range scrap for rpb

I recently obtained a lot of range scrap, will it work for round patched ball? 530 .54 cal Hawken.

torpedo,
Welcome to the forum

Your best lead (IMO) is pure soft lead, with no other metals. If you just want to throw bullets down range it will work. If you want to make consistent quality bullets get some pure lead so you know what you have.
Flintlocklar
:wink:

If your scrap lead is from a range that only shoots muzzle loaders that fire pure lead projectiles then you are fine. If your range shoots all kinds of guns as in modern & muzzle loaders I would say you will have to experiment with different patch size and lube plus you run the risk of getting a round ball stuck in your barrel because of the lead projectile being too hard.

Thanks for the reply on range scrap for prb, I would love to use pure lead only but it is like finding gold.

Check on stained glass shops - I am the "hazmat disposal" guy for one in my area - a mix of old paint covered pieces and new shiny scrap - pure lead for free.

Yes it will work. in fact some guys like a harder lead for PRB for hunting big boned game animals as it gives a little more whomp and penetration on big ribs and shoulder blades.

Range scrap was the first lead I used years ago because it was all I could find at the time. It worked find. I found it not quite as hard as wheel weights but of coarse harder than soft. Ranges will vary though. It shot good enough to win some minor shooting contests.

Go to any plumbing supply house, or most Home Depots and ask for plumbers lead. It is pure lead used for sealing cast iron sewer pipes. A couple of other places are ZIP metals and rotometals.com. Pure lead is available in many places. To save on shipping, just buy a larger lot and split costs with fellow casters.

Over many years I have mined backstops for lead which was almost 100% cartridge gun lead. Most that I tested had a Brinell hardness around 8 or 9 and pure lead is 5. It would work but you probably will have to adjust your patch thickness for a rifle. I won't use it for round balls or minnies but it's great for other stuff. It wouldn't make much difference for a smoothbore and a friend shoots marbles for practice.

I use "any and all lead" in my smooth bores, but for the rifles I use pure lead. Years back i used ww lead in my rifles with no problems, but the newer ww's are a real "hodge podge" of materials. :idunno:

Shooting it out of Muzzleloaders can be very Dangerous!!*

I live in Battle Mountain, I will take it off you hands for you so you don't have to pay hazmat fees to dispose of it.

*Its use could result in injury and likely death to creatures large and small!

On a more serious note, I used to use it all the time. The key is to batch it and keep the batches separate and marked. If you do not, you will have weight and size variables that will affect accuracy. The draw back (for Some) is with each batch you have to work up a new powder and patch load combination.

As the alloy changes the balls will change in weight and size, only slightly mind you but enough for some to notice the difference. I always enjoyed load development so it was never a problem for me.

I personaly have never had a problem with it. If you decide you do not want to mess with it, I will gladly take it off your hands! I have not used it in many years but would not hesitate to use it.

I used to live a bicycle ride away from an FBI/Sheriffs range. I had buckets of jacketed lead bullets.

They melted up fine (the jackets and dirt float) and I used them for the first few years I cast round balls.

I'm sure I'd have been read the riot act if ever caught. Now I'd probably be on a watch list and sent to counseling if they found me as a 14 year old digging bullets out of the berms.

I understand the site cost $1.5 million to remediate the soil down four feet and dig out the lead when it became part of a county prison and admin offices grounds. I did my part.

I'm with the other guys. I use scrap lead for centerfire pistol and rifle bullets at modest velocities and for ML smoothbores, but try to get the purest I can find for patched round balls out of a rifle.

I would use range lead in a rifle or smooth bore if that is all I had. It may be too hard to load easily in a cap&ball revolver.

I have managed to get some plumbers lead free from a local plumber on occasion. Other options might be a salvage yard or roofers as has been mentioned here.

If you have range lead and know folks who reload for unmentionables, they might be willing to trade pure lead if they have it for range lead.

Our local indoor range sells scrap lead from their huge trap for 10 cents a pound, but sales fell off. Several years back they were cleaning the traps and had nowhere to go with the lead.

They called me with the offer of lead. When I asked how much, they said "free" and how big was my truck. I made two trips- well over a ton, though I never weighed it.

While my intent was mostly for large halibut jigs and sinkers, I couldn't resist trying them for round balls. The balls aren't quite as soft as pure lead, but close enough to pass the thumbnail test. They cast closer to the diameter of pure lead balls than my micrometer can reliably measure. I do just fine using the same patch thickness.

One trick for alloy "consistency" is to smelt large batches at once. I'm using a large Dutch oven on a turkey fryer furnace.

I'm only worried about expansion on smaller caliber balls, so reserve the pure lead for 50 and 54 caliber. For 58 caliber and larger, I'm just using the range scrap. No problems and no regrets.

Gee, on the other hand it might take some time, BUT you could get a Lee 4 Ingot Mold, melt down the lead you mined, if you have a pile, and then cast ingots. The Lee mold does pound and half-pound ingots, so....,

Once you've cast ingots, I'd see if anybody on a forum that does both modern and black powder is looking for modern bullet alloy ingots..., and offer to trade. Try for 1:1 for your alloy with pure lead ingots, or try maybe 6 of your ingots for a box of 100 ready made rifle ball.

LD

Or just use a muffin tin from a thrift shop and weigh a few ingots from it. You then have a weight for your lead muffin. I use one to cast ingots. I have both scrap plumbers lead and range lead. I just use a metal stamps to mark the ingots so I know which is pure and which is range lead. I don't worry about exact size on the ingots because they are for my own use.

Brown Bear,
The problem with range wrap, I would imagine, would be a percentage of wheel weight material which the beginner ball cater uses as a source of "lead: but which has an alloy of a hardening metal which cause the balls cast to shrink more in size than the pote lead but on the other hand would make them harder to load in deep rifled barrels.

I think the thumb nail test passage would indicate only a small percentage of wheel wights were in your scrap

The very best pure lead I found was salvaged from the walls of an exray room in a medical building.

Dutch

One gunclub I go to for .22 target practice, has 2 sections, of 10 lanes each. One section is reserved for .22 pistol and rifles, and airguns, the other section is for anything else up to .45, pistols only and only fmj.

The ammo used there is factoryproduced, no homemade reloaded, only modern weapons, no blackpowder.

I have bought rangescrap from each section. And measured the hardness with a lee tester.

The result was 8-something for the large weapons and 12-something for the .22, compared to the 5-something for some roofing lead i got hold of.

I can't guarantie that the result numbers are accurate, but as it pass the nailtest, i think i would use the scrap from the large cal. Section if I run out of roofinglead.

Loyalist Dave said:

Gee, on the other hand it ]Lee 4 Ingot Mold[/url], melt down the lead you mined, if you have a pile, and then cast ingots. The Lee mold does pound and half-pound ingots, so...., LD

Click to expand...

LD, I use an old cast iron cornmeal mold, in the shape of an ear of corn, I bought in a yard sale..........robin