Are wheel weights useless?

[crazie]

I understand pure lead is a must for muzzleloaders and I'm sure this was talked about but I'm new to muzzleloaders and casting. I have my share of pure lead and hundreds of reals casted and roundballs for hunting. I was given 60 pound of stick on wheel weights and probably the same in clip ons. the rest are zinc which I know are useless. My question is can I use them for target roundballs or cast 45 cal and use the plastic sabots in a 50 cal. I melted some to ingots and can still put a groove in it with my fingernail but it's still harder the pure lead. Any info would be great so I know if I can still use it. I can't even get pure lead at the 3 scrap yards in my area.

 

[jethro224]

They will work in your rifle and they work great in a smoothbore. The finished balls might come out a slightly different size so you might need a different patch thickness.

 

[coloradoclyde]

The Zinc ones are junk... keep them well separated from your lead.
The stick-on weights are pretty soft, near that of pure lead and I would use them as such..
The old standard lead weights I would save...They work great in modern guns and will become more valuable as they are becoming harder to find.

 

[eggwelder]

the zinc ones make great fishing weights and slingshot ammo.
melt them and pour it into a coffee can with an eye bolt in it. now you got an anchor. guys around here make cod jiggers with wheel weight zinc. it`s basically a large fish hook with a weight cast around it. tourists buy them like crazy. slingshot ammo with zinc wheel weights I cast in .45 cal
the steel ones i toss into a bucket until i find a use for them. i will, especially for the square ones.
wheel weight lead makes good plinking ammo, especially if you can`t recover it. it will need its own load, and patch combo worked up for it as it weighs quite a bit less than pure lead. as Colorado stated, it is fairly decent for cartridge bullets. i think it may be a tad soft and needs a bit of tin or antimony.
the really soft ones (stick on)i squirrel away with my other pure or as pure as i`m going to get.
i cast it all into ingots then stamp them with a number system so i can identify them if they get mixed up.
i get lots of wheel weights here, not very many people seem to want them

 

[coloradoclyde]

the zinc ones make great
slingshot ammo.

great idea!... :thumbsup:

wheel weight lead makes good plinking ammo, and as Colorado stated, is fairly decent for cartridge bullets. i think it may be a tad soft and needs a bit of tin or antimony.

If you water drop cool wheel weight bullets they will have a BHN of about 15, if you add a few inches of 95/5 solder to the pot they will be close to linotype in hardness.(19-20BHN)

the really soft ones (stick on)i squirrel away with my other pure or as pure as i`m going to get.
i cast it all into ingots then stamp them with a number system so i can identify them if they get mixed up.
i get lots of wheel weights here, not very many people seem to want them

:thumbsup:
All lead is worth keeping IMO...

P.s. You can also make lead shot...or trade it to someone that does....

 

[crazie]

Thanks everyone I will be melting it all down into ingots this weekend. I was worried I could do damage to my barrels.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Use a separate pot for the zinc...you don't want any of it contaminating the other lead.

Be safe...remember, any moisture in or on lead will cause an explosion in the pot.

 

[bubba.50]

Use a separate pot for the zinc...you don't want any of it contaminating the other lead.

I would also keep the stick-on lead seperate from the clip-on lead.

 

[coloradoclyde]

:thumbsup:

 

[oldude]

Notice that everyone said WW lead is ok for your long guns but it might be to hard for a wheel gun. You may not get the ring of lead to shave off or you might damage the loading lever, but as a PRB in long or short gun they are ok

 

[coloradoclyde]

I didn't say that.....But I do agree with what your saying.... :thumbsup:

 

[crazie]

Thanks only long guns for me right now would like to get a wheel gun some day.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

the zinc ones make great fishing weights and slingshot ammo.

Might also make good round ball for CALIƑŎŘЍIA, but you might want to use a mold where you cut the sprue after removing the ball.

LD

 

[hanshi]

I must have a couple hundred pounds of the old WW that I collected way back in the 1970s. They all were slightly hardened lead allow back then. I cast thousands of handgun bullets from it and found it perfect.

Using those same WW for casting ball also helps save some soft lead. I prefer WW for ball in my smoothbore and that's my primary use for it nowadays. I tried it with complete success in rifles and the very slight dia increase made no difference; I patched and loaded them like always. I have no experience with the current ones.

 

[nkbj]

I've found hard ball to work well in the three groove minie rifling in the .69 caliber two bander.
I think it helps prevent the patched ball from seating a little off center towards one of the 3/8" wide three grooves. That's my theory so far.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Careful melting zinc....You could end up with "metal fume fever"or the "Zinc shakes"

I got gassed once from welding galvanized metal...Don't care to repeat it.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I had forgotten all about that, thanks!

LD

 

[FishDFly]

As far as I concerned wheel weights belong on tire rims, when welding galvanized pipe, need to drink a lot milk.

 

[Juice Jaws]

How can you tell if there is zinc in the lead??

 

[bubba.50]

except for the clip if it has one, the whole weight will be zinc. I think most if not all will have a "Z" stamped on or molded into them. if not, they're hard as pot metal so ya should be able to tell'em apart from lead weights.