Ammo from old sinkers.

[Sidney Smith]

Was over my parents house today cleaning out their basement of some junk. Ran across a bag that my father had used to keep his surf fishing sinkers in. There were some pretty large pyramid sinkers inside, maybe five or six of them, all about 4 ounces each. All pure lead(well all passed the fingernail test anyway). I won't ever use these for fishing as I have plenty my own stuff. These big dogs will be used to make round balls for my rifles. Anyone else use old fishing sinkers for ammunition making?

 

[Brokennock]

I'd see if you can break them up and leave them in the sun for a while. Someone here, or maybe on another similar forum, had an unhappy experience melting some old dive weights that still had somehow gotten some water trapped inside.

 

[lwscrim]

Yes, I did. My Granddad had some in a junk pile in my barn, I dug them out of the dirt and melted them down for round balls. That was all the lead I had on hand that was pure as most of my surf weights were cast from 50/50 solder. That is until I made it down south to my house where I had all my lead and mixed alloys stored.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

Sidney:

Drop them on a hard surface (poured concrete is best.) If it "rings" it is alloyed. If it goes "thunk" is is soft lead. Soft is better for round balls. When ever I am considering buying lead, I always use the drop test.

 

[lwscrim]

I did however start them melting from a cold pot.
I wouldn't put any unknown lead in a pot with hot melted lead...

 

[smo]

Yep I’ve used fishing sinkers in the past without any issues... except dirt collecting in the pot.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Sidney:

Drop them on a hard surface (poured concrete is best.) If it "rings" it is alloyed. If it goes "thunk" is is soft lead. Soft is better for round balls. When ever I am considering buying lead, I always use the drop test.

I've been around lead for a long time. I can tell just by the color and by fingernail pressure whether its pure enough to use or not. These are pure lead or close to it, I'll stake my name on it. Besides I'd venture to guess these sinkers are probably at least 35 to 40 years old. The last time they saw the light of day was probably back in the mid to late 70's.....

 

[smo]

Sounds like the same testing I do....lol

If I can make a thumbnail mark on the material,I would think it should be fine.

Until the other day.
I have a thread on what happened in the shooting accessories thread.

I’ve probably got 10 - 15 pounds of them now...

They have brass wire poured into them too tie the line to..

They’ve been around awhile..

 

[Eutycus]

If those fishing weights are as old as you say I really wouldnt worry. I'm pretty sure they used pure lead back then. Especially if they appear to be "store bought". Its the homemade ones that one isnt really sure of the purity of.

 

[Eutycus]

I too have some old fishing weights that I want to melt down. I'm so sure that they are pure lead that I'm going to mix them in with an ingot or two of wheel weight lead to soften up that batch a little.

 

[Don Steele]

The nice thing about those pyramid sinkers is that if your drop'em on concrete..."pointy-end-first"...they will hit with a "thud" and the point will bend over if they're good lead.

 

[BrownBear]

Sidney:

Drop them on a hard surface (poured concrete is best.) If it "rings" it is alloyed. If it goes "thunk" is is soft lead. Soft is better for round balls. When ever I am considering buying lead, I always use the drop test.

That's been my practice over the last 30 years, and it works. We get a lot of free sinkers as people move from our halibut paradise, but want to cut the weight tally for the moving companies. Most run in the 1# to 2# range, so it can add up to a lot of free lead. You develop a pretty critical eye for telling the difference between factory models and home-cast. The factory models are almost always pure lead, a boon for muzzleloaders. Homecast are almost always an alloy because the easiest lead source around here is the big lead trap at our gun club's indoor range. I picked up a little over a ton of lead from them for the price of the gas to haul it away, so no pure lead coming out of my sinker molds for sure.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Here is one of the weights. Just for laughs I took it outside and dropped it on the sidewalk. Had a little trouble getting it to hit point first but after about three drops it kinda hit on the point. It bent over and made the tell tale thud. Also you can see scratch marks I put in it with my nail. I dropped it from maybe two feet. Its definitely a store bought item....

 

[Griz44Mag]

I'd see if you can break them up and leave them in the sun for a while. Someone here, or maybe on another similar forum, had an unhappy experience melting some old dive weights that still had somehow gotten some water trapped inside.

Drop the lot of them in a dutch oven (pot) cold. LID ON BUT SLIGHTLY AJAR, to allow it to vent.
Put your fire on low, heat for an hour or so, then bring the temp on up. If there is water present, it will steam off.
When molten, skim off the dross and wire and other crud, it will all float in the lead pool. Flux with candle wax, wood shavings, used motor oil, anything with carbon in it. I dip mine out into 1# Lyman molds because that makes them easy to add to a casting pot. I have done this many times over many years with range diggings.
Whatever you do, do not drop them into molten lead in an already hot pot.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Good ideas for any newbies out there. I'll be honest, I don't flux the lead anymore. When I did flux and after I quit, I didn't notice any difference in the amount of slag that floated to the top. Simply stirring it brings out the impurities then just skim off.

 

[Don Steele]

The chemical processes involved in true fluxing are critical to casters using various alloys of lead, plus other metals (e.g.: Tin, Antimony, etc.) for non-muzzleloading projectiles. It helps keep the alloy consistent throughout the casting session by preventing separation of the components via preferential oxidation. When the goal is pure lead roundballs, true fluxing is kinda meaningless. That said...The simple act of stirring the pot, scraping down the sides, etc. brings contaminants to the surface where they can be removed. If not removed they can become foreign matter inclusions in our roundballs.
Here's a link to a good article on fluxing for bullet casters:
http://www.lasc.us/FryxellFluxing.htm

 

[smo]

Thanks Don great info

 

[BlackHillsBob]

go for it.

 

[ADK Bigfoot]

As a lifetime lead scrounger, I learned a lesson today. At the range I picked up some "powder coated" pistol bullets and some FMJ and plated bullets. I decided to melt them down to see if they were soft enough to use. As usual, the FMJs had their cores melt and run out the hole in the bottom. The powder coated bullets melted off the coating, which then caught fire and became dust. The jackets and dust was skimmed off.

The real surprise was the plated bullets. With no hole to run out of, their melted cores came out wherever the plating was weakest, as a thin stream of molten lead. In some cases, that was right straight at me.

Be careful if you melt plated bullets, as there is no knowing where that stream of lead will shoot. As they are lighter and float to the surface, that stream may be coming right at you.

ADK Bigfoot

 

[Sidney Smith]

But is the lead soft enough to use? You never did answer your own question!