Casting with Zinc...Pennies

[jsizemore]

Save the pennies and powder coat some Lyman #2 bullets that are water dropped at the end of the PC cook. Plenty hard enough and will handle the speed. Gas check or don't.

[Winger Ed.]

zinc anodes might also be a source for zinc.

If you see dead water heaters anywhere-- there's a pretty big one in each of them.
It will look like a plumbing screw in pipe plug on top of them.
Unscrew it with a big wrench, and it will come out from the top.

Boat mechanic shops should have old ones laying around too.
Once they get chewed up from electrolasis, they get changed.

[Rp-]

This interests me. I have a friend loading some 8.6blk and he also happens to cast zinc boolits. I'll ask him and see if he has any input.

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[Rp-]

Well that didn't take long for a response from him...

His input: where are you going to find a 300+ gr .338 mold? And even then it'll only drop zinc at 180gr.

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[mebudman63]

Before you start all of this have you found a mold? And you know you "have" to use a steel mold to cast zinc with correct? Anything else, aluminum, brass, the zinc just acts as a solder and welds the mold halves together. Also you know zinc is 60% the weight of lead? So a 300g mold in lead will drop a 180g zinc bullet. So before you really get into any range (250g) for a supersonic zinc bullet for a 8.6 BO you will need a 400g .338 mold. That is unless you plan on running a 180g bullet.

And if you need zinc there are easier ways. Find someone that casts with wheel weights that has zinc wheel weight. I have some.

[Rickf1985]

I am sure you could go to tire shops and get zinc weights now like we used to get lead weights before.

[Reg]

I'm not even going to jump in on the zinc coin controversy. But I was thinking, aren't consumable anodes like they put on boats made of zinc? Besides those lousy newfangled tire weights, zinc anodes might also be a source for zinc.

I think this is a worthy point to consider. Has anyone done any experimental work with these new wheel weights after all its most of what is in the tire shop buckets these days. We all get them and like most I make sure they do not get mixed in with the regular lead. I usually save them for friends that cast fishing weights and lures as lead now is no longer allowed on most of the fishing waters.
They will melt and can be cast.
Ideas?

[rockrat]

I remember somewhere that pennies and nickles were not legal tender, that legal tender started at the dime.

I might be concerned about fumes from casting zinc, anyone heard any pro's or cons to this?

[Winger Ed.]

I might be concerned about fumes from casting zinc, anyone heard any pro's or cons to this?

You're not getting it that hot for fumes to come off like when welding Galvanized steel.
I'd treat it like Lead and keep my face out of the smoke from other stuff coming off the melt,
and wear heavier clothing since it is hotter than molten Lead.

[Kosh75287]

The difference in weight per projectile volume seems problematic. I wonder if a thin Zinc jacket could be filled under pressure with pure lead wire.
Or is this conversation assuming that lead is no longer available or inexpensive?

[Winger Ed.]

I wonder if a thin Zinc jacket could be filled under pressure with pure lead wire.
Or is this conversation assuming that lead is no longer available or inexpensive?

Using a jacket made from other cartridge cases is more practical.
That's how Joyce Hornady started out. He made jacketed bullets from .22LR cases.

Lead is going away- in some places faster than in others and casting with Zinc is in our future.
About a year ago I recovered a Zinc boolit at our rifle range.

I haven't looked for it, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't find loading data out there for some of them.
Just a guess, but Lyman might start publishing some in the years to come.

[Sasquatch-1]

I wonder if a thin Zinc jacket could be filled under pressure with pure lead wire.

I don't know about making zinc jackets, but i bought a die set years ago from Hawk Precision Bullets that came with a base punch used to affix a zinc washer to the base. Hawk's sold the zinc washers but I never used them.

[Winger Ed.]

a base punch used to affix a zinc washer to the base. Hawk's sold the zinc washers but I never used them.

I think there were some factory made bullets like that back in the mid-1800s.

[ofitg]

Lead is going away- in some places faster than in others and casting with Zinc is in our future.
About a year ago I recovered a Zinc boolit at our rifle range.

I haven't looked for it, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't find loading data out there for some of them.

Back around the turn of the century, Dillon was a distributor for "ZEE" (zinc) handgun bullets. I am attaching a scan of their load data.

[dverna]

Using a jacket made from other cartridge cases is more practical.
That's how Joyce Hornady started out. He made jacketed bullets from .22LR cases.

Lead is going away- in some places faster than in others and casting with Zinc is in our future.
About a year ago I recovered a Zinc boolit at our rifle range.

I haven't looked for it, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't find loading data out there for some of them.
Just a guess, but Lyman might start publishing some in the years to come.

Zinc bullets are unlikely in my lifetime. I am 72 and have a lifetime supply of lead.

I feel sorry for those less fortunate.

[Winger Ed.]

Zinc bullets are unlikely in my lifetime. I am 72 and have a lifetime supply of lead.
I feel sorry for those less fortunate.

That's pretty much where I'm at.
But making Zinc boolits in .308 and .30-06 is kind of tempting......

[Rickf1985]

One thing not mentioned is storage of zinc bullets. zinc has a tendency to corrode easily and quickly. So bullets would need to be coated with something.

[405grain]

I haven't looked into it because the idea just popped into my head a minute ago. When we cast lead bullets we alloy them to give them different properties than pure lead. What metals could we alloy with zinc to do things like make it heavier, or softer, or fill the mold cavities better, etc. I don't have any idea yet, but metals that came to mind were copper, bismuth and aluminum. There has to be other zinc alloys that change the properties of the metal?

[josper]

I wish you guys wouldn't play around with the zink bullets. most of us use just lead alloy and mine the berms for used lead bullets . It only takes one chunk of zink to ruin a whole pot of good lead and contaminate the pot and tools. It does melt at a little higher temp than lead and if you are on your toes it can quickly be skimmed off before it melts. I just hope nobody at our club is doing it.

[Winger Ed.]

It only takes one chunk of zink to ruin a whole pot of good lead and .

Not sure about the other brands, but my Pro-Melt doesn't get hot enough to melt them.

Before I knew what I was looking at, I had a boolit I picked up at the range float up.
I stirred the pot like it owed me money, and it never melted in.