Thread: slug and buckshot

i live near dunedin. is there anywhere nearby to buy surplus lead and a melting pot? i saw a lee pot on gunworks for 180 but there should be something cheaper? also is there something other than lee moulds from reloading.com?

Heavy base pot from s/h shop and a cheap gas ring
All I use but I’m only making fishing weights so temp not really a problem

Originally Posted by nowool

i live near dunedin. is there anywhere nearby to buy surplus lead and a melting pot? i saw a lee pot on gunworks for 180 but there should be something cheaper? also is there something other than lee moulds from reloading.com?

Melting pots never worked for me, continually clogged up. Probably just me, but far too tedious.

My neighbour gave this a go for his 357 magnum , collected lead from all over the show but mostly from tyre shops as it turns out the little leads they attach to the tyres have other different metals in there and the lead is no good for bullets ...guess who,s now in the possession of 40 + kg of lead but its only good for sinkers or diving weights , so make sure the lead is pure else its too soft .

I don't think that is right bud, I think you scored 40kg of lead there, wheel weights are great, the small or stick on ones are softer lead I hear, only need to be aware of Zinc weights now days & don't let that get into your lead .

If your lead is too soft you can add tin or some type of hard solder & I water quench my 12bore rifle balls !

You can alloy it to increase the hardness.
It is quite involved though.

Originally Posted by Scout

I don't think that is right bud, I think you scored 40kg of lead there, wheel weights are great, the small or stick on ones are softer lead I hear, only need to be aware of Zinc weights now days & don't let that get into your lead .

If your lead is too soft you can add tin or some type of hard solder & I water quench my 12bore rifle balls !

iv melted a good few ingots and sinkers out of it & its definitely not pure lead , its quite shiny and breaks a lot easier than lead should , nothing like a hunk of lead pipe melted down , all im saying is he got most of his lead from the tyre shop I had a brief look in the bucket before they were melted & it was a bunch of the wee weights that get clipped on the side of rims and its no good for projectiles wether hes tossed in the zinc ones or they were all just mixed up to begin with I do not know .

Lead head nails a good source for casting bullets/buckshot/slugs?

Originally Posted by nowool

i live near dunedin. is there anywhere nearby to buy surplus lead and a melting pot? i saw a lee pot on gunworks for 180 but there should be something cheaper? also is there something other than lee moulds from reloading.com?

Go to the local scrap dealer and buy lead, wheel weights are not the best for slugs and buckshot too hard and unless you know what to look for a waste of time
if you do use WW keep the temperature at 700 F and the Zinc will float to the top to be skimmed off, Do not melt down the raw lead in the pot you cast from
I use a 4 litre cast iron pot to melt the scrap down, get one about 2L to cast from you will need a proper casting ladle RCBS Lyman and Lee make them
A good lead mix for Slugs is 10kg lead and a stick of 50/50 solder get that from a Plumbers or Engineering supplier, use a wooden stick to stir with it acts as
a Fluxing agent.

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

Lead head nails a good source for casting bullets/buckshot/slugs?

I haven't seen a lead head nail in a few years now.... Used to have a few buckets on the old farm that went to the scrappie

@nowool,

Not sure about a pot, but I picked up scrap lead from Everitt Enterprises scrap metal dealers at very reasonable cost. Van Rietveld Engineering in Green Island is also worth a look.

Originally Posted by mimms2

Ehh... Tyre shops will probably throw lead at you for the asking. I melt in a stainless coffee/milk jug thing. Have also melted in cut-off fire extinguishers, paint cans (very thin, probably dangerous) stainless milk pail... Pretty much any heavy thing you have that will take heat. Kitchen ladle to feed moulds.

They’ll get about $2/kg from a scrappy or a sinker maker for there piss fund...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by mimms2

Huh. it's 0.80-1.10/kg up here. But yes, either offer a box of barley sodas or return them some sinkers/shot and they're happy. Maybe more so at country garages than in town.

$1 for 1kg is good for 100 150grain boolits. Pay a good price, it's worth it. Be careful about not buying pure Zinc though.

Quick rundown how to tell the difference, sorry about the speech impediment, she has a medical problem.

If you can mark the wheel weight with your thumb nail it's lead if you can't it's not.