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Thread: Lead score on way home

  1. #1
    Boolit Master


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    Lead score on way home

    Hit a mom n pop gun store on way home on the interstate..they had about 480# of mixed lead..i bought it all at .39c per pound..cheap enough for me to figure it out enough to use.

    About 40-50# was in partial bags of chilled magnum lead shot. Say 10# a bag..from #4 thru #9. Good and clean and I'll leave it as shot and use it as shot.

    Of the other 430ish pounds.. Over half was in ingot form..scratches easy enough with brass key but dings when banged together..feels like at least 10bhn. Some was marked that too. The ingot feel like range scrap ingot I've bought in that range. Most of the ingot are Lyman..but say 40 % are half rounds and a bout 7-8" long..look fairly uniform. Some are segmented into 3 pieces..no markings.

    The rest of it is in some pigs and some soda can and tuna can ingot. The soda and tuna can ingot will definitely get melted into smaller ingot.. They feel dead soft and thud when banged together...scratches with fingernail. Also have some lead sheeting..i know it's soft.

    The 3 other types of pig i'm wondering about are marked as follows.

    2 individual 5? # or so ingot..say:
    National lead co. 777. 777

    Then some stringers of pigs that say Missouri
    But I have one stringer of Missouri. That have a different name on the first pig
    Geitzinger's. Atlanta

    And finally a long pig that says National Boston lead co and stamped 7. Has a ring hook end.

    These 3 types feel harder than dead soft.. But hard to tell 'how much' harder till I melt some and try a hardness test.

    Any ideas appreciated.

    Update: I see the Dutch boy 777 are solder pigs.. Maybe 60/40??

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy
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    DUTCH BOY 777
    Dutch Boy 777 contains an unusually large percentage of tin for solder of this grade. It has a melting range of 363°F-450°F. UTS 7,000psi. STR 5,375psi. Bhn 13.3. SpGr 9.24. When used by plumbers for wiping it can be reduced slightly with more lead. Sold in bars and ingots.

    I have several bars of this too. I never have found an official listing of tin content.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master


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    Makes ya wonder what unusually large is..if 111 is 50/50

  4. #4
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Nice Score and at a good price!

  5. #5
    Boolit Master


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    I figured at 39c a pound..i could make the mix of soft lead, solder and hard lead and lead shot work.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master
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    I have hundreds of pounds of shot and I plan to leave it just as it is. It is worth more as shot than it is as lead either to sell or to use for my own reloading.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master


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    Same here I will leave the lead shot as shot unless any of it is very small amounts that are orphaned I make my own shot as well but as always it's easier to use pre-made shot than to make sure.

  8. #8
    Boolit Buddy
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    Great score Soundguy. Lead is getting harder and harder to find "In The Wild". Last I looked, lead was bringing about a buck a pound.
    NRA Life 1992
    My avatar is almost a dead ringer for my little buddy Chico. Six pounds of mean that thought he was a Pit Bull. Miss that little guy.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    Congratulations! Yeah, I'd buy all my truck could haul at 39 cents/lb. Would certainly jump on that for shot. That amounts to about $10 a bag and you'd have to go way back in time to get it that cheap. If you want to know the actual content of any of it, you could send some samples to BNE for analysis. Might be worth it for high Tin alloy so you know how much to use to achieve your goals without wasting the expensive stuff.

  10. #10
    Boolit Master

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    Great find any way you use it.
    NRA Benefactor Member NRA Golden Eagle

  11. #11
    Boolit Master


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    Good ideas.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check