Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Air Guns Any airborne lead issues shooting pellets inside?

I shoot my air rifles in my basement, into a pellet trap. I shoot around 10-20 shots per day, maybe 60 shots per week on average. Do I have to worry about airborne lead causing health issues? I don't know if air power means the contamination probabilities are low or not.

I believe the problem would be minuscule at most.

I have always washed my hands after handling lead pellets due to the lead risk, not sure on airborne issues as I as well shoot indoors alot. It might be a velocity issue too, I mostly shoot my multi-pumps with only 2 pumps, so they are not going very fast. The springers only go 3 shot bursts here and there due to the noise in my neighborhood concerns.

Wash your hands when you're done, and be happy.

Lead exposure from shooting firearms (if memory serves) comes from primer compounds, and from the combustion gasses working against bare lead based bullets. Neither of which apply to air guns.

Scott

I'd assume a very small amount of lead dust would be created by the pellets hitting the pellet trap, but I'd think it would be tough to generate enough dust in a lifetime to be a health risk.

Wouldn't hurt to wipe down the trap every so often to eliminate any dust accumulation.

458 Lott:

I dimly recall reading a thread five or more years ago about a gun club in a southern U.S. state that had a youth indoor air rifle program. The club owned some inexpensive low-powered single-pump air rifles for this program. The club dropped the program because a state agency discovered lead particles in the atmosphere of the room that served as a air rifle range, as well as tiny lead particles scattered all over the surfaces of the room and the contents of the room. The original poster wrote that he bought two of the air rifles when the club offered to sell them to club members. He explained that when he stripped his two air rifles to thoroughly clean them, he discovered that all the internal parts and surfaces of each air rifle were covered with very fine lead particles.

I don't recall the name of the web site on which this thread was posted, but I'm tempted to say that AR or 24HCF are likely suspects.

You're fine. You will die by other risks far more likely than lead exposure.