Bullet hardness for hunting
- Thread starter mbogo3
- Start date
Possibly.
I have processed a lot of lead from an indoor range
I have processed a lot of lead from an indoor range
I guess with pure lead...
Yup, that is why I cast my Snider with pure lead as well. Not really one of the higher velocity cartridges! LOL
I guess the old Buffalo hunters used pure lead or a very light alloy as well.
Cat
I have several hundred pounds of xray jars that are used for iodine I think.
They are painted ( powder coated?)
The easiest way I have found to get it off is to melt it in my big production pot .
It is as pure as you can get
Cat
These are 30 pound slabs.I have several hundred pounds of xray jars that are used for iodine I think.
They are painted ( powder coated?)
The easiest way I have found to get it off is to melt it in my big production pot .
It is as pure as you can get
Cat
Chew them off a bit at a time I guess.
fingers284
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta Cowboy Ranges
I have done 60 lb pig melts in my pot...I hang the pig with an engine hoist I have in my shop & hold it suspended in the pot and start melting, gradually letting the pig down into the melt as it transforms into the puddle, soon it just all melts off the end of the chain.
That lead splash must be fun.
Last edited:
fingers284
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Alberta Cowboy Ranges
No splash at all I just let it down easy with the hyd. until a portion of the pig is in the puddle of melt and let it melt some more off, pour a few muffins out when it gets full enough. I have done upwards of 300 lbs in less than 2 hrs.
X-ray sheets are good stuff. I have a pot that will hold 160 lbs so I usually just cut the sheets into about 50 lbs and roll them and lay them in the pan. If it’s not pure lead it’s close.
I will also anecdotally pipe in and support the idea that wheel weight lead projectiles will deform very little, if at all when used for hunting. Few years back I shot a black bear at 50 yards right in the boiler room with a flat nosed powder coated wheel weight bullet in my 45/70 Marlin. Tracked him for hours, finally found his remains weeks later purely by chance around 400 yards away deep in the bush. The bullet just made a 45 cal pencil wound through him. I would use lead projectiles as soft as possible for hunting.
The sizer swages a gas check on to the bullet base. If you have a lyman or rcbs bullet sizer you can push the bullet into the sizer die just enough to crimp the gc onto the base, and leave the rest of the bullet unsized.
I haven't tried it but i think if you push a gas check on by hand and it will stay in place long enough to get it seated in the cartridge it should work ok, IF the bullet is seated so the GC portion does not protrude below the neck, because if the GC is not swaged on it t could fall off the bullet while still inside the case. Hope that makes sense.
As was said earlier, if you pull a GC bullet, the GC will probably be left behind in the case, and this happens regularly even with gc bullets that were run through a sizer.
