Remelting laser cast bullets

[wendyj]

I've got about 300 45 colt Oregon trail Lasercast. They are sized .452 and my rifle shoots best with .454. Was reading melting temps of silver and my pots won't get that hot. Was wondering if it was just silver solder. Is this possible to do in the Lee pot or just keep for handgun that shoots .452. Seems like a waste of a super hard bullet I could recast into my size 45 for the rifle or into a good hard cast for 45-70.

[FLINTNFIRE]

Yes the lee pot will melt just add to whatever lead you have in pot

[Minerat]

Why don't you clean the lube off and double coat with PC? Might get you to the magic 0.454. Just a thought.

[Tatume]

Get half a pot of lead hot, and then start dropping them in; they will melt.

Before you do that though, you might want to offer to trade them.

[Tom W.]

When I worked in the sawmill I would bring home little scraps of silver solder, and my Lee pot wouldn't melt them either. I never tried a Lasercast bullet to my knowledge, unless it was range scrap...

[Minerat]

Just checked, I have some RCBS 45-250FN that drop at 0.456 with my alloy. With 1 coat of PC they measure 0.458.

[country gent]

The actual amount of silver is small, and being alloyed with the tin lead and antimony it is suspended in the mix. It will melt with the alloy and blend. SIlver and antimonies melting points arnt far apart and very few worry about alloyed antimony melting.
I would melt and pour them into small ingots and use to alloy fine tune a alloy same as mono, lino or wheel weights

[popper]

They have only a trace of silver in them as a hardener/grain refiner. They melt easily. Costs a $$ to remove the small trace of silver. They might even have cobalt in them.

[15meter]

My understanding the lead lasercast used was a byproduct of silver mining. The silver content is minimal, but makes great advertising copy.

[GoodOlBoy]

they will melt, but I agree you would probably get more value in them as a trade.

God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy

[wendyj]

I got 2 boxes of these at Cabelas when they had a half off sale last year so I only have $78.00 in the whole batch. Thought if they would melt I would mix some pure lead or ww in and recast into a good hard 45-70. My Vaquero shoots the fine but with cowboy velocities in the revolver a BHN of 22 is a little overkill but lightened up some might make a great 45-70 bullet or two for this years bear season.
I've got some range lead that is really soft also and hate to just let it waste. Not sure what to mix it with. I'm just taking a wild guess that at 250 grains that is about 14.29 lbs of lead in the bullets

[fatelk]

I think Oregon Trail’s “Silver Bullet” claim is a bit misleading. It’s simply marketing based on the fact that the lead they use contains a trace amount of silver.

They’re basically just regular commercially cast lead bullets. Nothing special. Any silver they contain is probably a very tiny fraction of one percent. Considering that silver is worth about 250 times as much as lead, if there was much more than a tiny trace, they would refine it out and not waste it on bullets.

[reddog81]

Removing the lube and powder coating is a great option if you're setup for that. The bullets only have a small fraction of silver like other have mentioned. Actual silver bullets for a 45-70 would have about $10 worth of silver in each bullet.

[gwpercle]

Trace amounts of silver at most.....more than likely just advertising hype at best.
Your Lee pot will melt them just fine.
Gary

[MT Chambers]

If they were cast by lazer wouldn't you have to remelt them with a lazer?

[fatelk]

Yes, melt them with........




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[lightman]

I agree with the others, they will melt just fine. If I wanted to blend in some softer lead I would start at about 25% and maybe go up to 50%. Many casters get a good alloy with 50-50 clip on weights and soft lead with a little tin added.

[wendyj]

Wonder if they would harden up some range brass

[Beagle333]

Range scrap, you mean...... yes it would.

[wendyj]

Yes, Range lead is what I meant. Sorry, Between reloading with brass and casting I get tongue tied sometime.