reclaimed shot, again

[lotech]

I'm pouring a bunch of reclaimed shot into ingots. I've done his before but don't recall using it without mixing it with range scrap ingots. Anyone use straight reclaimed shot for casting? I've checked it on my LBT hardness tester before and I think it was around 12-13 BHN, which should be okay for handgun bullets at least. May need some tin, but anyone have thoughts on this?

[labradigger1]

What is your location? Many would trade smelted ww ingots for the shot. Myself included.

[rking22]

I use reclaimed shot a s well. I dod not like the casting qualities straightup so I mix a bag of reclaim with 30 lbs of plain lead and 1 1/4 lb of pewter. Assuming the shot is 5% antimony and most all has arsenic. What I wind up with is roughly 2-2-95.5 with .5% arsenic and .03 copper. It casts well, water quenches pretty hard and holds together well. The shot is DIRTY I got 2.5lbs of dirt/dross from the c50# batch. I frequently cut that alloy 50-50 with plain lead and waterdrop for handgun and hunting bullets fot rifles. No leading either way if the bullet fits the throat.
I load it in my 12 and 16 shotguns as well, man it is DIRTY stuff, but the price was right.

[lotech]

I'm in North Texas. I attempted to trade this stuff (about 250 lbs.) for ingots a couple of years ago to two people on this forum. Neither came through with anything but talk. I don't care to go through the hassle of shipping lead, but thanks for the offer. I've already made ingots out of most of it; about 75 lbs. to go.

[Sam Casey]

Just curious. As a shotgunner I tried reclaimed once and found it to be very gritty and dirty. Nothing I would want to load for nice shotgun, even with modern highly protective wads. Gave mine away. What happens to all the junk when you make ingots for bullets? Not something I would want to shoot thru nice Colt or Smith.

[lotech]

You skim all the grit, graphite coating residue, etc. off the top and wind up with clean ingots, but it's a lot of work. Won't do it again after I'm done with this batch. I was given ten 25 lb. bags of this stuff. I have another 60-80 lbs. of pretty old unused shot that apparently has no coating. It's much cleaner to work, no trash and 100% melt.

I'm not a shotgunner, but the used shot has a lot of flat pellets in it. I wouldn't think this would be advantageous for any sort of decent pattern, except up real close.

[rking22]

It floats, just like dirt on wheelweights. Flux and rake it off. Last bag of 25# had 2 1/2 # of graphite and dirt, i eeighted it after drossing it off. The only thing is it needs tin to cast well. We shoot it gor practice, once its washed it loads ok if the drop tube is big enough to not bridge. Biggest problem is all the graphite they added when "cleaning".

[rking22]

Lotech, one reason I mix it with plain lead is cause it's so hard to melt and dross by itself. The additional lead helps in the labor dept! I would not do it to sell, way too much work.
Look it up on the alloy spreadsheet in the sticky and you will see "kinda" what you have. Add some tin to the pot till it casts good and you will like it.

[lightman]

The last smelting pictures that I posted were 350-400 pounds of reclaimed shot. It took longer to melt than any other lead that I have melted. Once the lead melted I could skim the graphite off and flux. I kept one ingot out of the bunch with the intentions to have it tested but have not done so yet. Its very shiney and very hard. Three test showed a consistent bhn of 22. It was more work than even dirty greasy wheel weights.