Lead scavenging to make bullets.

[randalee]

I have been turning lead wheel weights into nice lead ingots, poured into muffin tins. In the end, I'll turn these ingots into bullets and scatter them across the earth (or some range backstop)...

Some of the buckets I got were FROZEN.

What a pile of junk, huh? That pile there is nearly 600 pounds of wheel weights.

Lots of garbage in this frozen block that I put into the pot...

It all burns off or gets skimmed off with the slag and steel clips.

I spray this stuff on the muffin tins to help the ingots release -- it's basically SPRAY GRAPHITE.

I love the stuff.

Now, don't they look pretty?

Ready to be cast into boolits!

 

[K1052]

I hope you are doing that in a very well ventilated area.....

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I thought you were fishing for Smelt!

 

[randalee]

Originally posted by: K1052
I hope you are doing that in a very well ventilated area.....

No, I am doing it in a 4 square foot closet.

But seriously, when the smoke starts to rise, I open up both doors in the back of my garage for extra crossflow. I _ALWAYS_ keep one door open in the back.

Rolling garage door is all the way open, too.

 

[Heisenberg]

Originally posted by: K1052
I hope you are doing that in a very well ventilated area.....

And wearing a respirator...

 

[DeadByDawn]

I shoot lead out of my .44

240 gr SWC .430

 

[randalee]

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
And wearing a respirator...

I'm SO glad everyone wants to take care of me. PLEASE SAVE ME FROM HURTING MYSELF! Problem with this country nowadays...

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: randalee

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
And wearing a respirator...

I'm SO glad everyone wants to take care of me. PLEASE SAVE ME FROM HURTING MYSELF! Problem with this country nowadays...

Settle down Beavis...nobody said you couldn't poison yourself, just pointing out common safety precautions.

 

[FoBoT]

lead isn't that bad, don't let the nervous Nelly's bug you

 

[randalee]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Settle down Beavis...nobody said you couldn't poison yourself, just pointing out common safety precautions.

Sorry, I did get a little upset. I am settled now. I've grown weary of the endless:

person 1 "So today I was driving in my car to work..."

person 2 "I hope you were wearing a SEATBELT in that car!"

 

[Slacker]

Originally posted by: randalee

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Settle down Beavis...nobody said you couldn't poison yourself, just pointing out common safety precautions.

Sorry, I did get a little upset. I am settled now. I've grown weary of the endless:

person 1 "So today I was driving in my car to work..."

person 2 "I hope you were wearing a SEATBELT in that car!"

Irritability is one of the 38 prime indicators of lead poisoning

 

[alexeikgb]

nice.... but I'm wondering where are you getting all the lead wheel weights? (stealing 'em off parked cars?)

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: randalee

Originally posted by: Heisenberg
And wearing a respirator...

I'm SO glad everyone wants to take care of me. PLEASE SAVE ME FROM HURTING MYSELF! Problem with this country nowadays...

I think its nice of them, alot of people aren't familiar with the health problems of casting lead...afterall its not like you're eating it. But lead is quite dangerous and some shooters wind up getting a nasty surprise.

I'm planning on buying a reloading setup before long and might eventually have to try to cast my own bullets too.

 

[randalee]

Originally posted by: alexeikgb
nice.... but I'm wondering where are you getting all the lead wheel weights? (stealing 'em off parked cars?)

I get a 5 gallon bucket per month from a local tire shop. 10 bucks. 150 pounds average per bucket...

 

[theknight571]

Why are bullets made of lead... isn't there something else they can be made out of?

Just curious, thinking that after all these years they would have moved on to something besides lead.

Or is the idea that if you don't kill the target... it eventually suffers with lead poisioning.

 

[KMc]

Relatively cheap, highly malleable, easily cast, optimum mass per unit volume (density), ballistically stable.

Just ask anybody into wing shooting about the decades-long struggle to find a material to replace lead (Stainless steel, bismuth, etc.) in shotgun shells.

 

[djheater]

Originally posted by: KMc
Relatively cheap, highly malleable, easily cast, optimum mass per unit volume (density), ballistically stable.

So the evolution of firearms and the use of lead is kind of a chicken egg scenario? Guns evolved around the lead they were shooting, you might design a new gun to shoot a different material, but some gun technologies probably work best with lead.

 

[Slacker]

Originally posted by: theknight571
Why are bullets made of lead... isn't there something else they can be made out of?

Just curious, thinking that after all these years they would have moved on to something besides lead.

Or is the idea that if you don't kill the target... it eventually suffers with lead poisioning.

Silver and gold are also perfectly acceptable materials for bullets.

 

[killface]

My father used to do his own reloading. We still have all of the supplies laying around. Now I'm thinking of getting back into it.

 

[SmoochyTX]

I read the thread title as 'Head scavenging to make bullets'. I'm leaving now.

 

[Soybomb]

Originally posted by: theknight571
Why are bullets made of lead... isn't there something else they can be made out of?

Just curious, thinking that after all these years they would have moved on to something besides lead.

Or is the idea that if you don't kill the target... it eventually suffers with lead poisioning.

The bullet needs to have alot of mass for its volume and cheap generally. Some bullets today are made of solid copper but they are obviously more expensive than lead.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I don't like shooting lead bullets through my guns. I'll take FMJ or partially jacketed FTW!!! Lead is a bitch to clean out of your barrels.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: KMc
Relatively cheap, highly malleable, easily cast, optimum mass per unit volume (density), ballistically stable.

Just ask anybody into wing shooting about the decades-long struggle to find a material to replace lead (Stainless steel, bismuth, etc.) in shotgun shells.

Steel core bullets aren't allowed at most shooting ranges either. Lead is great because it is malleable and deforms when it hits the backstops instead of punching through it.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
I don't like shooting lead bullets through my guns. I'll take FMJ or partially jacketed FTW!!! Lead is a bitch to clean out of your barrels.

Dad and I shoot nothing but lead out of our 1911's and we've never had a problem. I run the boresnake through mine maybe once a month.

Dad has some friends who cast bullets and he buys them that way, but we've also got quite a stockpile of lead ingots as well. He gets wheel weights for free from our mechanic. You can't really reuse them anymore, so he tosses the old ones in a bucket and every now and then Dad goes and swaps buckets. He'll melt them down into ingots or occasionally cast bullets. Occasionally he'll mine the backstop at the range for lead, but wheel weights are a lot less work.

Dad recently had a custom blackpowder cartridge rifle made in .40-65, so he's been casting his own bullets for that. You don't really shoot a significant amount of them in a BPCR match, so in an afternoon of casting, you can make enough for several matches.

 

[SirStev0]

where do you find this lead?