Lead?

Thinking about buying lead off E-BAY for bullets,,,question,,,how pure does lead for muzzleloaders have to be?,,,99/1 lead to tin usable?,,,and what is a good price for lead?

Last time I needed lead for round ball I bought it from Roto metal. Good people, fast service and maybe they will be having a sale for Labor Day. http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/leadingotpure.htm

Good luck, Longone

you can check market price online daily for lead, and i`d avoid shipping

How pure (soft) the lead needs to be depends on its' use. Minie balls with their expanding skirts and balls for cap & ball revolvers where a small ring of lead is sheared off in loading, need to be very soft lead. On the other hand, roundballs in a smoothbore can be cast of quite hard lead & shot with no ill effects. (Tho some hunters like soft lead for expansion).

I agree with Coot with regard to lead. I shoot patched round balls from rifles and I use lead that my son gets for me. He works for a medical facility and he brings me old X-ray lead and lead containers that radioisotopes are shipped in. I don't know the exact purity but I know it is not 100% lead. It's not dead soft but with a bit of effort, I can scratch it with my thumbnail. It has worked quite well in all of my rifles and even works in my revolvers. I'd say that if you can scratch it with your thumbnail, it is good enough.

I buy plumbers lead from a scrap metal dealer. Also contacted a couple of roofers and get the roof vents from repair jobs. Last I bought was $.65/lb vs the $2 eBay sellers ask.
TC

how pure does lead for muzzleloaders have to be?,,,

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If you ask stubborn old timer curmudgeons, like me, the answer is dead pure only.
Some others have success (luck?) with other hardnesses. Good for them. :wink:
I have some zinc and may try that in a rifle, just for the 'h' of it. Right now a lot of it is cast up for use in my 20 ga. fowler.

Shipping lead? that stuff is HEAVY.

Buy from a junk yard. :grin:

Last lead I bought was a 5-lb ingot of plumbers lead from a local hardware store - no tin or antimony in it and it works great. I've always been told only use "pure-lead" for round balls, not an alloy. Others have said they did all right with lead/tin and lead/antimony alloys.

A few things you need to keep in mind about using alloys:

Ӣ anything less than pure lead will weigh less than your normal round ball, so will carry less energy.

Ӣ Ballistics are different for the hard alloys primarily because they weigh less. So don't sight your rifle in for one type and expect it to shoot the same with the other - it won't.

Ӣ Alloys are better for penetration but don't expand nearly as well, resulting in more through and through shots on game versus expending all the energy from the shot inside the target. Ideally you'll find the lead ball inside the skin on the opposite side of the body from the entry wound.

I never saw an advantage in using an alloy, so I don't.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:
Dan

Thanks all, for the info,,Think I'll check out the local scrap yards.

I've used as hard as wheel weight alloy because that was all I had. It(RBs) works fine in rifles. I agree though on minies and for revolvers need to be real soft. 1% tin won't raise hardness enough to be notices and will cast better. A smig of tin helps the lead pour better. Over at castboolits there are people selling lea all the time.

"Shipping lead? that stuff is HEAVY."

That's what the USPS "Flat Rate" boxes are for! They've really been a boon for the lead & bullet shippers.....not so much for the mail man! :shocked2:

I ordered pure lead from Roto Metals, along with a few zinc cannon balls not noticing that they were way out in California. They used the USPS flat rate shipping so the box of lead cost the same to ship as a toothbrush. :shocked2: I got a slip in my mailbox saying that I had a package that was too heavy for delivery and I had to come to the PO to pick it up. When I handed the slip across the counter the man took one glance at it and said "So YOU'RE the one". :slap:

They brought me one of their flat rate boxes that had been battered and torn open, then taped back up and put in a new box and taped again. All in all I had something about the size of a shoe box that weighed 88 pounds. A few more like that and they may be re-thinking that "If it fits it ships" thing. :shake:

Any idea how dive weights stack up for hardness, plentiful down here.

Commodore Swab said:

Any idea how dive weights stack up for hardness, plentiful down here.

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I think it depends on the age....I have seen some that were pure lead and some newer that were cheap alloy.

When sourcing lead, I can get a good evaluation by doing the fingernail scratch test.

Look, feel and sound by tapping are also good indicators. But, these come with experience.

Drop the unknown lead alloy on a concrete floor. If it goes, "thud" it is pretty pure. IF if rings it is not.

colorado clyde said:

Commodore Swab said:

Any idea how dive weights stack up for hardness, plentiful down here.

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I think it depends on the age....I have seen some that were pure lead and some newer that were cheap alloy.

When sourcing lead, I can get a good evaluation by doing the fingernail scratch test.

Look, feel and sound by tapping are also good indicators. But, these come with experience.

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I can scratch 18 BHN hard lead. Scratching is worthless as a test.

Scota4570 said:

Drop the unknown lead alloy on a concrete floor. If it goes, "thud" it is pretty pure. IF if rings it is not.

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This is by far the best method for guys looking for lead in ingots.

Idaho Ron said:

I can scratch 18 BHN hard lead. Scratching is worthless as a test.

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One man's scratch is another's gouge......

Scota4570 said:

Drop the unknown lead alloy on a concrete floor. If it goes, "thud" it is pretty pure. IF if rings it is not.

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And if it chips the floor it's definitely not pure.. :hmm:
:wink: