bullet casting

[David454]

I know that soft lead is what you want to cast for muzzleloader bullets. But. What is soft lead? There are auctions on ebay for lead. Some say a brn hardness of 10 or 11 and claim it to be soft. And some are said to be wheel wieghts. Iam not very sure what to get or stay away from.

 

[rebel727]

wheel weight alloy has a BHN of 9, linotype has a hardness of BHN 22, pure lead is BHN 5. Some here say wheelweights make good round balls. I've not had good luck with it. Mine are almost always brittle. Pure lead is the only thing to make conicals out of because it shrinks more than the others as it cools. Wheelweights and linotype don't shrink as much making them very difficult to load.

 

[Dave_B]

Pure lead has a Brinnell hardness around 5 or 6 ( some testers can indicate as low as 4). Wheel weights are often said to be about 9, but can run 11 to 15.
I can get 1 and 2 lb pure lead ingots from my local gun shop and the local sports warehouse for about $1 a lb. I have found lead ingots at the scrap yard for 25 cents/ lb., I'm not sure if it is pure lead or a soft alloy with some tin and/or antimony.
Dave

 

[jtmattison]

I use telephone cable sheath that is about 7 BHN.
It works perfect for conicals and roundball.
I melted some wheel weights and they are about 12 BHN. Too hard IMO for muzzleloading. I may make some fishing sinkers out of the wheel weight.

If you're shopping for lead, go as soft as you can. BHN of 10 or less I think you'll be okay.

HD

 

[Swampman]

I love roof vent flashings, when I can get them.

 

[rebel727]

I love roof vent flashings, when I can get them.

When I was 13 they tore down an old cotton compress it had lead packing on all the steam pipe joints (bout 4 inch pipe)I snitched about 75 lbs of it. Took a long time to shoot up all that lead in my 58 Remy.

 

[bpollock_sr]

I buy pure,dead soft lead at a plumbing supply house, for 1.38 a lb. Wheel weights and scrap lead of unknown purity I cast into ball for my smoothbore where they work well enough.

 

I love roof vent flashings, when I can get them.

I use the same stuff.Works great.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

We use battery posts. Its even fun knocking them off with a hammer.

 

[rebel727]

We use battery posts. Its even fun knocking them off with a hammer.

You do know there's lead plates inside the batteries. Just be careful of the acid.

 

[boondocker]

I work for a phone company ans the old lead sheathed cable is great but sure is coming extinct. We have one splicer sitting on around 5 tons of it and dont use it but its his { sacrilige }. Son inlaw work for an excavating company that sometimes does some demos and he happens to find some. Stay away from inside auto batteries , contains cadium bad juju. Boon

 

[Charles/NM]

Recycled air gun pellets. Air gun pellets are mostly pure lead. About the only ones that may have a little other stuff in them are Crosman. Air guns don't like hard projectiles either. I cast round balls, Maxi Balls and a couple of my own design from my pellet scrap and have had good luck with them. They load easy and are accurate. I slightly overheat my lead pot before casting and skim off dross that includes tin, antimony and dirt. I know some casters say you can't unalloy lead but I believe you can by not fluxing it and skimming.
If there is an active air gun shooting group in your area they would be glad to give you their scrap pellets. I have 50 pounds my self just from my personal indoor 10 meter shooting range.

 

[wjschieber]

We use battery posts. Its even fun knocking them off with a hammer.

You do know there's lead plates inside the batteries. Just be careful of the acid.

Be very careful of this not only the acid but the fumes can kill you. Many years ago I was melting battery lead outdoors the fumes almost killed me. After several trips to the hospital and many more to the doctors I recovered but have scars on my lungs to this day. I now treat all lead with great respect especially scrap lead of any kind. I have made a hood of sheet metal, dryer duct and a fan that draws all the fumes away from my work area and it is always running. I hope no one has to learn this the hard way as I did. Bill

 

[Dave_B]

Occasionally, I'll add a lb of air rifle pellets to the melting pot. Shooting air rifles is another hobby of mine, and I melt the pellets from my trap as well as any extras I don't need. Since I don't know the pellet alloy, I add a lb to 5 lbs of lead. Works great.
Dave

 

[jtmattison]

I work for a phone company ans the old lead sheathed cable is great but sure is coming extinct. We have one splicer sitting on around 5 tons of it and dont use it but its his { sacrilige }. Son inlaw work for an excavating company that sometimes does some demos and he happens to find some. Stay away from inside auto batteries , contains cadium bad juju. Boon

I also work in the telephone biz. I get my lead from the cable splicers. It is becoming extinct with the advent of gel filled cables. I get all I can when I can. Summer is the busiest time for cable work so I should be able to get some more soon. I have about 600 pounds right now.

HD

 

[Stumpkiller]

That's hydrogen sulfide gas and is deadly stuff.

 

[mpayne532]

Some wheel weights work well, you have to find the stick-on mag style weight. A good rule of thumb is to be able to scratch easily the lead with your thumbnail. I try to reclaim shot lead from my local muzzleloading gun club.

 

We have a water trap for our indoor .22 CMP youth range it's a Gold...er Leadmine of pure lead. The club has free labor to clean the pit (me) about four five gallon buckets of washed pure lead every three months. Bill