Lead Casting

[WadePatton]

wade
use an electricians multi tool to cut the sprue. one from the dollar store works just fine. the flat side toward the ball and the hole to strip 18 ga wire does a nice job.  you'll be happy. 

Nice yeah, i used a too heavy duty cutter and the huge bevel was not good.  I have a spare electrician's wire stripper/crimper pliers, no problem.  thanks.

[CDgun]

Before my dentist went digital, he was giving me the lead foil used to cover the x-ray film.  This is the best lead I have used in forty years.  I don't know the exact alloy, but the weight of the balls is exactly what is expected (0.440 / 128grs,) and is very consistent (+/- 1.5v grs.) The only small problem is that some will have a plastic coating which throws up a column of black smoke when it burns off. 

[Standing Bear]

Lead can get used up quicker than it seems like it should.  I typically send about 75lbs of .395's and another 30 or 40lbs of .530's downrange every year and it sure does not seem like I'm doing an excessive amount of shooting.  I start getting antsy when my supply gets below half a ton.   

Dude!!  That's like 500 rounds of .40 cal a month. I thought inward shootin a lot doing 200 a month. Oh yea then there was th .22s, .45s, .50s  and well u r shootin quite a bit.
TC

[Hungry Horse]

 I'm a bullet caster from way back. I feel you really aren't getting the entire experience, unless you make as much of what it takes to  shoot your muzzleloader as you can. That being said I have to take exception to the pictures of cast iron cookware being used as lead pots. In my other life as a B.S.A. scout leader I have more than once had youth bring in old cast iron cookware to be cleaned, reasoned, and cooked in, only to have lead ooze from the pores of the cast iron when it was heated to apply the oil. This is flat out dangerous. Cast iron used for lead needs to be clearly, and permanently, marked. Nobody wants anybody to die over a little thing like this.

                   Hungry Horse

[iloco]

I wonder if lead is as dangerous as soome tthink it is.
 I was shot in 1964 by accident while squirel hunting.   I have been carrying about 60 Number 5 lead shot in my body all these years.  I am still kicking.   Every time I have an xray the tech's come running back to ask questions what is inside me.

 I cast some round balls yesterday with the new Larry Callahan round ball molds I got from him at the CLA show.  They do a good job and I like the sprue cutter.  I made about 100 before I had to quit and mow the yard.

[JBJ]

I had a different experience with dental x-ray film lead covers. It would break rather than bend when cast into strips for decoy anchors! Around here all of the dentist seem to have gone digital so salvaging dental lead is a mute point.
J.B.

[Hungry Horse]

 I received some dental X-ray lead, from a friend, and it is as pure as any lead I have encountered. The balls weigh out exactly what they should, and turn dark in a couple of days. I got some lead isotope containers years ago, and cast some balls out of them, but found them to be alloyed with something, making them less desirable that the X-ray lead.

                 Hungry Horse

[Dphariss]

I wonder if lead is as dangerous as soome tthink it is.
 I was shot in 1964 by accident while squirel hunting.   I have been carrying about 60 Number 5 lead shot in my body all these years.  I am still kicking.   Every time I have an xray the tech's come running back to ask questions what is inside me.

 I cast some round balls yesterday with the new Larry Callahan round ball molds I got from him at the CLA show.  They do a good job and I like the sprue cutter.  I made about 100 before I had to quit and mow the yard.

Elemental lead is not that harmful yeah toxic but unless in extremes is not worriesome. The hype a couple of years ago over lead particles in game meat and the resulting research proved it was essentially harmless. Its the oxides and acetates that are really bad. Lead casting with anything like decent ventilation is not going to cause any problems due to the low temps involved. Fluxing with beeswax will tell if you have ventilation or not. If its smokey in the room then open it up or use a range hood vented to the outside. If heated high enough to start vaporizing this is another matter but lead pots will not do this. The Romans used to use Sugar of Lead, Lead Acetate, or acidic mixtures made in lead bowls to sweeten wine. It was not the lead water pipes that gave them lead poisoning. A little of this stuff goes a long way. So wash thoroughly before eating after handling bullets or lead since its all got an oxide coating of some amount.
If casting something like light welding gloves is nice and face protection is also recommended. Burn danger is greater than lead poisoning.

Dan

[LH]

Lead can get used up quicker than it seems like it should.  I typically send about 75lbs of .395's and another 30 or 40lbs of .530's downrange every year and it sure does not seem like I'm doing an excessive amount of shooting.  I start getting antsy when my supply gets below half a ton.   

Dude!!  That's like 500 rounds of .40 cal a month. I thought inward shootin a lot doing 200 a month. Oh yea then there was th .22s, .45s, .50s  and well u r shootin quite a bit.
TC

Yeah,  that sounds like a lot,  but it always surprises me how easy it is to shoot 4000 or more balls a year.  A "usual" practice session for me is about 60 shots, but fairly often will be close to 100.  I will usually practice 15 or more days before the spring shoot and the fall nationals and I shoot 8 or more two or three day matches every year. ( Territorials, State matches, etc.) Most years I will wring out a different barrel or gun which might cause me to shoot 10 or 20 days in testing. Most years I will do a patch cloth test too which is usually a few hundred shots over a week or two when there's no matches coming up.  It all adds up.  I'm unemployable though and purely do love shooting so its not like I'm working at it.  I just like shooting flintlocks. 

[Dphariss]

I just don't want to use anything that may be to hard. Will to hard of an alloy damage the rifling in a roundball barrel?

Barrels with wide lands load easier with softer lead. Harder lead will work fine in barrels with narrow lands. WW alloy shoots fine in my rifles. But I usually save it for Kieth SWCs and such for brass suppository handguns.
If I were hunting larger bear I would use WW or WW:lead 50:50 for bone breaking and penetration after encountering a large bone.
Dan

[omark]

Wheel weight s can bend steel gongs when soft lead won't. Some clubs don't allow we for that reason.   Mark