Lead bullet Castors, Sources of Lead

Around here, the tire shops are hesitant to sell their wheel weights because they seem to have standing offers from one or more people who cast cannon balls for fishing. Your only hope is to offer them say $20 for a 2/3 full bucket that they haven't sold yet.

On the subject of linotype, I bought about 75 lbs of printers letters and melted some down to use for hard bullets. The stuff was a royal pain and I got rid of what was left as fast as I could. It must have been 30% antimony and as one approached 700 F, the antimony all floated to the surface and formed a sort of granular sludge

cheers mooncoon
 
Call your local roofing companies. As stated earlier the lead plumbing flashing used on older (and new) houses is pure lead.Every time a new roof is put on the lead flashing must be replaced.One plus the cap (the little thing that sits on top of the flashing) will fill a Lee casting pot. You could probably offer to pay them with something more precious than cash (beer) and you would make a friend(s) for life. You can get ingots of 50/50 bar solder (each ingot weighs 1.2 lbs.) from plumbing wholesalers They go for about $10 each and it is a good way of adding a predictable and repeatable amount of tin to your lead. This is very handy if you want to cast big 58 caliber minnies as the tin allows the lead to pour better. It also makes the projectile harder if that's what you need.

cheers. Steve.

Cheers. Steve.
 
stevejones said:
Call your local roofing companies. As stated earlier the lead plumbing flashing used on older (and new) houses is pure lead.Every time a new roof is put on the lead flashing must be replaced.One plus the cap (the little thing that sits on top of the flashing) will fill a Lee casting pot. You could probably offer to pay them with something more precious than cash (beer) and you would make a friend(s) for life. You can get ingots of 50/50 bar solder (each ingot weighs 1.2 lbs.) from plumbing wholesalers They go for about $10 each and it is a good way of adding a predictable and repeatable amount of tin to your lead. This is very handy if you want to cast big 58 caliber minnies as the tin allows the lead to pour better. It also makes the projectile harder if that's what you need.

cheers. Steve.

Cheers. Steve.
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From my experience with minie balls, they should be pure lead. Not 50/50 as you will not get as soft a projectile for a good gas seal. Still think the larger size birdshot gun show lead is the way to go. My grandfather used to cast bullets for the .44/40 and they used a 16 to 1 lead to tin mix.
 
Mike Webb said:
From my experience with minie balls, they should be pure lead. Not 50/50 as you will not get as soft a projectile for a good gas seal. Still think the larger size birdshot gun show lead is the way to go. My grandfather used to cast bullets for the .44/40 and they used a 16 to 1 lead to tin mix.
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If you add a one pound ingot of 50/50 bar solder to a 10 pound pot of lead you will get an alloy that is 5% tin (half a pound of tin in a 1 pound ingot). To get 15% you will need to add 3 ingots to the melting pot. To be honest I am just not that fussy with my casting alloy. I take wheel weights and melt them down, flux them, and remove all the crud. I then pour it into muffin tins and let them cool. Now I realize that there are many sizes of muffin tins out there...So in my case I add 2 muffins of wheel weight alloy to my Lee melting pot of roofing lead. You will need to experiment a little but after a little trial and error you will find what works for you. The result for me is an alloy that pours into minnie molds beautifully and a finished product that is as accurate as it could be.

Cheers. Steve.
 
Mike Webb said:
From my experience with minie balls, they should be pure lead. Not 50/50 as you will not get as soft a projectile for a good gas seal. Still think the larger size birdshot gun show lead is the way to go. My grandfather used to cast bullets for the .44/40 and they used a 16 to 1 lead to tin mix.
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I think he is saying that you can get 50/50/ bar solder to ADD to the lead that you salvage to get the degree of hardness desired. Not to use it in it's 50/50 state.


oops steve got it already
 
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