Anyone wear surgical gloves while reloading?

Garand said:
Always, as in the past I have had 3 serious incidents of elevated blood lead levels due to reloading cast lead bullets.
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That's odd. I've cast and sized literally tens of thousands of cast lead bullets with bare hands and loaded thousands of them every year, too. I just wash my hands when I'm done - and I've never had any sign of elevated lead levels although I get checked yearly.

I also shoot outdoors 99% of the time. The only people I have met that had elevated lead levels were people who did a lot of indoor shooting. I don't believe handling cast bullets are nearly as much to blame for lead ingestion as poorply ventilated indoor shooting ranges. I talked to a gentleman from Edmonton Police Services who had been a firearms instructor and saw his levels spike - likely due to a large amount of time exposed to indoor ranges and mostly factory loaded jacketed bullets.
 
I use them for everyyhing. It's kind of stupid not to if you have them. Not only does it keep the toxic substances from absorbing in your skin but it makes cleaning up much easier. Coating your hands in cleaners and lead doesn't make you more of a man, it just makes you a little dumber every time.
 
Lead is most easily absorbed into the body in an aerosolized format, however, one should wear gloves when handling toxic heavy metals.
 
My process starts with dry tumbling, then resizing/decapping, then wet tumbling. After that the gloves come off.

I'm still fairly new at this, but the first few batches of brass that I cleaned in the dry tumbler left some nasty black stains on my fingers during the resizing process, so I've been using gloves ever since. Once the cases come out of the wet tumbler, they are perfectly clean, and since I keep my hands clean I don't worry about finger stains on the brass.

And before anyone asks why I bother with the dry tumbling, I've tried using only the wet one and it didn't work as well for me.
 
If no gloves make sure you scrub your hands before heading to the airport. I asked security and they told me that the swipe might pick up traces of nitro compounds.
 
I wear gloves because my skin reacts to whatever is in powder residue and case lube. I get dry patches and cracks. It is worse in winter. I have used harsh chemicals barehanded in the past and in my late 50's it has caught up to me. I react to other chemicals as well. Your tolerance goes down over the years.
I'll go at the press and tumbler for hours at a go. Going barehanded requires more frequent hand washing which also dries out the skin.
 
Have you ever seen wet lead dropped into a pot. Worst I had was cable shielding stored outside. Sure looked dry.
soleman said:
The fumes from melting the lead would be the most dangerous part of casting. I can see getting over exposed if you didn't take precautions.
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scout_289 said:
If no gloves make sure you scrub your hands before heading to the airport. I asked security and they told me that the swipe might pick up traces of nitro compounds.
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I was wondering about this too. If they didn't pick up traces then what use is the stupid thing? Although the French hottie running it last time made the experience far more enjoyable.
Superbrad said:
Gloves?..... I rarely wear underwear when reloading..... Lol
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LOL, so it's not just me!
madcow said:
Had tgat happen once they swiped my bag, got residue. Now come the questions
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I turned my PackSafe travel bag into my range bag because of it's strength, there is enough residue on it that it'd probably pin the guage if I took it to the airport now.
 
theDuck said:
I wear gloves because my skin reacts to whatever is in powder residue and case lube. I get dry patches and cracks. It is worse in winter. I have used harsh chemicals barehanded in the past and in my late 50's it has caught up to me. I react to other chemicals as well. Your tolerance goes down over the years.
I'll go at the press and tumbler for hours at a go. Going barehanded requires more frequent hand washing which also dries out the skin.
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I had the same problem when I was a mechanic. Crabtree and Evelyn used to have a goat milk hand lotion that worked wonderfully until they dropped it.
 
christos808 said:
My process starts with dry tumbling, then resizing/decapping, then wet tumbling. After that the gloves come off.

I'm still fairly new at this, but the first few batches of brass that I cleaned in the dry tumbler left some nasty black stains on my fingers during the resizing process, so I've been using gloves ever since. Once the cases come out of the wet tumbler, they are perfectly clean, and since I keep my hands clean I don't worry about finger stains on the brass.

And before anyone asks why I bother with the dry tumbling, I've tried using only the wet one and it didn't work as well for me.
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What setup were you using? I consider wet tumbling pretty much the best there is, if you have a Frankford arsenal or Thumlers tumbler. Maybe we can get you going if you let us know how you were doing it.
 
Tens of thousands of lead bullets cast and shot. I have my levels checked yearly with no noted lead levels in my blood.

I do know of a father and two young sons who were struck with a very bad case of lead poisoning from shooting in a poorly ventilated indoor range. In-jested lead from from walking down range to targets into the smoke clouds and lead dust kicked up while walking were considered the main culprits. Range was poorly ventilated by today's standards.

Lead poisoning is a serious concern but not one I worry about from casting and handling lead bullets. If I shot in poorly ventilated indoor ranges....different kettle of fish. The old Edmonton Police indoor range was no hell for ventilation and the 22 range located in the basement of HMCS Nonsuch was a joke. There you shot until the blueish smoke cloud got so bad you could not see the targets. We then used to stop shooting and go have a cigarette, Go figure!

Take Care

Bob
 
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