Commercial cast bullets that you don't load?

I received some .44 and .45 commercial cast bullets in a trade. The blue wax lube has melted off of them. They are still bagged in heat sealed bags. They are not a bullet I load.

Should I melt them as sweetener since they are a hard cast bullet or trade them as they are. They probably need to be boiled to get the lube off the noses and bases, then re-lubed.

I usually cast with range lead, so it would be easy to mix up a slighlty harder alloy and add a bit of tin if needed. I had been considering trying to mix up a harder alloy for some rifle bullets, anyway.

Just considering the possibilities. What would you do if you came in to 400 hardcast bullets that you wouldn't load for?

This is the perfect reason why you need to buy a gun that shoots them.:bigsmyl2:

I have never tried a commercially cast bullet that I liked as well as the ones I cast. I used them to increase the hardness of my mix.

I had a similar situation and used some in trades or sold them....but I had more than 400.

I have found that the lube actually acts as a pretty good flux.

What Wheelguns 1961 said. I darn sure wouldn't bother melting or boiling it off....I never have and yes, they would be used to make an alloy I use.

I'm another that would just melt them and make something else. I would probably add them to the next batch of wheelweights.

There is value in them. They are already formed, will run again through a lube sizer, can be pan lubed, or are the foundation for another trade. At 225 gr. each (say) and the quantity is 400, that's almost 13 pounds of lead.

I've got quite a few commercially cast boolits in 357 Mag. I bought and used them prior to a gift of 800#'s of nuclear shielding lead, at which time I whole heartedly abandoned commercially cast in favor of casting my own.

They are not "bad", just neglected and awaiting another day to see their intended use. Set them aside (see Winger Ed's post #2). You will want a 45 and maybe a 44 too.

Advertise locally (digitally, free), in trade for something else. That'll be an adventure. Or, recast them. You have choices...

Evening, I have a bunch of these also, is boiling the best way to remove the blue wax? At that point, I’m assuming I can toss them in the pot and start casting my 175gr 10mm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You could also try a 20 or 30 minute soak in gasoline or mineral spirits. The coating's an organic polymer, so I'd expect it to dissolve rather rapidly. Once the solvent you use evaporates, you have flux.
Oh, and if you decide to try boiling the coating off, PLEASE DRY THEM, before you "toss them in the pot". The consequences of failure to make sure they're dry can be horrific.

It depends on what you can trade them for.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kenk

Evening, I have a bunch of these also, is boiling the best way to remove the blue wax? At that point, I’m assuming I can toss them in the pot and start casting my 175gr 10mm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

---

If you are going to melt and recast them why would you want to remove the wax in advance? Folks buy wax or bee's wax to flux with, your lead already has flux attached? Sure, more wax than needed but it will just burn off like all wax or sawdust does.

Just tumble lube them in LLA as per Lee's directions, load 'em and shoot 'em. I've shot thousands of such and they usually shoot surprisingly well