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Author Topic: What sort of lead?  (Read 1263 times)

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Offline Incitatus

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What sort of lead?
« on: February 19, 2011, 12:32:26 PM »
I am going to get into reloading, primarily for my .44 Russian and .44 Spl. revolvers.  Nothing fancy and high powered.

The thought occurred to me today that maybe I ought to think about casting bullets.  Can one use pure lead?  If not, how does one go about alloying the lead? 

This is just curiosity at this point and I'd like a little guidance.

Thanks.

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Offline .22-5-40

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2011, 05:29:40 PM »
Hello, Incitatus..and a big welcome to the facinating...and addicting world of hand-loading!  The use of pure lead is not to be recomended except for muzzle-loaders and percussion revolvers..it's a bit too soft.  But for your .44 Rus. & Special, you don't need very hard lead either.  If you can obtain wheelweights..these are fine as is..though I like to add a bit of tin..in the form of 50-50 solder, this helps the metal flow better, and improves mould fill-out.  If you can salvage back-stop lead this is also good..This is what I mainly use..again with a little tin to aid casting.  If you do have pure..or soft lead.you could mix in some wheel weights to harden, or add tin..probably for light target use and plinking a 1-20 to 1-15..by weight of tin-lead would work well.  To make an alloy of say 1-15..Which by the way was Elmer Keith's favorite..and you know he liked HOT loads.  weigh out 14lbs. soft lead & weigh out 2lb. 50-50 solder..those spools you see in hardware stores are 1 lb.  Now then, the 2lbs. of 50-50 is 1lb. tin & 1lb. lead.  the 1lb. of lead with the 14lbs. you weighed out makes 15lb. plus your 1lb. of tin= 15 -1 lead/tin alloy.  Best of luck..and be careful!
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Offline bilmac

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2011, 11:59:51 PM »
It's kind of hard to find pure lead these days, ask the muzzel loader guys. For the kind of loads you will be making just about anything will work. If you start having to buy lead from sources where you know the composition you probably just as well buy your bullets.

 If you don't have any lead and you are serious about starting casting, see what they have to sell at your local metal recycler. If you can buy the old type wheelweights with the metal clip that is good, they are cheap and you pretty well know what their alloy is.
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Offline Richard P

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2011, 04:42:24 AM »
Adding more than 2% tin is a waste of tin.  You could use w w metal and air cool it. It's fine for most handgun uses that arent in the 'magnum' arena. The most important factor is matching your bullet diameter to your cylinder throats.
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Offline calvon

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2011, 07:27:54 AM »
One word of caution: DON'T USE lead from car batteries.
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Offline huntducks

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2011, 09:06:18 AM »
Anymore I use straight wheel weights.

Having had my own plumbing bus. for 25 yrs I collected hundreds of lbs of lead and use to mix it with lino type or 95/5 solder but all that crap has gotten so expensive that I just seem to be hording what I have.

Funny I'm remolding my garage and riped out the old wood shelves and found a wood box with 10 spools of 95/5 solder and some loose bulk 50/50 along with some cans of flux from the 50's that belonged to my dad ;D
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Offline Incitatus

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2011, 07:16:09 AM »
hmmmm ... I have pounds of lead kicking around.  How do I tell how hard it is?

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Offline Anduril

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2011, 08:22:41 AM »
try scratching it with your thumb nail.
pure lead marks real easy, wheel weights not so much
..
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Offline Old Fart

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2011, 03:52:16 AM »
I'll share this here because best I can tell I'm good for WW's for the rest of my life. ;D
I've had great luck finding and buying lead and WW's from old auto salvage yards.
Getting to it before the recycle guys can mark it up.
Plus still some of the old mom and pop tire shops will sell cheap.
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Offline jhalcott

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2011, 09:19:03 AM »
 Grab wheel weights when ever you can .the "lead ones are going out of style fast. There are some outfits on line who sell bullet alloys .Some sell very hard alloys and some sell WW equivalent. At least one sells 1/10 alloy,(one part tin/10 parts lead). Depending on what you are shooting at, paper or meat, you can adjust your alloy to suit. I have used from 1/10 all the way to linotype for .44 special and .44 mag bullets in the past. Depending on whether i was hunting or plinking. FIT to bore is the most important thing when shooting cast!
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Offline jhalcott

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2011, 10:57:02 AM »
 Here is some light reading that should help.
http://www.sixguns.com/crew/castbullet.htm
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Offline Lloyd Smale

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2011, 12:53:30 AM »
wheelweights are a casters friend. There good enough as is for about any handgun casting. If your shoot higher velocity magnum loads you can water drop them and if your shooting lower pressure loads and have a bunch of pure you can mix it 5050 with wws and have a good alloy for that. I fool with alot of pure and linotype too but truth be told if all i could ever get again was wheelweights i could live fine with them for everything.
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Offline SHOOTALL

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #12 on: February 23, 2011, 01:46:06 AM »
Quote from: calvon on February 20, 2011, 07:27:54 AM
One word of caution: DON'T USE lead from car batteries.

Why ? one bullet pruducer says that's what he uses , just asking
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Offline SHOOTALL

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #13 on: February 23, 2011, 01:50:07 AM »
lyman list lead alloy mixes . one is 9 lbs of lead to 1 lb of  soder for general use in handgun bullets .
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Offline res45

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #14 on: February 23, 2011, 12:31:34 PM »
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Offline mauserand9mm

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #15 on: February 23, 2011, 04:52:53 PM »
Battery lead is also supposed to include arsenic as a means to harden it. Irrespective of toxic additives, lead itself is toxic and I think presents more of an issue than the additives anyway ie when you gear up for lead casting the gloves and mask should also protect you from the other stuff.

I've used battery lead previously for 38, 45 and 308 projectiles, with good results. The worst affect for me was that my jeans fell apart after a couple of days - I had thought I'd washed all the acid out and drained them sufficiently before I got the axe into them. (I'd actually also let them sit full of tap water for a day or two.) The splashing from the axe cuts landed on the jeans and me.
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Offline Lloyd Smale

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #16 on: February 24, 2011, 05:51:04 AM »
batterys also have cadium in them and the fumes from cadium are about as bad as it gets. there just not worth the risk for the little lead you get out of them anymore.
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Offline bilmac

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Re: What sort of lead?
« Reply #17 on: February 24, 2011, 06:01:25 AM »
I've had battery lead that was usable, and other battery lead that ruined everything I mixed with it. Just would not cast a whole bullet.  What I was told that the old style refillable batteries are usable, but the newer maintenance free batteries have calcium in them that is a lead killer.

What I do know is that there is a lot of work that goes into "getting the lead out" of any of them. What I would do with any battery I came across is take it to a scrap dealer and sell it. I think they are worth a few bucks. While I was there I would see what kind of "easy" lead the guy had that he would sell.
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