Wheel Weights?

[Poor Private]

Ya I know ---Here we go again. But I have a couple of questions regrding their use.
1- do using them harm your guns, pistols, rifles, rifleing?
2- Is there any benefits from using them?
3- whats the cost camparison?
4-Whats the availability of each one?
5- would use in a smoothy be better?
6- does Wheel weights fragment in guns?
In another forum this discussion is going on, Mostly from civil war reenactors who shoot primarily blanks. There are just a few of us shooters there.

 

[hanshi]

They do NO harm to your bore; they don't expand as readily as pure lead; don't know about now but they use to be everywhere. I've picked up many pounds of them off the sides of highways and streets and have a couple hundred pounds of them laid by. I use them for my smoothbore but they will work just fine in my rifles.

 

[Adui]

Ya I know ---Here we go again. But I have a couple of questions regrding their use.

1- do using them harm your guns, pistols, rifles, rifling? Assuming patched round ball, no. For revolvers, it would depend on the gun, and the hardness of the WW but I wouldn't advise it. (that being said, Ive done it with mine before I knew any better with no apparent damage)

2- Is there any benefits from using them?Other than possible availability of materials none that I know of.

3- whats the cost comparison?That depends on where you get the WW, and for how much. Lead runs around $1.50 to $2.00 per pound these days from all my research, but you pretty much have to buy it online and have it shipped. Ebay often has sellers with those price levels including shipping no more than $2.50 per pound depending on quantity purchased.

4-Whats the availability of each one?WW, find a tire shop willing to sell you / give you the WW they dispose of or go to a metal scrap dealer and hope. Lead, online easy if you can afford quantity. I've found it for around $2. per pound shipped to my door, maybe a touch more, but minimum order to get that price was the 50-55 pound lot for $110.00

5- would use in a smoothy be better? Well, the hardness wouldn't be a factor, and if you are firing shot its supposed to be harder. I dont have a BP smooth bore so I dont know..

6- does Wheel weights fragment in guns?In my limited experience it didn't, and I've never heard of this happening.

In another forum this discussion is going on, Mostly from civil war reenactors who shoot primarily blanks. There are just a few of us shooters there.

 

[Dphar]

Ya I know ---Here we go again. But I have a couple of questions regrding their use.
1- do using them harm your guns, pistols, rifles, rifleing? (No even "hard" cast bullets will cause no wear unless grit is mixed with it, barrels will last for 100000 rounds or more)
2- Is there any benefits from using them? (Depends on the application)
3- whats the cost camparison? (Sometimes Free)
4-Whats the availability of each one? (WW can be easy to get in some places, but there are more and more of them made of Zinc and this metal will make the alloy impossible to cast so careful sorting is the rule)
5- would use in a smoothy be better? (Should make no difference but they will increase penetration on game)
6- does Wheel weights fragment in guns? (No, I shoot quenched WW, really hard, in my 44 mag)
In another forum this discussion is going on, Mostly from civil war reenactors who shoot primarily blanks. There are just a few of us shooters there.

 

[David Grout]

Dan is correct about the Zinc weights. If you melt your WW at about 650 to just get the lead to melt, the Zinc weights will float to the top and you can pick them off. Zinc melts at 787.15 degrees so it will float on top before it melts. That way you wont contaminate your pot full of lead. If you get it hot enough to melt the Zinc that pot of lead is toast. You will find a lot of Zinc out there nowadays.

 

[dikman]

Stick-on wheel weights are softer than the clip-on type, but check carefully for zinc ones (I found a couple in the last batch I had. They're usually stamped Zn and are fairly obvious once you know what to look for). You can mix wheel weights with pure lead to "dilute" the hardness a bit.
I believe the only real problem is if you use Minie balls, the skirts may not expand properly if the lead is hard.

 

[ohio ramrod]

years ago wheel weights were reasonably consistant, harder than pure lead but consistant. Now days who knows what they are made of? :idunno:

 

[Rifleman1776]

years ago wheel weights were reasonably consistant, harder than pure lead but consistant. Now days who knows what they are made of? :idunno:

Exactly. The owner of the tire shop I use is an avid modern gun shooter, bullet caster and reloader. Naturally, he has access to a lot of wheel weights of his own. He says, these days, you never know what a WW is made of. Lead is all but gone. IMHO, for ml purposes, WW are not the place to look anymore.

 

[RedFeather]

Good to know about the changes in WW alloys. Years ago I was getting new tires at a tire shop and asked about dropping off a dry wall bucket for cast off weights. Was told they already had "regulars". Turns out near every tire place or shop had already been staked out. Wasn't worth the effort.