Lead for Minie Balls

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maillemaker

New member
If you have a Harbor Freight nearby, you can also buy a single-burner propane stove and a dutch oven from them for cheap.

But why do you want to melt the lead? To pour into bullet molds? Better off with an electric pot.

Steve
 
H

Hawg

New member
But why do you want to melt the lead? To pour into bullet molds? Better off with an electric pot.
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You don't want to put dirty lead into an electric pot, especially a bottom pour pot. You want to cast clean ingots to put into the pot.
 
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DD4lifeusmc

New member
lead

so far Wyoming doesn't have regulations on who may buy lead.
I go to a local metals salvage yard.
They have both new and used.
They will scan it and tell you it's purity and what the other stuff is.
I will take 97% pure as that is still good enough for our BP guns.
Many times I real pure. I always add it to any not quite pure.

On a limited basis i will sell some one pound ingots if someone is needing them
USPS flat rate is the best shipping rate.
Figger I can get about 8 to 10 pounds in a box
If you need some P.M. me
Don't want to get in the business of it, but I will sell some.
 
R

robhof

New member
robhof

I've been using the cores of previously shot jacketed bullets for b/p casting for over 10 yrs with no problem. Jacketed bullets are made under stringent conditions and quality is quite high, so I trust the cores to be very soft to pure lead. Other sources of pure lead is x ray shielding sheets used in medical facilities, and old x ray aprons, also the older roof vents for bathrooms were pure lead til recently, seems they're making aluminum ones now. My son was a roofer awhile back and scavenged me a few of those vents from roof jobs.
 
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gyvel

New member
The last batch of pure lead I got was in the 80s in Miami. It was from electric fork lift batteries. Unfortunately, not too much industry out here in my neighborhood, but some not-too-far towns have scrapyards.
 
M

maillemaker

New member
Yeah, I read up on using batteries for lead a couple of years ago. I don't know if you had a special battery or something, but the word is that most batteries today are not pure lead. They are strange lead alloys that can give off very toxic gasses if melted down. About all you are advised to get from a batter is to hacksaw off the terminals.

Steve
 
G

gyvel

New member
Yeah, I read up on using batteries for lead a couple of years ago. I don't know if you had a special battery or something, but the word is that most batteries today are not pure lead. They are strange lead alloys that can give off very toxic gasses if melted down. About all you are advised to get from a batter is to hacksaw off the terminals.
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This was back in the 80s, and the lead supposedly came from electric forklifts which apparently used a different type of lead. (I think it was because they were rechargeable.) At any rate, it made great Minie balls, and I still have a little of it left.

In addition to my Parker-Hale Enfield replicas, I have a Colt Signature .58 musket replica that I have yet to fire.

As a rule, I don't mess with regular car batteries; Too many nasties in them. Also, the one time I did break open a dead battery, most of the lead on the plates had turned to lead oxide of some form or another.
 
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