Lead weight per gallon?

[Sean357]

Sorry if this has been talked about before, in fact it probably has but search function in Tapatalk is not great. A guy near me has some 45 cal boolits for sale, says it's about 1/3 of a 5 gal bucket. So 1.6 gallons of what look to be 185 to 200 grain boolits. Wondering if anyone has info on what lead weighs per gallon or cubic inch. Interwebs is giving alot of conflicting info on this. Just want to make sure I give him a fair offer, and at the same time not pay too much. Thanks.

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[NoAngel]

This website says 151 pounds
http://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-to-weight


Consider it to be less for the air space. How much air space though is incalculable. So guess.

[Sean357]

Yeah that was the first one I came across, said 100 lbs per .88 gals. Just seemed really high, but I don't have a whole lot of experience at this point so maybe it's right.

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[NoAngel]

I went on a casting bing a while back and filled a kitty litter bucket with 124g 9mm's. [Well, almost. call it 80%] There was no moving it. Not for this ole boy. LOL!

[Sean357]

Ok so I think that aqua-calc site is right. After figuring grains per lb and guesstimating from my 38 cal boolits it turn out that 150 lbs sounds right. Would come out at a bit over 5000 boolits. Wouldn't need to buy any light 45 cal boolits for quite awhile!

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[funnyjim014]

Don't forget to figure in the air space. It's not a solid 1.6 gal

[Regulator.]

I tried to pour it in a gal milk jug to weigh jug melted oopps

[Hick]

151 would be the weight if there was no air space (the specific gravity of lead is about 19 times more than water, and water weights 8-something pounds per gallon-- 19 times 8 is 152). with or without air space its heavy!

[Sean357]

True I hadn't considered the airspace, should bring it down a bit. The guy is going to try and get a actual weight tomorrow and then let me know. At the least it's a few thousand given that 500 200 gr RN weigh about 14 lbs.

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[OS OK]

I'll take a swag...80#.

[runfiverun]

water is 8.33 lbs per gallon if it's clean.
lead is about 730 lbs per cubic foot.
if you can eyeball about a cubic foot a [a little bigger than a gallon of milk jug] then reduce and subtract for the gaps you can Mark-1 eyeball it fairly close.

[NavyVet1959]

Simple math calculation, you just need a few conversion factors...

231 cu-in per gallon
708 lbs per cu-ft of lead
12*12*12 = 1728 cu-in per cu-ft

So, a cu-in of lead weighs 708 / 1728 = 0.40972 lbs

And a gallon of lead weighs 0.40972 * 231 = 94.64583 lbs

Now, according to wiki, solid lead has a density of 11.34 g per cu-cm.

Since there are 2.54 cm per inch, that means that there are 11.34 * 2.54*2.54*2.54 * 231 = 42926.5696 g per gallon.

There are 0.45359237 kg per pound (exactly).
There are 1000 g per kg.

So, 42926.5696 / 1000 / 0.45359237 = 94.636644 lbs per gallon.

And, depending upon the lead alloy, it might be slightly lighter.

Since there will be air space between the bullets, it's going to be less. Probably a safe bet that it will be more than half of the value of a solid chunk of lead, but there's too many variables to provide a completely accurate estimate. Best solution is to take a bathroom scale with you and weigh them.

Since you're talking about 1.6 gallons, take the above and multiply by 1.6

[OS OK]

I'm going to send you my checkbook Navy....needs some rithmetec done.

[762 shooter]

If you have some 300 gr 45 cast boolits, count out 2 or 300 into a container, weigh them, add water to top of boolits weigh the total. Now subtract the boolit only weight from the total and you have the water weight that filled up the air spaces. Convert to volume and subtract that volume as lead weight. Voila, the weight of air space as a ratio to the number of boolits you used.

762

[NavyVet1959]

If you have some 300 gr 45 cast boolits, count out 2 or 300 into a container, weigh them, add water to top of boolits weigh the total. Now subtract the boolit only weight from the total and you have the water weight that filled up the air spaces. Convert to volume and subtract that volume as lead weight. Voila, the weight of air space as a ratio to the number of boolits you used.


If you have a scale to weigh that, you might as well just weigh the bullets initially.

Besides, that "1/3rd of a 5g bucket" is probably not that accurate anyway. That's probably somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2. :)

[762 shooter]

If you have a scale to weigh that, you might as well just weigh the bullets initially.

Besides, that "1/3rd of a 5g bucket" is probably not that accurate anyway. That's probably somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2. :)

You are just weighing 200 boolits to get a ratio of air space to boolits. 6 pounds?

762

[runfiverun]

holy cow I'd just call it 40% air.
eyeball the volume and figure 60%.
by the time I got done with the math I'd have a headache and replacing my pencil lead wouldn't cover the extra dollar I'd lose.

[NavyVet1959]

You are just weighing 200 boolits to get a ratio of air space to boolits. 6 pounds?


6 pounds is too heavy for most of our powder scales and too light to get an accurate measurement with most bathroom scales.

[Ickisrulz]

water is 8.33 lbs per gallon if it's clean.
lead is about 730 lbs per cubic foot.
if you can eyeball about a cubic foot a [a little bigger than a gallon of milk jug] then reduce and subtract for the gaps you can Mark-1 eyeball it fairly close.

Actually a cubic foot is much larger than a gallon of milk. A cubic foot holds about 7.5 gallons of milk.

[gwpercle]

Math isn't going to give you the real answer.....just count them.

[NavyVet1959]

Math isn't going to give you the real answer.....just count them.

Nawh, just weigh them and offer $1 per pound (and maybe whatever else you think it is worth to not have to cast them yourself). I haven't looked at the spot price of lead on the metal market lately, but last I remember, it was around $1 per pound.

[runfiverun]

been around 80 cents for a year now.

[OS OK]

I'll bet that 7.5-11% of that weight is jackets...better consider that before offering $1.00/lb.
Then what percent is those newfangled non lead boolits?

[NavyVet1959]

I'll bet that 7.5-11% of that weight is jackets...better consider that before offering $1.00/lb.
Then what percent is those newfangled non lead boolits?

The way I read it, the OP was talking about bullets ready to load, not range scrap. If so, jacketed bullets would still be worth $1 per pound.

[OS OK]

Ooooh...well, excuse me. Let me see if I can get my wife to pull my head out of my butt again!

[Sean357]

Ok so I was waaaaaaay off on the estimate or it was just more towards the 1/4 full end of the 1/3 full estimate that he gave haha. 67 lbs, about 2350 boolits. I had originally offered $100 and asked what he'd do for that going on the previous weight. He came back with the actual weight, and is throwing in a whole bunch of other goodies also, just wants to get rid of everything. Even if it was just the boolits it would still be good considering locally I would pay $45 per 500. Ill have to make another post when I pick everything up and get to dig through it.
Thanks for all the responses, educational and entertaining.

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[Garyshome]

I use an old bathroom scale someone gave me to weigh Pb. Works really good

[NavyVet1959]

I use an old bathroom scale someone gave me to weigh Pb. Works really good

The digital ones are pretty good as long as you are weighing something that has a bit of weight to it. Don't expect them to be that accurate if you are only weighing something that is 5 lbs though.