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Does anyone know if spent brass, if ingested, will harm cattle?

We go to a farm and shoot regularly. In the last 4 months, they have had 3 cows die. We use a proper backstop, so it is not stray bullets.

It may not be the brass, it may just be nature. The farm is not lived at, so they find them when they are mostly bones.

I pick up 90%+ of my brass (including .22).

I want to know if I should take a metal detector and get 99.9%.

Thanks.

texasag

I sure hope not, as our target range is also our cow pasture. We've fired hundreds (thousands?) of rounds out there and probably have picked up 95% of the brass. Just can't find 'em all.

If the brass were causing problems for the cattle, then they would exhibit symptoms LONG before they died. If they are just "up and dying" then I would seriously doubt it's metal ingestion.

I wish I could answer your question better than that. I'll be watching this thread for someone who is more knowledgeable that I.

Unfortunately, there is a condition that Vets call "hardware disease". It happens when a foreign object is ingested and interferes with the digestive tract resulting in the inability to digest food. This malady usually only rears its ugly head during heavy drought conditions and/or when there is severe over grazing.

I was told once, by someone who who has cattle, that brass in shot guns shells wasn't an issue due to the strong acids in their, stomach(s). Plastic, however, is another story. It can cause damage. Maybe someone can verify this.

I've always heard shotguns shells can be dangerous but noy brass cases.

IMHO the deaths were probably caused by " nature" due to drought conditions. In my earlier years as a state meat inspector I've seen all kind of "items" in cows stomachs, from barbed wire, nails, bailing twine, even glass.

The only hardware disease I remember was a cow had a nail pucture the stomach and rubbed against the lining of the heart and inflamed it. It did not kill the animal, the packing house did that.

I think it would be really unlikely that your brass did them in ... DD