should i wash collected bullets before melting?

[birddseedd]

should i wash collected bullets before melting?

they are gritty from sand

[mannyCA]

nah, just toss them into the pot, flux a few times if really dirty and everything will be fine.

[birddseedd]

if i buy other lead, how can i tell if there is anything, zinc, mixed in with it?

[Beagle333]

If it is separate hunks of zinc, as in wheel weights, it'll float if you heat it up slowly and keep it below the melting point of zinc. If you have zinc contaminated alloy that others have sold you.... you might not know it until everything melts and you get oatmeal. Buy only known ingots if you can. There are several fellows selling nice clean fluxed range ingots on the Swappin and Sellin forum for about a buck a pound. :cool:

[birddseedd]

maybe i should have said tin instead of zinc?

guy has 70 lbs he will sell me for 20 lbs. random stuff, i think some wheel weights which have tin or whatever for hardness.

another guy has 500 for a buck a piece, they were used in walls in some building. its probably just pure lead. so i may have to add tin. but how do i know?

[Old Caster]

If it is sheet lead it probably is pure and shooters in the BPCR group will give you more wheel weights than an equal amount for it because it is harder to find. The BPCR shooters will make their mix between 40 - 1 lead to tin and 20 -1 lead to tin. You can mold bullets with a bit less tin than that but you might find tin hard to come up with especially at a decent price. I don't know of any simple way to tell how much tin is in an alloy. If you can pour decent looking bullets with it there is enough. Unless you are shooting really fast, the pure lead with a bit of tin will shoot fine. BPCR shooters go up to 1300 fps without problems.

[birddseedd]

yea but if i don't know if there is any tin in it, i either risk leading my barrel with soft bullets, or. whats the issue of having too much tin?

[Shiloh]

I wash my range scrap. Presoak in a bucket of water, rinse on my screen sieve with the hose.

The wood from target backers is rinsed away as well as the dirt clods.

Shiloh

[StratsMan]

yea but if i don't know if there is any tin in it, i either risk leading my barrel with soft bullets, or. whats the issue of having too much tin?

It's expensive!! Spot price of tin is around $10/lb, versus lead which is just under $1/lb... Don't need more than ~2% for the alloy to fill the mold properly

[birddseedd]

so if the lead does not have enough tin, it will not cast properly?

[freebullet]

You'll get poor fill out.

I have never washed range lead ever.

[birddseedd]

tyvm.

[Beagle333]

I wash my range scrap. Presoak in a bucket of water, rinse on my screen sieve with the hose.


I do the same. Mine is pretty well about half dirt when I dig it outta the berm. I shoot mostly HPs and they deform into a shape that makes a big dirt nugget, more so than regular slugs.

[Hamish]

The first year or so I rinsed my range scrap. Its pointless, and you risk a visit from the Tinsel Fairey if you dont dry it sufficiently,,,,,,.

All the garbage floats when it's melted, and as has been said, melt it low and slow in case of zink.

[StrawHat]

If you are smelting unknown "ore", do it in somethingother than your casting pot. Get a pot specifically for smelting. The last thing I want in the pot I use to cast boolits for a rifled barrel is sand or dirt or ????

I have a cast iron pot that can hold about 40 pounds of "ore" and am happy with the results.

[xpaholic]

I had asked almost the same question the other day. my question was more about sorting though, but in order to sort range lead it needs to be clean. I wash and sort, lead boolits in one pile and jacketed in another, range scrap because of hardness. your asking about "tin" amounts might also be addressed in using a ratio between the rather pure jacketed lead and harder cast range boolits. as far as COWW use a pair of pliers to check for soft lead compared to the harder zinc. but be careful buying ingots, I recently did some trading with a scrap yard to get some beautiful looking "lyman" ingots only to cast one and find it was full of zinc. xp

[rhead]

yea but if i don't know if there is any tin in it, i either risk leading my barrel with soft bullets, or. whats the issue of having too much tin?


If the amount of Tin is higher than needed the castings will have "Whiskers" on them from where the melt flowed into the vent holes. the alloy can be mixed with wheel weights. Tin does a lot more to lower the viscosity of the melted metal than it does to increase hardness it does increase toughness some. You need Antimony for more hardness.

I do not wash my range scrap but I do bake it a while to insure that there is no water between the cores and the jackets.

[JSnover]

yea but if i don't know if there is any tin in it, i either risk leading my barrel with soft bullets, or. whats the issue of having too much tin?

Properly fitting the boolit to your barrel will be more important than alloy content if you're concerned about leading. You can shoot pure lead if you like, as long as you size it correctly.

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I've found no reason to wash range scrap. It's a waste of time and potentially ends up contaminating your soil where you dump it. If you are really worried about sand, I would put it in sifter and shake it good. Even if you don't, sand will float. Just scrape your pot well and clean off the trash off the top (just like you would with any smelting).

[Blammer]

for the original post, na don't wash them, all other stuff will float to the top and you can skim it off.


so if the lead does not have enough tin, it will not cast properly?

It will still cast properly whether it has a lot or no tin in it.

How do you think those that cast pure lead bullets for their muzzleloader do it? :)

tin just makes it a bit easier for fill out sometimes and adds to the "toughness" of the bullet, (which is different than "hardness")

[Coffeecup]

I do wash it. I found the sand and dirt was significantly increasing the volume of dross when melting it down. It is just easier for me that way.

[uaskme]

My range has clay berms. If I didn't wash it I would have to heat up a lot of dirt. I think it saves time and propane to wash it. It has a lot to do with what your berm consist of.

[fastfire]

I do the same. Mine is pretty well about half dirt when I dig it outta the berm. I shoot mostly HPs and they deform into a shape that makes a big dirt nugget, more so than regular slugs.

I too, wash my range scrap. Fill the larger half of the media separator with water. Put scrape in and tumble for a few seconds. Gets 90% of the sand and dirt washed off.

[fastfire]

The first year or so I rinsed my range scrap. Its pointless, and you risk a visit from the Tinsel Fairey if you dont dry it sufficiently,,,,,,.

All the garbage floats when it's melted, and as has been said, melt it low and slow in case of zink.

I fill the cold 1/2 propane tank with scrape put the lid on and light, no tinsel fairy.

[mikeym1a]

I never washed my range scrap. the dirt and any steel pellets rise to the surface. If you are getting misc alloys, make sure you have a lead thermometer. most of the alloys will melt around 600-650. Keep your temps there. If there is any zinc in it, it should rise to the top. Zinc melting point is 780. the thermometer will keep you in the safe range. mikey