22 bullet toxicity to ash tree
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Topic: 22 bullet toxicity to ash tree
Posted By: samchap
Subject: 22 bullet toxicity to ash tree
Date Posted: 27 August 2013 at 05:57
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I purchased some CCI Ouiet-22 for squirrel management off
my back deck. They usually dive off the deck and run up into the ash tree about 40 feet away. To sight in at that distance I propped up a 2 x 4 against the tree and stapled a dot target to it. After sighting in I went down to pick up the 2 x 4 and saw that the .22 Ouiet shot had penetrated through 2" dry spruce and could be seen stuck down in the bark. That was two years ago. This summer I noticed that some of the bark was pulling away fron the tree trunk. I began to peal it off and saw that a vertically oriented elongate area of the outer tree had been killed. Centered in this dead area were three .22 bullets mushroomed into the tree wood. This is the area in the tree that transports nutrients up the trunk and storage products down to the roots. The dead area is wide where the bullets were stuck and widens towards the ground. The damage tapers to a point at about seven feet up. I've seen the drip line below lead flashing on chimneys clear of any growth on the shingles so it definitely deters growth on shingles. One of the boat bottom paints is/used-to contain lead so it is toxic to marine organisms wanting to attach to a boat hull. As a kid I shot a raccoon out of an apple tree. Years later I was pruning that tree and found a 1/2 buckshot showing on the end of a cut off piece of limb. it must have penetrated far enough into the non-actively growing wood and not been a problem. Also there are many trees with bullet holes in them that never looked to be in troubled or sickly. It was the particular set of circumstances during the sighting in, I believe, that caused the harm to the outer growing layer in my ash tree. Perhaps if the target had been stapled on the tree and the bullets penetrated into the tree there would have been no damage. There is visible new growth moving inward on the exposed trunk area and someday it will probably be covered in again. I know that can happen because I left a 1' limb stub on an ash tree next to one of my deer stands. It took years and years but eventually the tree grew wider and eventually engulfed the stub with just a slight imperfection in the bark. ------------- samchap - Waldoboro, ME Be careful what you decide to not like. Your wife may wear one. Your son may ride one. Your daughter may bring one home. You may have to have one someday. |
Replies:
Posted By: soggyshooter
Date Posted: 28 August 2013 at 11:51
| were they copper plated .22's? |
Posted By: samchap
Date Posted: 28 August 2013 at 12:08
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No, clear lead. As I mentioned, I think the problem came
from the lead lodging in the actively growing outer layer of the tree. Perhaps if they had penetrated deeper there would have been less or no damage. I've seen a poacher's favorite apple tree that over the years was pretty well poxed up with bullet holes. The tree appeared to be doing fine still with plenty of tasty apples. ------------- samchap - Waldoboro, ME Be careful what you decide to not like. Your wife may wear one. Your son may ride one. Your daughter may bring one home. You may have to have one someday. |
Posted By: Ursus Major
Date Posted: 29 August 2013 at 07:46
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the old way to get rid of neighbors encroaching trees was to pound copper nails into the trunk about 2 foot up. in two-three years it would die. ------------- Will shoot gophers for booze |
Posted By: Kingpin
Date Posted: 31 August 2013 at 16:07
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As it stands Sam, the EPA has found that lead is deadly poisonous. They have in the past claimed that the lead in bullets is what kills people. They sure are smart, being a Federal Organization...........Kingpin ------------- There are times when a normal man must, spit in his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. |
Posted By: CB900F
Date Posted: 31 August 2013 at 17:34
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Sam; I have a 3-4" diameter green ash sapling my wife thinks is too close to the house. It's about 18' tall. You want it, it's yours. Come to MYGAWDS 2014 & I'll have it ready for you. 900F ------------- Birth certificate!? He don't need no steenkink birth certificate!! |
Posted By: jsgbearpaws1
Date Posted: 01 September 2013 at 04:34
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I have some purple ash borers that want your tree! I can send them free of charge!
------------- ...oh yeah! thats gonna hurt! |
Posted By: samchap
Date Posted: 01 September 2013 at 06:32
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Well....if the tree does die I am thinking of having it
cut up into musical instrument stock. 1000 years from now someone will analyze a sliver of one of those few really priceless sweet sounding instruments and declare that it is the trace amounts of Pb infused into the cellular structure of the wood that imparts the fine sounding qualities to the instruments made of it. They'll start an industry soaking wood in lead solutions trying to duplicate it but not quite attaining perfection. Then some latter day Paul Harvey will discover this posting and come up with his version of " And that's the rest of the story." about some village idiot shooting poisionous lead bullets into trees off his back deck. Good God! If the EPA ever finds out about this I'm done for. ------------- samchap - Waldoboro, ME Be careful what you decide to not like. Your wife may wear one. Your son may ride one. Your daughter may bring one home. You may have to have one someday. |
Posted By: Ursus Major
Date Posted: 01 September 2013 at 09:11
  ------------- Will shoot gophers for booze |
Posted By: Irish Bird Dog
Date Posted: 02 September 2013 at 17:14
They just did the minute that you hit SEND!    Nice report/analysis on the Pb and cambia layer of the ash tree. Particularly liked the delivery system/method you used to inject the Pb into the tree....and the ingenious way you contrived to have the Pb engage/settle at/in the "feeding" layer of sapwood as host to the Pb injection.  ------------- Irish Bird Dog NRA Life/Endowment 2nd Amendment Supporter |
samchap wrote:Posted By: samchap
Date Posted: 03 September 2013 at 15:19
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IBD, do you know how vulcanized rubber was discovered?
"Ingenious?" "Contrived?" Nope. It was a dumb a88 slotted rotating fastener - up. Like me placing the 2 x 4 against the tree. Both the result of unintended consequences. I'm the kid who emptied his mother's perfume bottle , filled it with BP from a powder hornfound hidden behind boards in the corn chamber, made a fuse from toilet paper and bp and lives the rest of his life with a chunk of perfume bottle glass behind the corner of his nose. The unintended consequence in that was the desire to play with bp like that again vanished. ------------- samchap - Waldoboro, ME Be careful what you decide to not like. Your wife may wear one. Your son may ride one. Your daughter may bring one home. You may have to have one someday. |
Posted By: Ursus Major
Date Posted: 04 September 2013 at 01:52
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but you should smell good??? ------------- Will shoot gophers for booze |
Posted By: samchap
Date Posted: 04 September 2013 at 05:40
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Smell good? I don't know about that but every once in a
while during a vigorous nose blowing event something sharp seems to be clicking into the bone in there. Every time that happens a vivid picture of a weathered apple box with that perfume bottle laying on the bottom as The match approaches the fuse comes to mind. Fuse to bang = 0. One of the few smart things I have ever done in life was to never do that again. ------------- samchap - Waldoboro, ME Be careful what you decide to not like. Your wife may wear one. Your son may ride one. Your daughter may bring one home. You may have to have one someday. |