FYI WW properties. Not what you were taught in boolit school.

Defcon-one, I am one of "those guys" who asked all those "rude" questions.
I still stand by my comments. Wheel weights are obviously quite variable in their makeup. If you want precise alloys but the, from a foundry. Use of scrap for an alloy negates any ability to know precisely what the composition is. Well used Linotype isn't the same as fou dry new Linotype, is it?

In the end, most of us just don't worry over this stuff. I find a mix that works for me so I use it. Wo cares what the exact composition is, it works!

Wheel weights of today vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Throw in weights from different eras and who knows what exactly you have. To my way of thinking of I know a ballpark figure it allows me to make up a mix of scrap that will get me the properties I want.

If I want to know preciscely what is in my lead I will need to find a place that can test it for me. I don't know of any, haven't really looked.

This isn't meant as any form of an attack. It is only my opinion. The info from Goodsteel only shows that wheel weights are not a very homogenous source of alloy. What you get can vary from batch to batch. In the end, does it matter in the gun or on the target? That is what counts to me.

Use what you want, test what you want, just don't get so wrapped up in details that you lose sight of the big picture. Most guns will never, ever know the difference.

I like to keep things simple. I cast, I load, I shoot. I dont fret over small details about alloy as it isn't very fun to me. I try to keep my shooting fun.

It is interesting that a bucket of WW's could contain over $1000 worth of gold. It is extractable; I think by adding a bunch of zinc but I don't know the process. Then you have to remove the zinc, then extract the gold from the zinc...

I mostly just separate my lead into "soft lead" and "hard lead", based on a thumbnail test. 99% of the boolits I cast will work with either, or a mixture of the two. I wonder how much of the hardness in indoor range scrap comes from dissolved copper dust from jacketed bullets hitting the backstop.

btroj hit it right on the head. I agree with every word of your post. This information makes no difference to the gun or the target. Thats exactly why I didn't bring it up for a year. But it bugs me when I read posts where the fellas are assuming that they have a certain percentage of tin and antimony when I know that is very unlikely. This is also interesting to me, because if you apply these numbers to what they recommend in the old Lyman books, you get a much better idea of what they were shooting back then. For instance, my Lyman ammunition reloading handbook 41'st edition is laying open in front of me and clearly reads: "Wheel weight metal contains 90% lead, 1% tin and 9% antimony." Copyright 1957
In 1973 they are saying the same thing in the Lyman cast bullet handbook, but none of us believe that. However, lots of books give recipes based on alloy, not hardness. If you are trying to build an alloy that will perform like the book says it will, then WW metal is an unknown quantity. That's the only place where any of this makes any difference to anybody.
I don't mind constructive criticism when the fella is basing his argument on current information, and means no personal injury or slander to the OP, but just bludgeoning me for daring to post my findings without the aid of a certified notary is ridiculous and uncalled for. I'm only trying to help and I invited anyone with information as current as mine to post it up for the education of myself and others.
There was no reason for a friendly thread to go this way.

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Originally Posted by btroj

Defcon-one, I am one of "those guys" who asked all those "rude" questions.

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I have followed your posts for a long time and I know better. At least until today!

Why quote me as saying "rude", I never did. I never said "those guys' either.

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Originally Posted by btroj

In the end, most of us just don't worry over this stuff. I find a mix that works for me so I use it. Who cares what the exact composition is, it works!

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I do!

I think that Goodsteel does! Or, he would not have done all of that testing. That is the whole point of this post, isn't it? If we care about this, why can't we talk about it here without all of the replies telling us that YOU don't care and it doesn't matter? We get that it doesn't matter to YOU. So just go to another post and let us be. No reply, no BS.


I did say this in my reply:

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To the guys who want to just dump "LEAD" in a pot and cast it, then shoot it; Go ahead and I won't give you any grief.

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Read it, then give me the same courtesy, please!

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I like to keep things simple. I cast, I load, I shoot. I dont fret over small details about alloy as it isn't very fun to me. I try to keep my shooting fun.

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Great, do what you want. Let us do what we want.

It does matter to me! I even said in my previous replies, "I enjoy it." and "It is all part of the hobby. I find it kind of fun and interesting."

Why can't you just let US have OUR fun?

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Originally Posted by goodsteel

....There was no reason for a friendly thread to go this way.

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That has been my point all along! If you can't say something good or useful, then don't say anything at all!

btroj, I don't recall you ever having said anything rude! I have no problem with you whatsoever. We are all friends here, and that's my stand. There is a big difference between a respectable member like yourself, and a guy who has only 11 posts to his name and half of them are negative and unhelpful. I will jump on a guy like that.

On a lighter note, does anybody have an easy, safe way to get the gold out of this lead? All this time, I thought the Lone Ranger was crazy for shooting silver boolits, and then I find out that I have been shooting gold!!!!

I would assume that it is not cost effective to do so. Based on some math, I think that 100 pounds of your lead from one sample would have had about 8.3 ounces of Gold in it!

If they could get it out for less than it is worth, I bet they would. That is $14,000 worth of Gold. (Check my math!)

Maybe you should get a bullet trap if you don't have one. Maybe we all should.

I've heard of frontiersmen using gold round ball when they had no lead. It was recoverable from the game they shot. I wonder if that really ever happened?!

If there really is $14,000 worth of gold in that lead, maybe just take it to the bank with the analisis and cash it in:razz: Let them worry about recovering it. Tell them the lead is a portable saftey deposit container. See what they say.[smilie=l:

I have a feeling that if it was cost effective to remove the gold from the lead a smelter along the way would have done so. It is most likely a "spend 100 dollars to recover 10" sort of thing.

I agree entirely with agoodsteel that people who assume they know exactly what they have in a bucket of wheelweights are fooling themselves. The formulations are just too variable.

I do know that I get a bunch of variation in the range scrap I use a fair amount. What I can't say is that I have noticed a difference. If I was shooting BR or other target games I would mix up a big batch to get a large batch of a consistant alloy.

I do like to know if I have 3 or 5 percent Sb, what I don't get is worrying about having 2 or 2.25 percent Sb. That difference just isn't going to matter.

Yes, people who call anything old alloy "lead" are annoying. I do this at times when speaking to non casters as they wouldn't understand what I meant if I mentioned Linotype or monotype. Sometimes we just need to dumb things down.