A lead melting fool?

cigar_man

cigar_man

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Super GunNutz
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Ontari Ari Oh
Where do I start and where do I end with this story?

I've had a whole bunch of lead sitting around in buckets for 15 or more years. Some of it was even wheel weights from an auto shop from the 1950s believe it or not that was handed down to me.

My yield today was 477 lb.

70 lbs was pure lead and 407 was of a Lino type hardness.

I've been casting bullets since I was 15 years old and I will be broaching 67 this year. I probably have 3/4 of a ton of lead already, but I just had to do this.

My daughter one day will be probably passing this stuff out after I croak. 😆

Yowza!

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Fool's unite. I harvested 1500 lbs out of a indoor gun range. It was mixed with sand and cardboard. Add to that the 1000lbs of wheel weights. I cut the end off a big propane tank that would fit in a 45 gallon drum and cooked the mixture for days over a wood fire. I got 4 muffin trays from the dollar store and blackened them with acetylene smoke. I poured muffins for day's. 2800lbs of muffins.
I am down to 1000lbs of muffins. Shooting has taken a hit with all the moving since 2023.
 
I had about 4000 lbs at one time. I just kept finding it and melting it down. Now I am down to about 1500lbs. A couple sail boat keel weighs helped. Now I am finding it in smaller amounts so a little easier to deal with. Last couple times I bought some reloading gear and both lots contained over 100lbs. Way I figure is if I stay around 1500 lbs I am happy.
 
This used to be the norm, not so much I am finding these days. Most times someone has an agreement to take all the scrap already and these days you get less and less lead for all the zinc and other weights. Why can’t all the fishing weight guys just use the zinc. I have found a small source at the rad and battery replacement shop. They cut the posts off the batteries before going to scrap.
 
Never know where you will find lead. One of the boat keels I found wailing along a beach after a storm. Waves had uncovered it. I paid an old fellow to lift it on my truck with his tractor. The girlfriend asked how I was getting it off the truck when we got home. Remove tailgate , put in reverse and give it to her and hit the brakes. 1600 lbs doesn’t have much grip on a plastic box liner.
 
My father was into linotype for his black powder cartridge rifles. I know the difference. When I cleared his workshop, I took all the misc wheel weights, broken bags of shot, range scrapings, and unidentified ingots to the scrappers. I got $$ for that and the pails of corroded brass cases. I spent a day pulling bullets and dumping powder for that last load.

Still have the lino and a big folded piece of genuine stone mason's sheet lead! The masons were redoing the limestone steps near my old office, and they used that next to the concrete foundations. I asked, and buddy didn't say no.
 
For anyone in SW Ontario; if you have a lot of lead to process I have a large bottom pour pot that you can borrow and if you have a NG BBQ connection I have a burner to go with it as well.
The biggest batch I once melted in the pot was about 400 lbs (at once) : )
 
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