bird shot boolits

[aa5744]

when I want to heat treat and end up with some real hard cast boolits I start of with magnum lead shot, because it's there on the bench and as it is it's about Lyman# 2.the question I have is I always end up with this sticky stuff on the bottom of the pot. On the surface of the melt there is a yellow oily looking sheen. the hotter I get the pot (above 800 F) the more of it shows and turns red . Has this happened to any of you folks and what is it. I know shot has a bit of arsenic in it to help the shot to be round. It still makes good boolits but is a little messy .got any ideas?

[Tackleberry41]

The mix in bird shot varies alot. I doubt they plan on it being melted down. Place near me sells alot of Rio shells. Melting that down to make buck shot, you always ended up with a big wad of oatmeal looking stuff that wouldn't melt, and what was left was pretty nasty. You could flux it and flux it, more just just kept coming to the top. When done this green powder all over the pot and dipper. But a newer batch of shells doesn't have all the garbage in it, doubt they changed the mix for any reason other than they found a cheaper way.