so what about melting fishing weights?

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45ACPKING

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I see all this talk of melting down battery posts and plates and rummaging around for wheel weights.......
so I got probably 30 years worth of scrap lead from fishing weights, from soft lead split shot all the way up to 15lbs down rigger cannon balls

I'm assuming this is all perfect candidate material for smelting into bullets?
I easily have over 200lbs
 
I easily have over 200lbs
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By the time you've shot that up, you'll wish you had a lot more, lol!
I got probably 30 years worth
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Yes, all lead is good lead .. and you've got something to start with.
Then there's the pure soft needed for the antiques/ml's .. the somewhat harder for stouter revolver loads, the hard for mid range vel. rifle loads, the really hard for hi-vel, tin for good fill out, antimony so you can water quench to harden ... and so it goes.
Before you know it, you'll be using up 30 lbs per casting session.
And that's a good thing! :rockOn:
 
hmmm good to know, might have to start researchin this bullet making hobby. 45acp bullets and .303brit bullets would certainly be easier to come by if I made em myself ;)
thx guys
 
45ACPKING said:
I see all this talk of melting down battery posts and plates and rummaging around for wheel weights.......
so I got probably 30 years worth of scrap lead from fishing weights, from soft lead split shot all the way up to 15lbs down rigger cannon balls

I'm assuming this is all perfect candidate material for smelting into bullets?
I easily have over 200lbs
Click to expand...

I dont reload, but I fish a lot, you might want to first see how much the weights will sell for, then see how much 200lbs of lead costs.
 
BCshooterFMJ said:
I dont reload, but I fish a lot, you might want to first see how much the weights will sell for, then see how much 200lbs of lead costs.
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I fish as often as possible :D which is more than I'd care to admit hehehe
I've got weights for any kind of fishing I might do for many years to come....... but bullets, well...... those aren't getting any cheaper and in the case of .303 bullets..... getting scarcer than hens teeth. I've seen a lot of discussion about casting bullets for the .303 and would like to start down that road.
 
Sounds like a good start, but you'll never have as much as you think you have it seems. I had a casting session the other day and went through 40 lbs like nothing. If you're casting a 230 grain slug for the 45 acp, you're looking at 30 bullets/per lb (6000 in that 200 lbs though). If you have a 6 cavity mold, you can go through lead like there's no tomorrow!
 
fishing sinkers could be made of almost anything I know my local shop used to cast up their own from what ever scrap they could get most are going to be soft. that said 200lb is a small supply and its not really any good for rifle unless its alloyed I have over 1000lb of mixed pure lead,wheel weights,20-1 lead/tin and linotype. I have a rubber made garbage can filled at the bottom with 1ft of pea gravel then a piece of 3/4" thick ply wood and the rest is filled with rubber mulch this is my portable backstop and has stopped everything I have thrown at it with this I don't lose my alloy I don't think you could bring this to a range to shoot pistol into it but I shoot my rifles and shotguns into it. I used the steel wheel weights I get as sinkers just cut the clips off and drill a hole
 
I'm not going to be making cast bullets for plinking..... it's looking ahead so I can keep hunting with my .303 despite shortage, lack of production of suitable commercial offerings.
I might try and make some up for 45acp but mostly going to be setting up to produce cast hunting rounds.
the lead I have is mostly pure lead. the cannon balls , I have 8 , 15lbers that we cast years ago from pure lead ingots.
200lbs should be enough to allow me to get into this game though.
I've cast lots of lead just never crafted bullets.
I obviously do have much to learn :D
 
Commercial salmon seine lead line weights are some of the best lead going. Up until this year, you needed a permit
from Homeland Security to export it to Canada. They were concerned that we would make bullets out of it.
I gave some to a friend of mine and he cast bullets from it and he liked the shooting results.
 
i`ve melted all my lead into ingots, including fishing sinkers. i fish a lot, & nuts from 1/2 inch bolts work well. if they galvanized, they won't rust. melt your sinkers. the lead free ones are usually mostly tin, otherwise antimony. and for those deep water guys, they make cast iron cannon balls with handles for weight lifting, covered in rubber. sold at CTC. make bullets from the lead ones, and hang those iron ones from the down riggers
 
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