Source of Lead
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Lead
I presume you are referring to soft lead for muzzle loading bullets. IMHO wheel weights are too hard for that application. You need soft/virgin lead. The best source is pipe jackets. The metal thingies that go around the vent pipes that protrude from your roof. These are virgin lead. Find a roofer in your area. He likely gets a few each week from re-roof jobs. You also might check with the local metal recycling center. They may buy those jackets from the roofer and sell to you. Should not be very expensive.
I presume you are referring to soft lead for muzzle loading bullets. IMHO wheel weights are too hard for that application. You need soft/virgin lead. The best source is pipe jackets. The metal thingies that go around the vent pipes that protrude from your roof. These are virgin lead. Find a roofer in your area. He likely gets a few each week from re-roof jobs. You also might check with the local metal recycling center. They may buy those jackets from the roofer and sell to you. Should not be very expensive.
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to lead or not to lead
I have found fishing weights work pretty good but if you are lucky enough to have a good small muzzle loading shop near you they get lead by bulk and you can gret it fairly cheap those you sometimes need to add a bit of tin as you dont really want your lead to soft as it can floul a barrel a bit faster and it can even break aprart before impact if it is to soft and you use a heavy powder charge....... Now I aint no expert at this but I have been muzzle loading for aprox 25 years.......
I have found fishing weights work pretty good but if you are lucky enough to have a good small muzzle loading shop near you they get lead by bulk and you can gret it fairly cheap those you sometimes need to add a bit of tin as you dont really want your lead to soft as it can floul a barrel a bit faster and it can even break aprart before impact if it is to soft and you use a heavy powder charge....... Now I aint no expert at this but I have been muzzle loading for aprox 25 years.......
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Make sure if you do use wheel weights that they are lead. Some are zinc.
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The Zinc weights melt at significantly higher temp than lead or lead alloy. I don't worry too much about them because they will simpy float on top of the molten lead to be skimmed off. As far as stick on weights, I have noticed a huge disparity in the hardness of these weights. The ones that are thin and segmented seem to be the purest lead. I have found others that are nearly as hard as clip on weights. I segregate and melt them seperately. The fluxed ingots get marked with a sharpie so I can make pretty repeatable alloys.
Typical muzzle loader bullets are 20-1 alloy of lead to tin. Tin can be obtained at plumbing supply stores in the form of 1lb 50/50 solder bars. Two bars and 19 lbs of virgin lead is perfect.
Typical muzzle loader bullets are 20-1 alloy of lead to tin. Tin can be obtained at plumbing supply stores in the form of 1lb 50/50 solder bars. Two bars and 19 lbs of virgin lead is perfect.
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The recycling center in my area sells pure lead and lead alloys for pretty cheap. Something like $.50 a pound if I remember correctly. They also sell once fired brass for around a dollar a pound. You have to sort throught the brass yourself. But I bought a bunch of 38 special, 30-06 and some 308 win for almost nothing. I think I paid around $1.50 for a bag full.
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My family and I are currently taking care of buisness in the basement. We found a lot of lead pipe, a whole lot. It is also very soft for some reason....
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While there is good info here, I hope that nobody thinks they are helping the OP's question. The question is less than a month away from being 3 years old...
http://www.firearmstalk.com/forums/f22/source-lead-1157/#post4158
http://www.firearmstalk.com/forums/f22/source-lead-1157/#post4158
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Oops. Uh, I ...nevermind.While there is good info here, I hope that nobody thinks they are helping the OP's question. The question is less than a month away from being 3 years old...
http://www.firearmstalk.com/forums/f22/source-lead-1157/#post4158
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Who cares how old it is? This info has helped my out and judging by the view count a good source of lead is something that is sought after when shooting BP.
I am almost tempted to say that a mod needs to make a thread listing all of the ways to get lead easily. That way it will answer the question that probably everyone knew person to BP wants to know. Even if you aren't knew there might be ways to get lead that you didn't know about.
Who agrees?
I am almost tempted to say that a mod needs to make a thread listing all of the ways to get lead easily. That way it will answer the question that probably everyone knew person to BP wants to know. Even if you aren't knew there might be ways to get lead that you didn't know about.
Who agrees?
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