What exactly do I have here?

[OnceFired]

Picked this up from a friend. Total is 36 lbs. The clear plastic tubes have several cast bullets in them, caked with a dry flaky wax. They are murder to get out of the tubes, so I cut one open to check them out. They appear to be black powder slugs for storage & carrying purposes.



Additionally, there are musket style balls in there, plus a couple varieties of projectiles - some round nose hollow base, round nose solid base, solid base conical, etc. There were a handful of really large projectiles he said were BMG bullets but I've never seen one up close myself.



I even got a primer pocket cleaner bit in the mix.

[Bookworm]

Looks to me like that's exactly what you have. Someone's black powder projectiles.
Chances are good that the lead is dead soft.

Can't speak to the 50 BMG bullets, but I bet they'd melt down...

[Scooby]

I see some Lee REAL bullets in there. The lubed bullets will make good flux. They are oxidized but look like they were a quality cast when done. no wrinkles or voids, that is also a sign they are good lead. just hand sort them before you melt to make sure there are no live rounds or primers in there. good score

[triggerhappy243]

The bullets in the tubes look like t/c maxi-hunters. Dang good score if you shoot muzzle loaders.

[OnceFired]

Well, I don't shoot muzzle loaders / old style black powder guns. But the lead will melt and I did figure the wax would be great as flux.

Are the large bullet projectiles safe to simply throw away? I was told they are explosive in nature, so do not melt or otherwise destroy them. I had planned on tossing them but I certainly don't want the local trash truck to have a bad day. I've got 6 of them.

[corbinace]

The one jacketed boat tail bullet shown looks to have been through a rifles barrel already, so I can not imagine it being of any danger.

[triggerhappy243]

OnceFired, if you are going to toss the 50 cal. jacketed bullets, i would like to have 1

[ioon44]

All the 50 BMG bullets I have seen are steel core with copper jacket, trying to melt these could result in a steam explosion in a lead pot.
Best advice is don't do it, voice of experience.

[OnceFired]

Yeah, I don't plan on melting them. If it's not explosive, I'm just going to toss them.

[DHDeal]

I highly doubt those are API (armor piercing incendiary) or any other type of incendiary bullets. Even if the paint was scraped/worn off, that bullet has already been down a bore once.

That bullet will be a thick jacket over a steel core. Chunk it with no worries of any danger to others, but it makes a nice conversation piece.

[slim1836]

Drill and screw an eyelet on one of the 50's and make yourself a plumb bob.

Slim

[deadeye ruck]

Typically your miniballs will be soft (most guys shoot as close to pure as possible) as a general rule. The TC bullets in the tube will probably be a touch harder. Most commercial roundballs are swaged. They are soft but are a little harder than pure lead. Overall I would say the lot will test very soft.

[Lance Boyle]

Those .50 cal bullets make a nice hard center punch if they're the AP variety. The bullet base would have a socket hole for tracer compound if a tracer. As it's fired that stuff "should" be gone.

[lightman]

I'm like DHDeal, those 50 caliber bullets would make a nice conservation piece on the loading table. I have one that I use as a tool to round out bent case mouths on 44 and 45 caliber cases.

[mozeppa]

i gave my nephew a .50 bmg projectile as a souvenir ...he said "that's gonna be on a necklace!"

he thought it was too heavy so he put a torch to it to melt out the lead...it exploded.

no one hurt....he did this without me knowing exactly what he was going to do.