Zinc

[7of7]

Please pardon the question, but why is zinc so bad in lead? What does it do to the lead, other than contaminate it.

[docone31]

Zinc is harder, and melts at an higher temp than lead.
I have found it works in castings though. Just gotta crank up the temp.
Jeffnz has an article on casting with zinc. Pretty useful.
For plain castings, I use 2%. For paper patched loads, I use up to 50%.]
works for me.

[badgeredd]

Zinc makes it extremely hard to cast good boolits. Do a search on zinc and you'll find a lot of posts concerning zinc contamination. Not a good thing generally. :groner::groner:

Edd

[lylejb]

I've been careful to avoid it, but those who have had zinc contamination say it has an oatmeal like consistancy when mixed with lead.

[Ithaca1911]

I've been careful to avoid it, but those who have had zinc contamination say it has an oatmeal like consistancy when mixed with lead.

that's because it's not hot enough.

I cast with pure zinc, and have, in the past, contaminated my lead with zinc. pure zinc makes PURTY boolits, and the contaminated stuff made good plinkers, just had to run the half full lee pot at max heat.

[lwknight]

People want soft boolits for hunting loads. Zinc would mess that up.
Zinc is just another PITA to deal with. Not impossible though.

[Daddyfixit]

With the WW problem maybe someone with a knowledge of blending metals could find something that could work for us. It looks like finding WW on the west coast is already a bad deal!