Finished homemade lead-cast .223-caliber bullets in the home of gun enthusiast John Alexander in Redmond, Ore., Aug. 1, 2018.

Here’s a breakdown. Lead The first bullets were pure-lead round balls, like these still made by Speer. The first rifle bullets were round, pure-lead balls, wrapped in a cloth patch.

By John Lott , Fox News Published March 16, 2012 1:09pm EDT| Updated May 7, 2015 12:38am EDT Comments ...

Environmentalists said there is ample evidence that lead ammunition is poisoning condors. When biologists captured the birds in the 1980s and began a captive-breeding program to save them from ...

Lead is so damaging because it mimics calcium, an ion with essential roles everywhere in the body from bones to nerve cells. (It’s especially dangerous for children with developing brains, which ...

The condors’ best friend might end up being the soaring cost of gasoline. Hunters’ primary objection to non-lead ammunition is its cost -- about $20 more a box than similar-quality lead.

At longer ranges, the lead bullets make an impact but fragment out before hitting any vitals and basically poisoning the animal to death instead of delivering a swifter kill.