Lead ls Still KING!

[sw282]

Got a call from my mechanic the other day asking if l wanted some old used wheel weights? ''Well YES'', says l.. To ME, lead is shooters' GOLD! l went by a picked up a very heavy box and brought my GOLD home. After sorting through and separating my find l ended up with 48.2 pounds LEAD and 36.4 pounds of FEs, ZNs, and plastics. What amazed me was the amount of LEAD. Over 60%! Auto publications claim LEAD was phased out years ago. Fortunately these weights will soon fly in the form of 250gr 44 cal Cast boolits from my Silh revolver in IHMSA competition

 

[ebb]

My last was a huge disappointment. Over 3/4s of a 5lb bucket, only got 7lbs of stick on WWs, and 8LBS of clip on wheel weights. these guys throw in valve stems and the sensor that sends a low air indication to the dash.

 

[brokeasajoke]

Just finished smelting/melting/cleaning/fluxing range scrap from the local LEO range. Man those total metal jacket bullets are a pain. I had a handful of COWWs I threw in the pot the local mobile tire guy gave me.

 

[K22]

A lot of old shooters I knew cast their own with outstanding results. Probably one the best known was Elmer Keith which I never met but read his book, Six Guns. Bob Milek is another one that hunted extensively with a pistol and cast bullets. Again, I never met him but read couple of his articles.

Just be careful because the fumes are extremely toxic.

 

[JSH]

Toxic if you get it to boiling point or smelting an unknown alloy. Common sense goes a long way, ot so common these days.
I have over 2 tons of ingots and probably 10-20000 cast up from .22-.475.
Still a lot of myths about CB’s out there.
Elmer shot a lot of cast but not much on the how too. Lyman is a good one, Veral Smith has an excellent read.

 

[brokeasajoke]

Toxic if you get it to boiling point or smelting an unknown alloy. Common sense goes a long way, ot so common these days.
I have over 2 tons of ingots and probably 10-20000 cast up from .22-.475.
Still a lot of myths about CB’s out there.
Elmer shot a lot of cast but not much on the how too. Lyman is a good one, Veral Smith has an excellent read.

Does he have a book or Internet articles available? First I've heard his name mentioned but I'm pretty new to this.

 

[markT]

Been collecting lead from old cast iron plumbing “ poured” joints. Probably not saying that correctly., I once followed a guy that had old cast iron pipe in the bed of his truck. He said he was throwing it away. Score, more lead. I assume it’s good for something.

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

Toxic if you get it to boiling point or smelting an unknown alloy. Common sense goes a long way, ot so common these days.
I have over 2 tons of ingots and probably 10-20000 cast up from .22-.475.
Still a lot of myths about CB’s out there.
Elmer shot a lot of cast but not much on the how too. Lyman is a good one, Veral Smith has an excellent read.

Veral Smith is one of my favorite old-time writers!
He had an excellent, hands-on approach.

 

[brokeasajoke]

I have read many of older articles that say soft lead gets it done and hard lead is mostly for shipping as it doesn't deform or ding.

 

[sw282]

There are a several forums covering cast boolits and gunloads. Lead swaging of traditional bullets using spent 22 rimfire cases for jackets is still practiced. Early bullet makers Joyce Hornady and Vernon Speer used spent 22 rimfire cases for bullet jackets. l personally transitioned from lubing to powder coating 10 to 15 years ago. Shooting powder coated rds is almost as clean at Jktd.

 

[ebb]

My first bullets were horribly wrinkled and not completely filled in. I asked around and made my next batch 1 part pewter and 20 parts lead. Worked out way better, I added a hot plate to keep my mold warm and they even looked better. There is way more to casting a good bullet than I first realized.

 

[Doug Casner]

We used stuff they wraped underground cable in. It was lead then used wheel weights for hardner. I know what you mean about fumes. Sometimes they would burn your nose. I was young and dumb. No telliin what it did to me. Maybe thats why I cant hit nothing at times. Doug

 

[JSH]

Been collecting lead from old cast iron plumbing “ poured” joints. Probably not saying that correctly., I once followed a guy that had old cast iron pipe in the bed of his truck. He said he was throwing it away. Score, more lead. I assume it’s good for something.

Don’t just melt it all together. Keep your alloy/source separated, you can blend later. I have three five gallon bucket of solider drips/drops from a radiator shop when they cleaned their tank out. 99% lead free stuff (Tin)for the most part. Must be 150-200 lbs. I am up in the air to leave it or smelt into ingots and stamp it with info.

 

[rockhound78]

Vapor pressure of molten lead at casting temps is miniscule. Just don't eat when casting and wash your hands when you are done

 

[SSL]

We used stuff they wraped underground cable in. It was lead then used wheel weights for hardner. I know what you mean about fumes. Sometimes they would burn your nose. I was young and dumb. No telliin what it did to me. Maybe thats why I cant hit nothing at times. Doug

The telephone company I where I worked for 27 years had purchased several local companies that had lead-sheathed aerial cable. They proceeded to modernize with buried plastic-sheathed cable and junked the lead stuff as they tore it out. We ended up with a huge scrap pile at the warehouse for years. I had the brilliant idea to cast round balls for my muzzleloaders and found it far too hard. Flash forward a few years and I tried it for cast bullets...low and behold it cast perfect bullets without the need of additional tin or anything else. It typically cast bullets averaging 5 grains heavier than the nominal mould rating, which probably indicated a little more lead to the lead/antimony/tin mix than the usual Lyman formula, filled the moulds perfectly and gave very little leading no matter how fast it was pushed. I only have about 50 pounds of it left now, but sure shot a lot of it over the years!

 

[Fuj]

Shot a few tons of wheel weights over the years. I had a good friend that
worked as a big truck mechanic that save weights for me. Some of those
can be quite large. Yep, have the do a relative sort because those zinc
ones will ruin your melt. Had another friend that used to get me some
remelt linotype from the local publishing company. That was an outside
job in the fire pit. quite a bit of the scrap was loaded with ink. And good
to know a few plumbers. Now and then you could get some pipe that still
had tin joints. That was also a burn pit job because that pipe was generally
from the real old homes waste water. Sawzall off the tin joints first.

 

[WileyG]

The telephone company I where I worked for 27 years had purchased several local companies that had lead-sheathed aerial cable. They proceeded to modernize with buried plastic-sheathed cable and junked the lead stuff as they tore it out. We ended up with a huge scrap pile at the warehouse for years. I had the brilliant idea to cast round balls for my muzzleloaders and found it far too hard. Flash forward a few years and I tried it for cast bullets...low and behold it cast perfect bullets without the need of additional tin or anything else. It typically cast bullets averaging 5 grains heavier than the nominal mould rating, which probably indicated a little more lead to the lead/antimony/tin mix than the usual Lyman formula, filled the moulds perfectly and gave very little leading no matter how fast it was pushed. I only have about 50 pounds of it left now, but sure shot a lot of it over the years!

I have several lead splice enclosures that I salvaged when I was splicing cable at a small/local phone company. Probably near 300lbs of lead.

 

[7br]

A lot of old shooters I knew cast their own with outstanding results. Probably one the best known was Elmer Keith which I never met but read his book, Six Guns. Bob Milek is another one that hunted extensively with a pistol and cast bullets. Again, I never met him but read couple of his articles.

Just be careful because the fumes are extremely toxic.

About ten years ago I’d asked my doctor at the V/A if the lab could check my routine blood tests for lead levels. When he asked why I told him that I’ve been casting my own lead bullets for decades and I’d never been tested for lead. At my next routine visit my doctor, who is also a shooter, said that my lead level was a 3. I asked if that should be a concern. He said that a level of 3 is almost nothing, but then he said that when I’d asked to be tested it made him curious about his own level as he doesn’t cast bullets but he does shoot at indoor ranges. His level was 39, borderline toxic. He was astounded that I work with lead frequently and I’m generally unaffected. I take meticulous precautions and I never shoot at indoor ranges. He thanked me for saving his life.

 

[7br]

Toxic if you get it to boiling point or smelting an unknown alloy. Common sense goes a long way, ot so common these days.
I have over 2 tons of ingots and probably 10-20000 cast up from .22-.475.
Still a lot of myths about CB’s out there.
Elmer shot a lot of cast but not much on the how too. Lyman is a good one, Veral Smith has an excellent read.

Back in the early 80s I spent quite a few evenings chatting with Veral Smith on the phone. He was always extremely generous with his vast knowledge of bullet casting. His conversations were always as friendly and pleasant as they were informative. He was a proponent of wide flat meplats and the molds he provided made a believer out of me, using his heavy .44s in IHMSA and for hunting with excellent results. I lost touch with him when he went to prison and I had read that some time after his release his shop and tooling were destroyed in a fire. I still use his molds and I’ll always remember him as a great man and a friend.

 

[Fuj]

Pure lead itself is not as bad as they say. It's the oxides and breathable's
from poorly ventilated indoor ranges. Our old indoor range before it was
torn down had two large fans pulling air to the backstop, then thru a
series of noise trap baffles. At the end of a year, those baffles would have
several inch's of heavy dust to be cleaned out.