Get the lead out

S

Sam54

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nova scotia
Hi guys

At the local salvage yard they heave wheel weights at .80 cents a lb and "dental lead" (paper thin wafers), diving weights and flashing type material at 1.00 a lb.

I am planning to start casting soon any idea if the dental, diving or flashing lead are usable?

Any suggestions for moulds for 357 and 303?

Thanks for your help
 
Many wheel weights are zinc or iron and not useable so you are paying for some wastage unless they have already been sorted (unlikely). The others are an alloy of various metals and lead so harder than pure lead - and dirty so you will have to melt them down, flux a few times to get out the dirt, then flux again as you cast. I have used them with pure lead to make a bullet alloy for BPCR that works fine. The other items are probably close to pure lead and certainly useable but you will need to harden the pure lead by adding WW or tin to the mix, especially for 357 and 303 slugs. We cast only round balls using pure lead.
 
A very useful alloy is made by mixing 50% (by weight) clip-on wheel weights (COWW) with 50% pure lead.

The dental lead and flashing are pure lead. The dive weights probably are too. Ditto any wheel weights that have adhesive backings.

The wheel weights with the steel clips provide the hardening elements. The pure lead stretches it out for economy, as the COWW are getting hard to find.
 
Around here I can buy hard shotgun shot for melting and casting for $1.40/lbs and it requires no cleaning or smelting. A lot of scrap yards wont sell scrap to individuals so it's really a case by case basis.

For 303 you are best served with the Lyman 314299 (or the clones out there) but you may want to slug your bore since there are some pretty huge tolerances.
Some 303 bores can fire .308" bullets but others can be as large as .317" and need some huge bullets to not tumble.
My No.1 Mk.3 for example slugs .315" and requires .312" jacketed to not tumble. Even .314" cast bullets tumble unless below 1200fps or so.

For 357 I have no experience.
 
I work in a scrap yard and see all kinds of lead coming through, the flashings and dental lead are pure as mentioned. Wheel weights tend to be a mixed lot and unless you pick through them not a good deal for the amount of usable lead you get.
If your scrap yard has any lino-type lead that is excellent for hardening pure lead as it contains a high percentage of Antimony and some tin.
 
For 357 magnum, the Lyman #358429 mould is a classic time tested bullet designed by Elmer Keith. The 162 to 170 grain weight (depending on alloy) makes for a stable hard hitter.
 
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