weekend I saw where some guys had shot a buck on a hillside, drug it down the hill to a closed road then drug it down the road to their pickup. They then loaded it into the pickup whole and went a mile or 2 down the road to a wide spot, unloaded the deer and gutted it.
This is just my best estimate judging by tracks in the snow. The only thing I can figure is they drove it down the road to get phone service and did a YouTube search of how to gut a deer

[Goshawk]

Goshawk - I don't disagree with anything you're saying about lead poisoning in raptors (or other critters for that matter). It's why lead ammo is partially to fully banned in many states. And, for me, I've found that copper bullets perform just as well as lead and am 100% lead free for big game. I'm not evangelistic about it or anything. Steel shot is another story and I still use lead for upland birds.

I have had some exposure to falconry and I'm trying to understand how your buddy's RT got poisoned? Did he allow it to feed on a carcass? Did the bird jailbreak on him and he didn't observe his situation? Did he salvage meat from a carcass and use it for hawk food? Actively hunting hawks are under observation 99% of the time by the falconer so I'm having a hard time comprehending this scenario. Not being a wise guy, just trying to understand!

Absolutely no offence taken. Ask away. The RTH was a big hen. It was trapped and jessed up a week after late buck was over in Lewis County.  The bird trained well at first, but then over the next two weeks started having balance issues, loss of apatite, and runny mutes.  She was taken to a vet, for examination.  The bird continued to go downhill and died after the fourth week. When the blood work finally arrived, it showed high levels of lead. The autopsy found lead and copper flakes in the gizzard of the bird.  Per the vet, it's a much more common occurrence than I had considered. My old Ruger M77 prints the 139gr Barns LRX bullets better than any Speers I've ever loaded, so for me it's a no brainer. More accurate, Non Toxic, better terminal performance in the game.

I too changed over to copper bullets for my 270 after reading a study several years ago about lead poisoning in human children who ate wild game that was taken with lead bullets, vs children who's parents were harvesting deer with archery or copper bullets.  The distance the lead flakes can travel from the entrance wound was amazing to me, since I always assumed it would only be around the wound channel. It turns out, the lead fragments from a lung or neck shot can enter the blood stream, then get lodged in a rear quarter muscles.

https://cdphe.colorado.gov/lead-health/lead-in-wild-harvested-game
https://ceet.upenn.edu/2025/04/22/a-hidden-danger-in-donated-game-meat-why-lead-contaminated-meat-demands-our-attention/
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(17)31224-X/abstract