22 Rimfire Lead...

[BCB]

Had a bit of time yesterday so I smelted some 22 rimfire lead that a friend of mine saves. He shoots literally 10’s of thousands of rounds per year at his residence and he uses boolit traps to catch the lead. He has a 5-gallon bucket full of casings and another one beginning to fill. That’s just what’s there as I think he sells it after he gets enough to make the trip to the salvage yard worthwhile…

Awfully dirty it is and a hassle to smelt. I just use a Lee furnace and keep adding the “fines” as that is what most of the salvage is…

I didn’t do much as it is time-consuming and filthy and smoky—I got about 12 pounds of good lead…

But, as I was getting a potful of alloy (?) I just grabbed an old Lee mold that I used during my first attempts at casting. I put it on the rim of the furnace and got it warm and filled it a dozen times or so. It cast nice slugs the first few tries. I did this to check the BHN today (24 hours later) with a SAECO tester and got a SAECO 2.5 or a BHN of ~5. It is a bit early to test BHN, but it sure appears this stuff is almost pure lead. I had previously read it might be a bit harder. I guess I will check it in a couple of weeks and see if it changes...

Posted a pic of the salvage and a few boolits as sized and as cast. Pic is a bit rough…

As I was finishing up this ordeal, it dawned on me that I might put the salvage through a screen, the size of window or door screen, and get rid of some of the “fines”. I suppose this is lead also, but it will eliminate some of the powdery stuff that accumulates on the top of the melt. I literally got a ratio of 2.0:1 of powder to lead—that is volume of course. I was using a Lee ingot maker and that is how I measured the waste to salvage. Filthy that stuff is for sure…

Interesting source of lead, although I do have a very good supply of wheel weights. This stuff might be good to do a 40:1 or such, although I have never really messed with “fine tuning” to this degree…

Anyone else use this 22 rimfire salvage?...

Good-luck…BCB

[Pipefitter]

Get a cast iron smelting pot and use a turkey fryer or a hot wood fire. 22rf lead is generally 2-3% antimony, I suspect that most of the dust or "fines" is the antimony you are missing. Heat the melt to 700-750 degrees and flux with sawdust and stir with some kind of wood, be it a heavy paint stirrer, broken hockey stick, or an old wooden spoon. Throw in a pea sized chunk of beeswax and stir some more. Then maybe add a bit of tin, probably no more than 2%.

[BCB]

Get a cast iron smelting pot and use a turkey fryer or a hot wood fire. 22rf lead is generally 2-3% antimony, I suspect that most of the dust or "fines" is the antimony you are missing. Heat the melt to 700-750 degrees and flux with sawdust and stir with some kind of wood, be it a heavy paint stirrer, broken hockey stick, or an old wooden spoon. Throw in a pea sized chunk of beeswax and stir some more. Then maybe add a bit of tin, probably no more than 2%.

Just curious as to why you think the dust is antimony?...

Do you mean the fines before I smelt or the dust I remove from the top of the melt?...

Thanks...BCB

[Pipefitter]

Yes to both, Smelted rimfire lead should run at least 8-10bhn, not dead soft. You are losing something in that small pot. Unless you objective is to end up with soft lead you need to flux to get the antimony back into solution. Heat, flux, and stir......

[waco]

I got about 240 of rimfire lead from my local indoor range. You are right. VERY nasty stuff to melt down. I had the same things happen to me. TONS of dross.Your findings sound correct to me. I was told by people who know more on the subject than me to treat it as pure lead. The people being CBRick, a member here and Glen Fryxell.

[melloairman]

I have smelted a lot of high velocity RF lead in a Lee pot . And have had the same results with the powder . Do remember that most RF ammo is coated with a graphite lube and that powder could be a result of the lube . My lead normally came in at around 10 bhn after it took a set .Marvin

[w30wcf]

About the only way to verify BHN of .22 Rim fire bullets is to pull them from cartridges, and either file a flat on one side or melt and make into a few bullets. I did that back in the day when I was making some b.p. .22 rim fire ammo. I pulled bullets from Remington ammo to get the cases and then melted the virgin bullets down. BHN was 6.2.

No doubt other manufacturers might use a slightly different alloy so the BHN of virgin bullets may vary a bit.

Alloy from fired bullets could possibly be compromised due to other bullets having been fired into the mix.

w30wcf

[BCB]

About the only way to verify BHN of .22 Rim fire bullets is to pull them from cartridges, and either file a flat on one side or melt and make into a few bullets. I did that back in the day when I was making some b.p. .22 rim fire ammo. I pulled bullets from Remington ammo to get the cases and then melted the virgin bullets down. BHN was 6.2.
No doubt other manufacturers might use a slightly different alloy so the BHN of virgin bullets may vary a bit.
Alloy from fired bullets could possibly be compromised due to other bullets having been fired into the mix.

w30wcf

Indeed…

This guy fires mostly “top end” 22 rimfire ammo, but there would still be a mish-mash of different boolits in the mix…

I loaded one of the C358-158-SWC today with 5 grains of Unique for around 800 fps at best I suppose. I hollow pointed it with a Forster Hollow Pointer just for the heck of it...

Took it to my shooting range as I was going to shoot some 30-30 anyhow and I fired it into a bunch of wet catalogs and newspapers that have been there for some time. All super saturated and some of them a bit frozen—but not solid…

Pics show what the boolit did when fired into the paper. Top and bottom view. Interesting how concave the gascheck ended up being…

I doubt it is going to get much above BHN of 5. I’ll check it again in a couple of weeks—is that long enough for it to start to harden a bit if it is going to do so?...

Gotta do something when you are retired or one can get into trouble!!!...

Good-luck…BCB

[Shiloh]

.22 bullet lead is soft lead. Range lead that is smelted has a lot of dross. My guess is the .22 lead is contributing to it. Lots of flux and a good bit will reduce back into metal.

Shiloh

[Geezer in NH]

Put it all in the smelting pot, melt and flux a couple of times and then make ingots.

[BCB]

“”But, as I was getting a potful of alloy (?) I just grabbed an old Lee mold that I used during my first attempts at casting. I put it on the rim of the furnace and got it warm and filled it a dozen times or so. It cast nice slugs the first few tries. I did this to check the BHN today (24 hours later) with a SAECO tester and got a SAECO 2.5 or a BHN of ~5. It is a bit early to test BHN, but it sure appears this stuff is almost pure lead. I had previously read it might be a bit harder. I guess I will check it in a couple of weeks and see if it changes...”” (From my OP #1)

Today, 2 weeks later, I check the BHN of the 22 rimfire lead. I got a SAECO of approximately 3.5 or a BHN of 6+ which is just a tad harder than pure lead…

Guess I will treat the salvaged 22 rimfire lead as “pure” lead as mentioned in post # 5…

Now I know…

Good-luck…BCB