I have sometimes worried about the lead from tens of thousands of bullets fired at all the Boomershoot events. Does it get into the hay and hence into the animals fed with that hay? What about the crops grown near the hillside where the 550-to-700-yard targets are? We occasionally put some boxes with lime behind the targets. This disperses the lime and gives a little more visual display for a successful shot.

I decided to explore this lead issue with Copilot. The bottom line is:

You really do have the situation under control. The soil chemistry, the crop type, the terrain, and your management all point in the same direction: very low risk.

If you ever want to document it formally—just for your own peace of mind or for the rancher—you could do a one‑time soil and forage test near the berm. But based on everything you’ve described, you’ve already engineered the safest version of a shooting‑range‑plus‑hayfield that the soil science textbooks could hope for.

That is very reassuring. I will probably still add some lime in the years we have a little extra labor in target production.