where can I get round ball lead?

crockett said:

What about shooting ranges? I have a few near where I live and I never thought about them. Does anyone know what type of lead (pure or alloy) is used inside a fully jacketed bullet? If it is pure lead it would be easy to melt down the spent bullets and seperate the jackets (I think).

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That's what I use. The jackets float to the top after the lead runs out. The scrap copper helps pay for powder as well.

The lead is soft but has tin and maybe something else added to help the lead bond to the jacket. The melting temp is a bit lower than it would be for pure lead and you may have to skim more often. Depending on the composition of the lead, it often does not shrink as much as pure lead.
For example my .490" balls cast at .491" to .492" depending on the alloy.

BTW that is the reason primary reason that wheel weight round ball is hard to load. With a slightly thinner patch, ww lead will load and shoot fine. :stir:

You might try this place. I have bought 20/1 from them before. They have anything you might want. www.rotometals.com

Rotometals are good people with fast service. :thumbsup:

crockett said:

What about shooting ranges? I have a few near where I live and I never thought about them. Does anyone know what type of lead (pure or alloy) is used inside a fully jacketed bullet? If it is pure lead it would be easy to melt down the spent bullets and seperate the jackets (I think).

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It really depends allot on the shooting range and what they shoot there. Some pistols have very hard lead they shoot. Jacketed usually is fairly pure like you thought but they put a little of other metals to make it pout easier/more evenly. If that s a source for you, I would and have used it. It usually ends up a little softer than WWs but like I said it just depends but either way it works for RBs.

I've used wheel weight and range lead for roundballs, they work fine but do cast larger than pure lead. My soft lead I save for conicals or minies.

You can get pure lead at almost every plumbing supply shop.Thats where I get mine when there is no free lead about.

What kind of price do you pay???

Yep, like I said, it works but it is not as good as nice soft lead. If it is all you can get or you don't want to bother finding soft lead, wheel weights will work for ya. They just don't expand as well on game.

Doc Or said:

You might try this place. I have bought 20/1 from them before. They have anything you might want. www.rotometals.com

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they seem super expensive! im not seeing any available pure lead from under $2 a pound. this is twice the price of most lead sources out there.

Fella would thing with the Hurricanes and big storms that wreck sail boats there would be tons of lead from keel weights in Fla.Same in La..
I have one ballast weight from a ship, it weights 98 lbs,and isn't much larger than two loaves of bread end to end..