Question about smelting spent bullets

[gl1800]

Greetings everyone. First an update. With the wealth of information the folks here so willingly provide, I've been very successful with my first WW smelting and boolit casting sessions. I've been able to remain safe and uninjured while casting my first 1200 158gr LSWC(.358) and absolutely no leading shooting them out of my .357 w/10.0 gr of 2400.

Recently, while I was thinking of ways to add to my stockpile of WW's, I decided to take a trip to the local outdoor range and was able to score a 5 gal bucket of spent bullets that were just lying on top of the dirt. Came home and after smelting, wound up with about 70 muffin sized ingots from the 5 gal bucket. In manually comparing the bullet ingots to the WW's ingots, they seem to be about the same hardness.

Now the question. Do I need to add anything to this batch of ingots to make good boolits or just cast a few and see how they work out?


Thanks,
Richard

[JSnover]

They may be softer than WW but you hit the nail on the head; cast a few and see how they shoot.

[Bent Ramrod]

gl1800,

The range scrap that I scrounge I am generally able to separate into three categories: .22 bullets, jacketed (swaged) bullets and cast bullets.

The .22 bullets and the cores from the swaged bullets both appeared to be very near the same alloy of almost pure lead. On my SAECO tester they came out Brinnell 5 to 6 on hardness.

Many of the spent cast bullets appear to be made of depleted Linotype or some similar hard-cast mixture. The stuff used to be everywhere and cheap, and I think a lot of the commercial casting companies used Linotype routinely up to a decade or two ago.

When I melted all three categories above together, there was always more than enough tin and antimony from the cast bullets to harden the mixture to a level comparable to that of wheelweight alloy or above. The mixture melts at a low temperature, fills the mould well and casts up bright and shiny. I never needed to add any alloying elements whatsoever.

I now typically keep the three categories separate, using the swaged cores and .22 lead for black powder cartridge boolits and black/smokeless hollow point boolits, and the cast stuff for smokeless rifle or pistol general usage.

I have recently separated out a fourth category which I haven't melted down to test for hardness yet. This is the category of plated bullets, which conceivably could be either cast or swaged before plating. Hardness could vary to either extreme.

[runfiverun]

i believe that the plated ones from berrys are swaged,and the west coast are cast.
both are near pure lead though.
i usually mix all the range scrap together [half seemed to be mine anyway]
then mix it 50/50 with ww's for my revolvers.

[gl1800]

Thanks for the input. The range that I scored the scrap from is a military pistol range that's been around for about 30 years. About 99% of the scrap appears to be the old military .45 jacketed ball bullet with the lead base and a lot of jacketed 9mm of the same type. Went back out yesterday and scored another 3 , 5gal buckets. Hopefully this will be some good stuff to make boolits.

I think this is a sickness. I'm enjoying the scrounging as much as the smelting/casting. My one (shooting) hobby has turned into a bunch of other hobbies.

Scrounging lead
Smelting
Casting
Scrounging Brass
reloading
Shooting

Thanks again,
Regards,
Richard

[hiram]

I read that a very good alloy, and one that is excellent for 45-70 is 20# range lead and 1# lino.

[targetshootr]

It's funny how shooting takes a back seat once you discover the real fun.


:castmine:

[gl1800]

Anyone know if the scrap yard takes the copper from the melted bullets? If so, is it worth the trouble?

Thanks,

Richard

[mooman76]

Yes they will but with the price of gas unless you have a huge amount, it probably isn't worth it.

[leftiye]

Unless maybe you were to find some cheap WWs while you were there.