For the boolit casters here ...

[Bill in Oregon]

Always nice to get a bunch of range scrap cleaned. It is about all I use anymore.

fullsizeoutput_1521 by ComeWatson, on Flickr

[fordwannabe]

Oh my! You are making me jealous. Every time I go to my local range I carry a 30 cal can and spend about a half hour scraping. I usually get about a half a can at a time. Then I trade the jackets for ww or tin.

[GunnyMack]

I see you have been busy during your quarantine! Well done Bill.

[Bill in Oregon]

Having a stash of cleaned lead gladdens my heart about as much as having a few jars of jam put up ...

[mikld]

Excellent. "Range scrap" works quite well for 98% of my cast bullets (my 9mms seem to prefer a Lyman #2 Lee 125 RNFP).

[Marvin S]

Hey Bill, done that myself a few months ago. Have a couple buckets of sorted wheel weights to do next.

[fordwannabe]

I did 283 pounds of WW on our new state paid holiday of Juneteenth . Have four buckets of range scrap to do and going to buy cabine tree this month because Inhave hundreds of pounds of ingots of unknown hardness from anolder caster getting of it for health reasons.

[Bill in Oregon]

Ford, let us know what you think of the Cabin Tree hardness tester.

[hondo1892]

I haven't picked up any lead for years. Used to pick up wheel weights along the road when I walked to school. Wish the ww were still lead instead of the metals now used. Looks like you got a good haul from the range.

[fordwannabe]

Will do. I really thought about the LBT tester but you can’t do ingots with it sooooo.

[marlinman93]

I've had a 5 gallon bucket of range scrap for almost 3 decades now, and not messed with it. I got it when I shot on the club's pistol team and we cleaned up the indoor range. I could have gotten a couple buckets, but they were so heavy I could barely get one in my truck!
I one time when I first got it I tried melting some down, but it was so dirty it made way too much smoke while smelting it down. I told myself I needed to wash it all first, and try to get the impurities separated from all the lead. But I sat the bucket in my shed and it's still sitting there 30 years later. I've got probably 1,000 lbs. of clean lead, so never had a need to mess with the dirty lead. But I should address it, just so it's processed and usable.

[Bill in Oregon]

Vall, just do it outside in a breeze and don't be shy with the Marvelux flux.

[3leggedturtle]

Bill, i bought 575lbs of boolits from a gentleman thats buys from estates. So been sorting them and melting diwn the bad ones into ingots. Got 13lbs of linotype letters.

Them are some good looking ingots. Its addictive melting and pouring them huh! Todd/3leg

[marlinman93]

Vall, just do it outside in a breeze and don't be shy with the Marvelux flux.

I never do any lead melting, or casting indoors. But last time I tried to smelt this dirty lead the smoke cloud was not easy to get away from. I did have a fella over on the ASSRA forum tell me he built a ramp out of sheet steel, with a angle iron lip at the bottom to funnel the melted lead into a container. He said he dumps the dirty lead on the slightly angled sheet steel, and hits it with a weed burner. The lead melts out and exits the sheet, and the dirt and crud either stays, or goes up in smoke.
I'm going to build something like he described, and go buy a weed burner to attach to my propane tank, and give it a try. I'd like to get this lead smelted and down into muffin tins to store it easier.

[JimT]

I have never cast any "boolits" ......

[Grizz]

I like this plan, easy and probably very consistent. Reminds me of a cowboy cookout, sheet of steel griddle sloped to keep the eggs from overrunning the bacon, and the bacon fat lubricating the eggs and pancakes

[6pt-sika]

I was fortunate about twenty years ago , a friend that had a tire shop let me get all the old used WW’s he had which ended up being about two tons . From time to time someone would bring me 10-30 pounds of whatever , one friend used to scuba dive and he gave me all his old dive weights another friend tired of duck hunting and gave me a bunch of decoy anchors . I never worried about the whatever I’d just work it in a little at a time . Later on when I started wanting pure lead (or so I thought) for shotgun slugs as I cast them from 50/50 WW’s/Pure a friend gave me over 100 pounds of pure . And from time to time someone will come in the shop and tell me if I come to their house they’ve got WW ingots they’ll let me have CHEAP . So a rough estimate at the moment is 1250-1500 pounds lead in my loading room . I seriously doubt if I use it all up before my demise unless I go crazy shooting cast in my 1911’s . I betcha I’ve got half a ton of stuff already cast for 44 , 358 , buck and slugs .

[marlinman93]

I like this plan, easy and probably very consistent. Reminds me of a cowboy cookout, sheet of steel griddle sloped to keep the eggs from overrunning the bacon, and the bacon fat lubricating the eggs and pancakes

He tells me he can process 200 lbs. of range lead in about 15 minutes using his weed burner, and the sloped metal pan! That's worth pursuing to me. I'm tired of seeing that bucket of lead and thinking I need to deal with it. I got my weed burner, and propane tank dug it, and going to fabricate the steel ramp today or tomorrow.

[Grizz]

I have a hundred or two pounds of mixed trolling cannonballs and gillnet weights and I need to process them the same way. My heat source is the propane burner from my forge. Just don't know when I'll get around-to-it
it isn't the 15 minutes, it's the pre-processing and post-processing that adds up . . . ,

[earlmck]

Bill, i bought 575lbs of boolits from a gentleman thats buys from estates. So been sorting them and melting diwn the bad ones into ingots. Got 13lbs of linotype letters.

Them are some good looking ingots. Its addictive melting and pouring them huh! Todd/3leg

Todd, a few years ago a fellow gave me a 20# bucket of "linotype letters" which I proceeded to make into 22's for my hornet. Dang things shot horrible -- many didn't even get to the target (turned out they were coming apart in mid-air). Whacked one with a hammer and it shattered like glass. Turns out the stuff (which cast up beautifully by the way) was Foundry Metal which was used to "sweeten" up the linotype mix after it was getting depleted from lots of use.

Foundry type is approximately 15% tin, 23% antimony vs. Linotype's 4%, 12%, so is wonderful for alloying with wheelweigts to make a lino mix. So make sure you really have lino vs. foundry in that batch of letters. If you have a mould that throws a bullet weighing X grains using wheelweights, then it'll weigh about .85X cast with Foundry or about .94X cast with Linotype. Or as I mentioned, the foundry bullet just shattered when given the hammer test.

[marlinman93]

I've often used linotype in my lead mix to harden it up. But mentioned this to a guy recently and he went bananas! He said the antimony in linotype causes barrel leading? Anyone ever heard of this before? I've never had leading issues with mixing in liontype.

[AJMD429]

Having a stash of cleaned lead gladdens my heart about as much as having a few jars of jam put up ...

....just don't mix 'em up....

[6pt-sika]

I've often used linotype in my lead mix to harden it up. But mentioned this to a guy recently and he went bananas! He said the antimony in linotype causes barrel leading? Anyone ever heard of this before? I've never had leading issues with mixing in liontype.

That’s a new one on me , I think d take it with a grain of salt . I also don’t buy into the powder coated stuff .

[earlmck]

I've often used linotype in my lead mix to harden it up. But mentioned this to a guy recently and he went bananas! He said the antimony in linotype causes barrel leading? Anyone ever heard of this before? I've never had leading issues with mixing in liontype.

I had the same reaction from one of the old timers I shoot BPCR with. He wouldn't touch anything that had a hint of antimony in it because "antimony causes leading". He's real successful at the BPCR game and casts his bullets for it out of known pure lead with the desired tin (I think he said he uses a 20:1 mix). I nodded my head respectfully and didn't try to tell him I think he has some bum information 'cause he's older than I am and I know how fixed in my opinions I have become even at my tender years. My most accurate cast bullet shooter (a 22 hornet) saw nothing but linotype for the first 50 years I owned it without ever showing a trace of leading, only seeing something slightly different for alloy when I got to running out of the pure quill lino.

Just listening to 'em, I think the idea that antimony is a bad bullet ingredient may come from the BPCR crowd. Heck, for all I know maybe antimony is bad around the black powder but when I asked my friend Brownie about it he didn't think there was anything wrong with a little antimony and Brownie shoots almost nothing but black powder in any of his older guns.

And I just had another thought -- there is quite a lot of black powder shooting that requires the bullet to bump up to fit at the low black-powder pressures (I'm thinking minie balls here, but a .458 bullet in a .460 bore would also need a bit of bump). And antimony is favored by us fellers who shoot 'em fairly hot so need a good hard bullet but we make sure we size them so they sure don't need any bump-up to fit. I'm thinking that if you were shooting something that required bump-up at low pressures you would probably get bad results in anything that alloyed much antimony because it would be too hard and this could sure lead to some leading. And you'd blame the antimony but it would be the poor bullet fit resulting from the antimony that was the real culprit.

[Ray]

Deleted.

[M. M. Wright]

There was a time when I melted several tons of mostly wheel weights. Had a huge smelter which held about a ton and would flux and stir it then cast a 500 grain .458 from a single cavity mold then weigh it and adjust the alloy until it weighed about what it was supposed to from #2 Lyman metal. Worked for me. I save old plumbing and alloy it with 50/50 solder to get either 20:1 or 30:1 ingots. 20:1 for CAS and most stuff and 30:1 for hunting and my Roller which slugs .461 dia. I actually opened up a 300 grain mold to .461 and use them as cast after pan lubing. Oh, it's a 11.7 x 51R Danish. I just clean, prime and drop powder in the unsized case, put a .459 wad in and compress. Then the bullet is hand seated. Loaded rounds require careful handling but they make it SHOOT! I've had it since I was 12 and only got it really accurate the last 20 years.

[6pt-sika]

There was a time when I melted several tons of mostly wheel weights. Had a huge smelter which held about a ton and would flux and stir it then cast a 500 grain .458 from a single cavity mold then weigh it and adjust the alloy until it weighed about what it was supposed to from #2 Lyman metal. Worked for me. I save old plumbing and alloy it with 50/50 solder to get either 20:1 or 30:1 ingots. 20:1 for CAS and most stuff and 30:1 for hunting and my Roller which slugs .461 dia. I actually opened up a 300 grain mold to .461 and use them as cast after pan lubing. Oh, it's a 11.7 x 51R Danish. I just clean, prime and drop powder in the unsized case, put a .459 wad in and compress. Then the bullet is hand seated. Loaded rounds require careful handling but they make it SHOOT! I've had it since I was 12 and only got it really accurate the last 20 years.

When I first started loading and casting I'd tell people I derived a great amount of satisfaction from being able to produce my own projectile , form an accurate load , kill a deer , process the deer , cook the meat from the animal and finally consume it . And I dare say that's not changed in the least . Also when I was still trout fishing derived a great amount of satisfaction from tying y own dry flies , sometimes keeping a trout or two and cooking them .

[marlinman93]

That’s a new one on me , I think d take it with a grain of salt . I also don’t buy into the powder coated stuff .

Since the vast majority of my loading is for antique rifles, I have no desire to even consider powder coated bullets. I'm very particular what goes down the bores of my old rifles, and I wont try PC bullets at all in them.

[6pt-sika]

That’s a new one on me , I think d take it with a grain of salt . I also don’t buy into the powder coated stuff .

Since the vast majority of my loading is for antique rifles, I have no desire to even consider powder coated bullets. I'm very particular what goes down the bores of my old rifles, and I wont try PC bullets at all in them.

I could be quite wrong , BUT I look at powder coating lead the same as I look at moly coating copper . If you don't send the stuff down the barrel you never need to worry about getting it out hence my reasoning to stay with plain copper projectiles and lubed lead projectiles .

[marlinman93]

Of course I don't shoot copper down my antique barrels either.

But I keep reading guy's posts about how shooting powder coated bullets "polishes" their bores, and makes them shinier. Anything abrasive enough to polish the bore wont be going down my old barrels.

[Bill in Oregon]

Vall, I had not heard about the polishing effect of powder-coated bullets, but coating is a step I don't feel the need to take. Some bullets I lube in the RCBS lubrisizer -- especially if adding a gas check -- and some I just tumble lube and shoot unsized or push-through sized.
Six-point, I have tied many trout and salmon flies over the years and agree there is great satisfaction in catching fish with your own handiwork.

[3leggedturtle]

Bill, just hammer tested the lino letters, didnt shatter, just smashed down a good amount. I'll only used to sweeten my ww and range lead mix. Todd

[Bill in Oregon]

I regret to report that I am old enough to have seen Mergenthaler Linotype machines in use -- and steaming lead half cylinder pages being locked onto the roller plates of a huge Goss press. Did you know that one of Mergenthaler's early investors was none other than Samuel Clemens -- Mark Twain?

[fordwannabe]

To each their own but I regularly powder coat lead bullets for my guns. Less messy than lube. I hated lubing with my Lyman lubrisizer and Sixgun told me he didn’t like Lyman’s either but did like RCBS. I use powder coating and a NOE push through sizer.

[Griff]

I've often used linotype in my lead mix to harden it up. But mentioned this to a guy recently and he went bananas! He said the antimony in linotype causes barrel leading? Anyone ever heard of this before? I've never had leading issues with mixing in liontype.

I've used linotype in my casting for nearly 40 years. And have never had leading issues even in my Sharps. The 40-90SBN shooting a 350 to 370 grain projectile is considered an "express" round. in modern case (which is all I have), fills to the base of the neck with 85 grains of 2F. With a groove diameter of .408, and bullets sized to .409, that 85 grains of 2F pushes them out the muzzle @ 1690fps. It's never exhibited any form of leading. For the past 10 years, I've quite using linotype in everything but my high speed gas-checked .30-30 rounds, (2190fps). Even then, no leading. I call BS on antimony leads to leading. Poorly sized bullets lead to leading, or driving plain lead bullets faster than lube is capable of keeping a film between the bullet and barrel.

[marlinman93]

Same here Griff. I've used linotype in both pistol and rifle bullets without leading. I'm still puzzled by the people who say it leads bores.

[Bill in Oregon]

Griff, I always admired the .40-90 SBN, but never had one. Had .40-70 in both straight and SBN.

[Bronco]

Just a guess here!
I think those who say linotype causes leading are people who are not shooting the right diameter bullet or they are pushing them to fast with or with out a gc. They are not getting the bump up from a softer alloy. I personally have never has a leading problem because of linotype and I have shot pure linotype bullets years ago. The only leading I have ever had was due to not shooting the right diameter or pushing them to fast back when I was just starting out and trying and figure this stuff out I am still learning.
This is a WAG so just take it for that