Do you scrap

[white eagle]

I have a bunch of cast boolits in different cals and different styles
in separate containers on my desk covering a bunch of space
Do any of you cast and have extra lying around for a long time?
Have you ever melted them in their specific alloys for use again later?
I am thinking of doing this only because I can use the space and do seem to be using the boolits like I thought I would [smilie=b:

[Went2kck]

I toss all in a coffee can and next casting sesion i feed them in. unless its like strait lino or almost pure lead.

[charlie b]

Yep, I toss them in the pot. If lubed they have their own 'flux' to add to the pot. Powder coated the coating just floats up to the top. Same with gas checks.

[Garyshome]

Yep usually aluminum last time I got about $300

[Winger Ed.]

I'd find another place to put them until I got around to loading 'em.

Don't make extra work for yourself. Plenty of other people are more than glad to do that for you.

[Kraschenbirn]

Yup! I only cast three alloys - 25/1 for the BPCRs, a 10-12 Bhn for handgun cartridges, and one equivalent to Lyman #2 for CF rifle - and if I notice I've got a stock of a specific boolit that's been sitting around for a while (like a year or so) without being used, they go into the appropriate scrap bucket for 'recycling'.

Bill

[Bazoo]

If I know I won't shoot them I'll remelt them. If there is any chance I'll shoot them later, I generally keep them. Mostly I run ww alloy but also 50/50 ww/Pb and pure. I separate bullets of different alloy and melt them when I change to that alloy in my pot.

[mdi]

Yep, I call it my "mystery metal". A mix of leftover bullets, scrap and sprues, etc. Runs around 11 BHN. Good for nearly all my casting needs...

Melt them all together and cast some ingots...

[FLINTNFIRE]

I have cast coffee cans full of different calibers and styles to find I was not using them or I had oxidation on them and they get mixed back into other bullets as needed , rejects from a session are tossed back into cold pot .

I make a lot of cast bullets and coat them for future use , store them under loading benches , benches do not move easy .

[Dusty Bannister]

If I have more than 50 or so, I may keep them and make more at some point. Less than that, and I will just recycle them because I probably failed to note the alloy when cast.

[tankgunner59]

I have a can on my loading table for cast bullets for each caliber I have. I keep them on the table till I load them and then replenish. I have some 22 caliber pills for my 22-250 Rem that have been there for a while, but I won't re-melt them cause I'll load them later.

[Brassmonkey]

Yep, if it's metal of any value I have a bucket or barrel for it. It does not go in the trash.

[kevin c]

I have literally thousands of cast bullets still in their USPS MFR boxes from the commercial outfit I used to buy from before I started to cast my own. I could load them, except they're not sized to what I prefer to use now, and they're probably a hardball alloy, which I might cut with pure and add back tin to 2% to get what I use now. So I guess they're sort of emergency backup bullets and an alloy reserve. I could probably sell them in today's market and get back all my initial investment. Since I, too, am beginning to run short on space, I might need to actually do something rather than just think about it.

[reddog81]

I have a bunch of cast boolits in different cals and different styles
in separate containers on my desk covering a bunch of space
Do any of you cast and have extra lying around for a long time?
Have you ever melted them in their specific alloys for use again later?
I am thinking of doing this only because I can use the space and do seem to be using the boolits like I thought I would [smilie=b:

What sort of quantities are we talking about? 5, 10, 50, or more?

I have bullets that were cast or purchased years ago sitting around in boxes and bins. If it’s something I’ll use I keep it. I have a bin full of rejects or singletons that are waiting to be smelted. Sometimes a handful of bullets will sit out for some specific purposes and never get used so they get tossed into the bin to be smelted.

[winelover]

If I made them, I keep them. Commercial cast or donated ones, might get scrapped but most likely go to plinking/practice ammo. Since I have my own backyard range, I recycle all my alloy. I designate it RBA, recovered bullet alloy. It averages @ 14-15 BHN, over the years. Gets used again in most calibers, I reload for. Mostly air cooled , sometimes heat treated. Depends on the application.

Winelover

[Doubles Shooter]

I was recently given a couple hundred pounds of cast and lubes boolits. They were stored in a damp basement or garage by the looks of the boxes they were in. Most are loose and dirty so they will be going into the pot for a re-melt. There are a few hundred .38 SWC in the mix that are factory cast from the looks of them that I might keep. I also found a 500 box of Remington 125 gr j words I'm going to keep. It will give me an excuse to buy a .38 for myself.

[dtknowles]

Good cast bullets of significant quantity (25 or more) go in boxes on the shelf for use someday. I have plenty of lead in ingots or native (Wheel Weights, range scrap, lead sheet) form to cast other bullets. I would have to be desperate to melt down good bullets.

Tim

[bedbugbilly]

I usually store my boolits in things like plastic peanut jars, etc. and when I cast, I never really "count" - I just cast, lube and load up what I want to. As a result, I have a number of jars like ou speak about that end up on the shelf. I cast for a number of different calibers and guns and have a number of molds for each one. Usually about once a year, I go through the shelf and if I have a jar with boolits in it that I know I won't be shooting or loading - they go back into the pot. Not a bitty ro m as I either cast out of pure lead for BP and the rest are usually out of "range lead".

If I didn't go through things once in a while and "clean house", I would run out of shelf space and probably have boolits in jars for guns/calibers I no longer load. Plus - what's that old saying? "A clean shop makes a happy wife" . . . or something like that!

[farmbif]

I put em in tin cans or plastic bullet boxes for future use, I have some cast bullets I've found at scrap yard, 50 cal, have no gun to shoot them in but still can't bring myself to melt them back down. I guess its just me. if I ever run out of buckets of alloy, maybe I'll melt some down.

[Mal Paso]

You talking about my SHTF stash? If they are already cast I will have to be out of alloy before I melt a good bullet.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Do any of you cast and have extra lying around for a long time?
Have you ever melted them in their specific alloys for use again later?

Yes and Yes.

[Scrounge]

I was recently given a couple hundred pounds of cast and lubes boolits. They were stored in a damp basement or garage by the looks of the boxes they were in. Most are loose and dirty so they will be going into the pot for a re-melt. There are a few hundred .38 SWC in the mix that are factory cast from the looks of them that I might keep. I also found a 500 box of Remington 125 gr j words I'm going to keep. It will give me an excuse to buy a .38 for myself.

You don't need an excuse, you just need a .38. Or maybe a .357 Mag. Just do it! ;)

[GregLaROCHE]

I have lots of different containers with boolits in them. Different sizes, weights, sized or not and PCed or not. I make sure I put a piece of paper in each indicating what they are. When I get down to less than six or so, I usually put them in the remelt can to free up the container. When my remelt can gets full, I make ingots and mark them with a ? , so know it’s an unknown alloy.

[Alstep]

I salvage everything, never throw anything out. I shoot into a bullet trap to reclaim all my lead. Spent brass goes to the scrapyard & I trade for lead. Recycling at it's best. All about saving the environment & global warming!

[Hanzy4200]

I toss rejects or damaged bullets into a little box by the bench. Every so often I add them to the pot. No sense is worrying about specific alloy. If the are PC I wait till I am smelting down range scrap, as the resulting goop is not favorable to a bottom pour pot.

[WHITETAIL]

I have 2 buckets that are marked DIRTY LEAD,
and SPREW SCRAP.
As I pick up lead all year from every were.
That goes in the DIRTY bucket.
When I am making new boolets the sprew goes
in the SPREW bucket.
Then once a year I smelt and clean the dirty lead.
And then smelt the sprew lead and then I put it in a
bucket marked SUPER CLEAN.
That is the bucket I make my boolits out of.
The boolits come out around 7-9 SAECO.:Fire:

[dtknowles]

I have 2 buckets that are marked DIRTY LEAD,
and SPREW SCRAP.
As I pick up lead all year from every were.
That goes in the DIRTY bucket.
When I am making new boolets the sprew goes
in the SPREW bucket.
Then once a year I smelt and clean the dirty lead.
And then smelt the sprew lead and then I put it in a
bucket marked SUPER CLEAN.
That is the bucket I make my boolits out of.
The boolits come out around 7-9 SAECO.:Fire:

All my sprues and defective bullets go back into the pot at the end of each pot session along with more of the same alloy to fill the pot. If I change alloy I drain the pot into ingot molds and fill the pot with fresh ingots. Ingots are mark as to alloy.

Tim

[clintsfolly]

My Star sizer is set on top of a two step ladder and on at bottom step and the back leg brace is a wooden box to hold weights for stability.this unit set near my loading bench. As I size the rejects get dropped in it. As I load any more reject are thrown in when it gets to full I clean it out and make more of the bullets I need.