No Hal, the lead pellets will work their way downward through the looser surface soil particles until they hit the harder clay layer, in soils that have such strata. We do here. Wind on the surface, rainfall impact, freezing and thawing, the movement of machines and equipment on the surface, foot traffic ....... all will cause slight agitation of the surface particles allowing the much denser lead to sink. Even the workings of earthworms through the subsurface layer will hasten the downward movement of lead. Some types of soil tillage in agricultural lands will effect the same, especially discing. The one tillage operation that would return lead to the surface would be bottom plowing, which reverses the soil profile and brings up a deeper layer of soil to the surface. However, rainfall and traffic soon causes the same previous profile to return, and the pellets have worked their any back down again.
I would be willing to bet that, in most soils, free falling lead pellets will actually bury themselves slightly beneath the surface upon impact with the bare soil. Not so where there is a ground cover.
I have witnessed the extraordinary number of predators that feed on dove carcasses in Córdoba. With the tens of thousands of doves that are eaten there every night, killed by lead pellets, there shouldn't be a scavenging predator left, that is if the lead pellets they ingest are so deadly to raptors, reptiles and mammals. Got my doubts.
SRH
