358 Yeti
09-07-2015, 05:49 AM
I've decided to slowly start gathering materials and tooling to start casting my own bullets. From what I've gleaned so far, casting can be a very rewarding process, and very economical at the same time. With my participation in USPSA competitive shooting, I will easily recover my start up costs in a few months. I also have plans for casting heavy 277 pills for subsonic use and various .358 bullets for the 358 Yeti project (Both subsonic and supersonic) I have very little desire to mess with lubricating the bullets so I plan to coat them with either powder coat or Hi-Tek coating.
I'm creating this thread to log my progress, share information to those that may be interested, as well as receive feedback from those more experienced than I (Basically everyone here).
So here we go...
Lead...I know I need lead. I hit the google machine and researched where to find sources of lead that could be rendered for casting. Everyone knows that lead wheel weights are a very common source for this. I also learned that sailboats have a sizable amount of lead in them for keel weights. Being near Lake Michigan, I have several marinas nearby, however they proved fruitless. I was told by most of them that the lead is the first thing to go when they salvage the boats. (This was probably a blessing in disguise since I had no idea how I'd move 800# of the stuff!)
Another interesting source I learned about were 'iso-cores" which sounded cooler than they are. For those than don't know, Iso-cores are beaker shaped containers that radioactive medicines are shipped in that weigh 30-40# a piece. So far I haven't been able to locate these, but I have some friends in the medical field keeping an ear to the ground for me.
Back to the old stand-by, wheel weights. I googled "tire shops" near me and called all 23 of them. The two responses I got were: "We already have a guy," and "We have a contract with [Big name company]" Bummed from the 0-23 whiff, I though to call one more shop near me that works on big rigs. To my surprise they said they had "a few buckets of them" and I'm welcome to pick them up!
On Friday I showed up to the tire shop and met with the manager. He showed me the three 5 gallon buckets by the tire machine. I gave him $40 in exchange for 2 of the buckets. He let me know that there were more out behind the shop if I was interested. I went back and found these so I let him know that I would be back next week for the remaining 6 buckets. When I go back, I plan to find out how fast these things fill up and will plan out a pick-up schedule on the regular.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm117/Livnoutdoorsxd9/FC4476B0-E503-4AE5-AF33-211A083612CE.jpg (http://s294.photobucket.com/user/Livnoutdoorsxd9/media/FC4476B0-E503-4AE5-AF33-211A083612CE.jpg.html)
I brought my two (HEAVY) buckets home and started sorting them. I used a couple of different methods to sort out the junk. Using a pair of side cutters, I would nip at the weights to see if it would deform, dropping the weights on the concrete and listened to the sound they made, or simply knocking the side cutters on the weight and listen (similar to the 'drop test')
I also separated the stick on weights from the clip ons. My research shows that stick ons are close to pure lead and very soft (good for slugs, buckshot, and hollow points). Half way through the bucket, I found all of these strips of brand new, never-stuck, stick ons. I though that was pretty cool.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm117/Livnoutdoorsxd9/9ABBC7CC-8506-4CB5-9C0F-42FD701AF494.jpg (http://s294.photobucket.com/user/Livnoutdoorsxd9/media/9ABBC7CC-8506-4CB5-9C0F-42FD701AF494.jpg.html)
After all the sorting, here were my results:
Bucket 1: 65# lead, 60# junk
Bucket 2: 75# lead, 55# junk
So all in all, 140# of lead WW for $40 seems like a pretty good score for my first round. I'll be able to recoup $20-25 for the junk weights and put it towards the next run.
I've got some equipment to pick up before I can start melting it down to usable ingots, but I'm pleased to know that I have a good initial source of the silver stuff!
More to come....
I'm creating this thread to log my progress, share information to those that may be interested, as well as receive feedback from those more experienced than I (Basically everyone here).
So here we go...
Lead...I know I need lead. I hit the google machine and researched where to find sources of lead that could be rendered for casting. Everyone knows that lead wheel weights are a very common source for this. I also learned that sailboats have a sizable amount of lead in them for keel weights. Being near Lake Michigan, I have several marinas nearby, however they proved fruitless. I was told by most of them that the lead is the first thing to go when they salvage the boats. (This was probably a blessing in disguise since I had no idea how I'd move 800# of the stuff!)
Another interesting source I learned about were 'iso-cores" which sounded cooler than they are. For those than don't know, Iso-cores are beaker shaped containers that radioactive medicines are shipped in that weigh 30-40# a piece. So far I haven't been able to locate these, but I have some friends in the medical field keeping an ear to the ground for me.
Back to the old stand-by, wheel weights. I googled "tire shops" near me and called all 23 of them. The two responses I got were: "We already have a guy," and "We have a contract with [Big name company]" Bummed from the 0-23 whiff, I though to call one more shop near me that works on big rigs. To my surprise they said they had "a few buckets of them" and I'm welcome to pick them up!
On Friday I showed up to the tire shop and met with the manager. He showed me the three 5 gallon buckets by the tire machine. I gave him $40 in exchange for 2 of the buckets. He let me know that there were more out behind the shop if I was interested. I went back and found these so I let him know that I would be back next week for the remaining 6 buckets. When I go back, I plan to find out how fast these things fill up and will plan out a pick-up schedule on the regular.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm117/Livnoutdoorsxd9/FC4476B0-E503-4AE5-AF33-211A083612CE.jpg (http://s294.photobucket.com/user/Livnoutdoorsxd9/media/FC4476B0-E503-4AE5-AF33-211A083612CE.jpg.html)
I brought my two (HEAVY) buckets home and started sorting them. I used a couple of different methods to sort out the junk. Using a pair of side cutters, I would nip at the weights to see if it would deform, dropping the weights on the concrete and listened to the sound they made, or simply knocking the side cutters on the weight and listen (similar to the 'drop test')
I also separated the stick on weights from the clip ons. My research shows that stick ons are close to pure lead and very soft (good for slugs, buckshot, and hollow points). Half way through the bucket, I found all of these strips of brand new, never-stuck, stick ons. I though that was pretty cool.
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm117/Livnoutdoorsxd9/9ABBC7CC-8506-4CB5-9C0F-42FD701AF494.jpg (http://s294.photobucket.com/user/Livnoutdoorsxd9/media/9ABBC7CC-8506-4CB5-9C0F-42FD701AF494.jpg.html)
After all the sorting, here were my results:
Bucket 1: 65# lead, 60# junk
Bucket 2: 75# lead, 55# junk
So all in all, 140# of lead WW for $40 seems like a pretty good score for my first round. I'll be able to recoup $20-25 for the junk weights and put it towards the next run.
I've got some equipment to pick up before I can start melting it down to usable ingots, but I'm pleased to know that I have a good initial source of the silver stuff!
More to come....