We almost forgot to include the most common of all uses of scrap steel rounds. Medium and long range targets are stacked up in three different locations in the K&K yard. If you limit yourself to lead or zinc cannonballs, these will last indefinitely. We hang them by chains out to five hundred yards and they 'Ring' enough to be heard up to that distance. The thicker ones can be used as targets at distances over 100 yards for the steel projectiles that we shoot from our "sales sample" rifled cannon that we make. The bolts from 1/4" dia. to 1.00" Dia. make dandy breech plugs for those of you who don't have lathes or welding equipment. You can get hundreds of taps of every size on Flea-Bay or at used tool auctions just like we do. It's a proven method of plugging the breech and for you material purists out there, remember that not one of those hundreds of thousands of rifled muskets produced in the 1850s and 60s used breech plugs made of steel even half as good as these grade 3,5, and 8 bolts. At 50 cents per pound you really can't go wrong if you are cautious and use some common sense.
Our days of surf and turf are over; we are eating lots of beans and cornbread these days, so we naturally go back to our innate, far more frugal ways. Scrap yards exploring is merely one way to do this. If you think 50 cents per pound for steel is a savings of 50%, think again. On most purchases we save from 250% to 600% depending on the type of "correct, documented and New steel" we are replacing.
FYI,
Mike and Tracy
Cheap targets piled up for your convenience.
Thicker target steel available too.
Busted baskets of beautiful bolts for breech plugs. 50 cents per Lb.
