Recovered range lead

[VEARL]

Just had given to me approx. 10 lbs of recovered range lead.
It is harder than pure lead. Was wondering if it would be ok to cast round balls and shoot in my smoothbore rifle? Know that it will produce slightly larger round balls than I would get with pure lead.
Any advise will be welcomed.

 

[Rifleman1776]

You will get both "yes" and "no" responses.
I am a stubborn old 'pure lead only' proponent.
Just yesterday I turned down an offer of a box full of hard lead scrap.

 

[ssonb]

I seem to have good results with the PRB cast from recovered lead in the rifles....I will try to melt them at the lowest temp that will melt the lead so the impurities will float to the top for the most part, Then skim off the crud and cast into little bricks,Later remelt a little hotter and skim again and mold into PRBs or bullets yes they are a little harder than pure but for target and plinking kant get no cheeper.

 

[BrownBear]

Our local indoor range fell behind on cleaning their lead traps and simply couldn't sell it all. I got invited to take as much as I wanted, and ended up with over a ton of it. Atsa lotta free lead on an island where everything is expensive to ship in, if sometimes impossible.

As a result I shoot the heck out of it. Still save my pure lead for rifles, but the harder stuff is just dandy from the smoothies. And for fishing weights. And for winter ballast in the back of our trucks. And for being in the way most times. :wink:

 

[ord sgt]

Harder lead is okay in a smoothbore, not so much good for ML rifle or pistol.

 

[Lonegun1894]

I would say just try it and see how your guns like it. I use mostly range scrap, and it is not quite pure, but soft enough to scratch with a fingernail, so works fine. You may have the same luck, I hope.

 

[jethro224]

Smoothbores don't care how hard the lead is. I've been using wheel weights in my Bess for several years and winning matches.
Save the pure lead for rifle balls. :thumbsup:

 

[dikman]

I've tried range (pistol) scrap in my longrifle and it seems fine. Definitely not good in a revolver, however, way too hard to ram down!

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Of course if you find you dislike it, you could always ingot it and then trade the ingots for soft lead ingots of the same volume... some BP shooters also shoot Cowboy Action and they like harder lead than the softest stuff that many of us use, and often cast their own bullets too.

Just a thought. :idunno:

LD

 

[ssonb]

I will have to agree with the pistol balls being to hard...the scrap worked fine in the rifles but it was a job loading my 1858 pistol!!!Fergetted bout dat...

 

[Rifleman1776]

I just turned down a box full of mixed hard lead for free. :shocked2:
I can't use it and didn't want to risk it getting mixed with my soft stuff.
Agreed, it would work OK in my smoothies but I shoot ball in them so seldom it is not a factor.

e.g. one ball in five years with the Brown Bess and four balls per year in the 20 ga. fowler.

 

[hanshi]

I still have probably 50+ pounds of range lead. I use to use it in handguns but no longer cast for modern guns. It is still usable in smoothbores and rifles same as WW metal (old style, that is).

 

[bpd303]

Same here, got about three hundred pounds of W/W lead and about a hundred of pure soft lead. I save the pure lead for my C&B revolvers and minie bullets and use the harder stuff in my rifles and smoothbores with patches.

 

[M. De Land]

As long as they don't cause the patch to cut there is no reason I know of that harder alloy won't work. Mike D.

 

[mooman76]

Worked great for me for years. I now have soft lead and use it but if I didn't have soft lead I would use it no problem.

 

[Cpl. Ashencheeks]

Some range lead might be good, but there will also be some that would not.

For smooth bore you might be safer, but there is still some chance that a really hard bullet alloy material deformed unnoticeably during casting could get stuck and further deform things in your barrel.

I do not know if that could really happen, but why take the chance?

I have used wheel weights for casting for both modern and BP arms from years ago, but no longer.

Now, I am even iffy about even running the older already various cast bullets that I melted and drossed years ago through my more modern cartridge rifles.

I am a little concerned that I might have possibly ruined an electric melting pot for making black powder rounds by having used these alloys.

I guess now I will dedicate this pot for modern cast bullets, and get another different pot to dedicate for casting muzzleloading projectiles.

Picking out recovered range lead might lead to getting even harder mixes of lead; who knows what people or manufacturers may have been casting in their projectiles, unless you have the box to identify manufactured projectiles and a lab to identify odd homecast alloys.

I would be concerned about ripping up rifling in any muzzleloading arms using unknown metals.

Another issue would be removing a stuck ball or canted conical made from a not completely known alloy.

Usually ,I can tell by how shiny it is after intially cleaning any crud upon the material. If it is shiny and reall hard, I will now leave it alone.

If it a duller color, dents easily in some pliers, and has a good streak on a cardboard surface, I might consider it for casting.

Also, if it shows some small amount of whitish oxidation (do not breath or ingest :nono: ), it might be also be a possibility for muzzleloading use after cleaning it up thouroughly and then must pass the three requirements I mentioned above.

 

[dikman]

I am a little concerned that I might have possibly ruined an electric melting pot for making black powder rounds by having used these alloys.

How could it be ruined? If you emptied out the alloy, and then re-filled it with pure lead any remaining "contaminants" from the alloy would be so diluted that they couldn't possibly have any affect on the melt.

If you really think it's ruined then send it to me, I'll be more than happy to use it for BP. :grin:

 

[paulab]

I think you're thinking too much.

 

[Billnpatti]

Clean it, cast it and shoot it. The stuff will work just fine but you may have to select a different patch thickness. I have found hard lead such as wheel weights and other scrap lead to work fine for patched round balls. This is because the lead never contacts the rifling and does not have to conform to the grooves. The patching does that for you. The slight variations in the density will make no significant difference in the trajectory unless you are shooting from a bench rest with a gun capable of putting all balls into the X ring. The minor changes of trajectory caused by the variation in density by using reclaimed range lead versus pure lead are lost in the normal wibbles and wobbles when shooting off hand. However, weighing the balls and matching their weights will eliminate any differences resulting from the slight differences in density. I must add one additional caveat, and it likely does not apply to you, but if you are using the balls for bench rest shooting, they must all be made from the same alloy and must be matched by weight.

I would not cast conicals intended for shooting without a patch with reclaimed range lead. The conicals have to engrave into the lands and grooves of the rifling and hard lead will not do that as well as pure lead. An improper fit into the rifling will result in erratic results on the target. This is caused by an improper fitted bullet allowing hot gasses to bypass the bullet resulting in variations in the muzzle velocity. Also, if the bullet does not fit the grooves well, it may not spin correctly or the same every time. This will likely result in wild variations in the POI. Harder lead is okay for patched round balls but not for conicals.

 

[Cpl. Ashencheeks]

How could it be ruined? If you emptied out the alloy, and then re-filled it with pure lead any remaining "contaminants" from the alloy would be so diluted that they couldn't possibly have any affect on the melt.

If you really think it's ruined then send it to me, I'll be more than happy to use it for BP. :grin:

Naw... That's Okay, I have let much of my gear sit for years in a garage and I am probably just too lazy to clean the dust bunnies and the black widow that is living in it, so I came up with the above lengthy excuse. :grin:

Still, I think I will buy another more portable pot specifically for black powder use, then I would have two.

I think you're thinking too much.

Yep, I do that directly after a pint of ale sometimes.