35 lbs lead brick ID

[mortre]

I am new to casting and have the opportunity to buy 3 ~35 lbs lead bricks for $75. The seller does not know the composition, he says he is a picker that got it out of a storage unit. It is marked with either a P, b, or 9. He can't tell which, and the only other info he can give me is that it looks old.

Any idea what it might be, or if it would even be worth buying?

[a.squibload]

That's a fair price if it's lead.
Try to scratch it with a thumbnail, etc.

[runfiverun]

that's over 100 lbs of lead for 75 dollars..
do the thumbnail scratch,see what temp it melts at,drop it on the concrete,what a boolit weighs test [if you don't have a tester]
usually a brick sized piece of soft/pure lead is in the 25 lb range.

[Jens]

sounds like a good start.

[lwknight]

Melt it.
See what happens.
LOL!

[mortre]

Unfortunately someone else bought it while I was hemming and hawing about it =/

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[Guesser]

I once had access to hundreds of those bricks. The ones I have came out of the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL). The "site" was a nuclear test facility in the desert west of Idaho Falls Idaho started by the AEC after WWII. Was best known as the Naval Reactor Facility until 1994 when the Navy left. The bricks were used as temporary sheathing for radioactive components and facilities.

[mortre]

Sounds like I missed out on a deal...

Oh well, not the first time that happened to me. Seems like every time I wait I loose out and every time I jump I get burned. That's life I guess.

On the upside, the last time I got burned I did get a nice pistol out of the deal. Just paid to much for it. Cosmetic damage pretty much killed any collector value. But I've got a S&W 696 that should come back from the gunsmith this week bead blasted with black cerakote on the hammer and trigger. Should make for a nice woods bumming gun that I don't have feel guilty about carrying or shooting. Trying to order one of Mihec's over run #503 copies, and I've got an 8 lbs keg of H-universal to play with. I wonder how 5.3 grns will run with that bullet in a 3" barrel. That is what my powder thrower is currently set for.

[EDK]

I had a 696, but didn't like it near as much as I thought I would...sold it and a matching 3 inch 686 CS-1 after a lot of years in the safe. That said, go low on powder charge...for your comfort; the gun is plenty strong!...and use a suitable boolit. Sometimes I wish I had those little guys back, but they aren't the first or the last guns where I've had sellers remorse.

I've got the MIHEC 503 in both aluminum and brass...wish I'd got the brass as a hollow point. A better choice would be MIHEC's hollow base wadcutter in 44 or something similar from NOE. A 44 wadcutter will be accurate for the range you'll use your little belly gun. There have been some stray mountain lions that followed the Missouri river south and some bears that strayed north to my neck of the woods, BUT my usual problem critter is someone's loose mean dog...or two!

:redneck::cbpour::guntootsmiley:

[mortre]

I had originally thought about the wadcutter mould. I just couldn't find any load data for it with any powders I have. That is what steered me away from it. I did see references that the 503 mould can use 429421 data.

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