Hello all,
I’ve been lurking for awhile. Tons of info here.
I recently was given maybe a half or third 5gal bucket full of plumbers lead bars from a plumber friend. He says it’s pure lead from when he was learning the trade 25+ years ago.
In addition a coworker gave me 12lbs of mixed shotgun pellets. So that started a possible new hobbie.
I purchased some basic casting stuff: small lee pot, ladle, .54 rb mold for my flintlocks.
I want to keep this very simple as I am known (mostly by the wife) for over doing it initially on my (many many) hobbies lol.
All I want to accomplish right now is casting a few rb’s to shoot, possibly take a deer with and maybe some sinkers at some point.
Like many of you I have reloading setups, do minor gunsmithing, and the like.
So...
-What do I have here? Plumbers lead usually pure? Can I just melt this and cast a few balls.
-Do I need to “smelt” the bars or the shot?
-Should I mix some pellets with the bars?
-Any other suggestions? Remember SIMPLE is key. I was considering getting a small cast iron smelting pot to run on a camp stove.
-Thanks in advance. The only person I ever knew that cast just picked up wheel weights, melted then down, and poured into rb molds. No concern for content, purity, hardness, etc.
Thanks!
Joe (markX)