Choosing lead for casting

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Mandoair

New member
I have been collecting spent bullets jacketed plated and lead from the range is this a good source of lead for casting bullets❓ I also have some number six shotgun lead Is this a good source of lead to use.
I also have a bunch of scuba diving weights how does that lead stack up for use as bullets❓
thank you appreciate your post.
 
M

Mike / Tx

New member
Range lead is a decent alloy for pouring up most target type loaded bullets. Meaning it's a good general alloy. Most who use it are powder coating if they plan on pushing pressure or velocity much above a mid load. One thing to be very careful about is moisture. Make sure you always start out with a cold pot full of bullets and bring the temp up slow to allow for any moisture to evaporate and escape. Dumping spent bullets into a molten pot is risking a visit from the tinsel fairy.

Shot - it is good to add to pure in small quantities to bring up hardness if needed. The antimony is usually a higher percentage and in most cases used alone make bullets that are much harder than needed.

Scuba weights - I have a pile of them myself, I sort of shy away from using not knowing their content. Just guessing I would say most "should" be close to pure, but who knows. When I finally get to that point in my pile, I'll probably melt them individually and see how they do. If I don't see anything weird I'll probably blend them together and see what hardness I come up with and go from there. I'll keep them separate and make sure I don't contaminate my pot with anything undesirable.

If you have a local scrap dealer they might have a XFR tester that could give you an idea of what you have. There was a fellow on the Castboolit site who would do samples for a small fee. Not sure if he is still available or not tbough.
 
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ballardw

New member
With jacketed bullets you may want cut the jackets with with bolt cutters or similar so you get most of the lead out of the jacket more easily.

Flux and skim often, you're going to get lots of impurities like sand and the jackets.
 
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Mandoair

New member
Thank you for the replies. What sort of hardness are we looking for for target loads and how do we test that? Is there some sort of scratch test that will give a general idea?
 
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ChasHam

New member
ballardw said:
With jacketed bullets you may want cut the jackets with with bolt cutters or similar so you get most of the lead out of the jacket more easily.

Flux and skim often, you're going to get lots of impurities like sand and the jackets.
Click to expand...

Why cut them? When jacketed bullets melt, doesn't all the lead just separate and come out?
 
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Mandoair

New member
They do separate very well in the heat and Moulton environment. I get the part about moisture inside but that was not an issue the one time that I did melt them down. After the 4 feet of snow melts away this spring I hope to collect much more pounds of spent bullets. Thank you all for sharing your wisdom with me.
 
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Mandoair

New member
Thank you for sharing the link to testing hardness with pencils. What hardness range are we looking for? And the other question is boolits ❓ what’s up with that? There’s got to be some kind of story, I’m not much good with spelling but I do get that that’s spelled different MA
 
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zxcvbob

New member
If they are jacketed, they will be open on one end and the lead will flow out. If they are copper-plated, they are sealed all the way around and the lead will stay inside unless you cut them.

I have about 1000 pounds of range lead with a high proportion of .22 bullets. (taken mostly from an indoor bullseye range) It makes great bullets as-is, but if I was using it for .357 Magnum bullets I'd probably get into powder coating. I have commercial cast bullets for .357, and I don't load much of that at all so 500 bullets will last a good while.
 
A

Aguila Blanca

Staff
Mandoair said:
And the other question is boolits ❓ what’s up with that? There’s got to be some kind of story, I’m not much good with spelling but I do get that that’s spelled different MA
Click to expand...
Basically, it's an affectation among those who cast their own projectiles.
 
U

Unclenick

Staff
Pure lead has a BHN of about 4.5. Commercial swaged bullet's have more like BHN 8.5. Remington uses 40:1 lead:antimony wire, and Hornady does something similar and mentions antimony in their description of their swaged buckshot. I think pure lead is just too soft to run through commercial loading equipment without damage. It also will lead a bore extremely at the pressures many swaged bullets are loaded to in factory ammunition.
 
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rc

New member
You can harden your mix with tin solder. All modern lead free solder is basically tin. Don't use zinc in your mix. It messes up the works and won't fill out in the mold.
 
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Unclenick

Staff
In addition to the swagged lead bullets, the swaged cores of jacketed bullets usually have some antimony. I think it may have been Hornady who said they have three different core alloys, chosen depending on the service the bullet is made for. All these antimonial alloys, while fine for seating, will cast much more cleanly with 2% tin added by weight.
 
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