Found a new source for lead

[TheMrMitch]

Re: Found a new source for lead

Hawk.....your bullets don't glow.....do they?

[Old Man of the Mountain]

Re: Found a new source for lead

Hawk.....your bullets don't glow.....do they?

Everyone else at the range thought they were just tracers!

[Old Man of the Mountain]

Re: Found a new source for lead

Wheel weights make excellent pistol bullets. They do need to be hardened with antimony and/or tin like for rifle bullets and even then the velocity needs to be kept down or you will have leading in the barrel. Really good rifle bullets can be made from linotype from printing shops if you can find one that still uses it. I also like linotype for 44 mag bullets!

For Black Powder wheel weights are too hard as they need pure lead bullets. An excellent source for this is Xray rooms that are being remodeled as they are required to replace their lead sheilding every so often. Right now under my gun room is about 800 pounds of it and it was just one partial wall of an Xray room a buddy remodeled for the hospital. He has the rest and it is over 2 TONS!

Thanks, that is good to know!

[RT]

Re: Found a new source for lead

wow, I deal with construction and remodel cleanup from time to time. Will have to keep an eye out for medical clinics and places that had X Ray equipment.

[Ahab]

Re: Found a new source for lead

Be careful of wheel weights!

The "new" wheel weights are zink.

You DO NOT want to get that melted in when casting...it turns into a gloppy mess and won't cast .

If you are going to use wheel weights, CAREFULLY separate out the zinc ones.

[gandog56]

Re: Found a new source for lead

From listening/reading/watching news reports we ought to be able to squeeze quite a bit of it out of small children.

And even more out of Chinese toys!

So we should squeeze Chinese children?

[flashguy]

Re: Found a new source for lead

With the Vampire nation we are in now, I am thinking silver might be another option.

The Mythbusters tried emulating Tonto some time back. It is extremely difficult to make bullets out of silver--its melting point is way too high, and it shrinks when it cools so that the castings are not crisp. (Not to mention that it's pretty expensive right now.)

flashguy

[SKS50]

Re: Found a new source for lead

If you watch your lead pot temps closely you don't have to worry about the Zinc. Lead melts at 620 degrees,Zinc at 788 it will float on top of the lead and you just have to skim it off.