jnicholes

So, on September 12, 2020, I took my first black bear. I processed it on a tarp, and got all the meat off on a tarp as well as the hide. I also rinsed the meat before grinding.

Today, I happened to be cooking some ground bear meat. This meat was consisting of ground meat from a front quarter and a hind quarter. Keep in mind I took the bear near the front quarter.

While eating, I noticed a “sandy” feeling in my mouth. My brother then spit out a big piece of something. At first we thought it was a rock, but then we concluded it was actually a piece of my bullet that hit the bear.

It’s the only explanation for how it got there in the meat.

That’s the best I can come up with. I can’t think of much else that can explain this. I know I rinsed the meat, was very clean with it, I don’t know how the heck it got in the ground meat.

It’s an interesting story. I found my bullet it looks like. At least a piece of it!

Anyone else have any idea what happened?

Jared

Oldtimr

It is not unusual for some bullets to fragment when they hit an animal. Some of those small pieces were in your meat when you ground it. Rinsing the meat would not have removed anything inside the meat, what your brother found in his meat is not all that unusual.

mrbb

its also not that uncommon in many places for critters to have bullets in them from some one else too,
the last 10 deer I shot on a local farm I managed, in a high area with trespassing and known poaching area
every deer proceeded had at least 2 other bullets in it that were under the hide and in its body, mostly 22 and 9 mm slugs, and was also very common to find bullet holes in deer's ears there too, from what I gather was close calls at night with some cheater with a spot light!
and I have also found more than my share of broadheads/blades and parts of themnm in deer over the decades, .poor hits happen and gather soem of them also are from the outlaws.
this area was so bad, local TV station did a story on things,a s folks were caught riving about in a van, and shooting deer out of peoples yards from van and if deer didn't fall fast, they left them go!
Local game warden, when I asked him, several times, all he ever did was say YEAH I KNOW< and shrug his shoulders??
Was ZERO help! even offered to take him to where some of the cheaters hunted OUT of season and had no interest!, was very frustrating situation there and eventually I had to give up trying to fix /change things there, locals won that area!

sadly there are a bunch of outlaws out there in far too many places IMO< its getting better as I think some of the old die hard are passing on now, but still some out there for sure!
and well,,
even good honest hunters can make bad shots that don;t end up being fatal one's that can leave a bullet in an animal that wasn't your's
MOST however get found when processing things, but they can be missed I am sure!
I imagine a lot of waterfowl and upland game hunters have spit out there fair share of BB's over the yrs, as some times you just miss one or two when cleaning things LOL

jnicholes

To tell you the truth, I have spit out my fair share of BB pellets from waterfowl! It can be funny sometimes.