casting bullets

[saigafan2 3]

It has been years since I have cast bullets and have ran across a bucket of wheel weights. Back then we would melt wheel weights and make bullets. Today I am told that wheel weights are not used and that wheel weights are of no value. These are at least 20 year old wheel weights.

Can someone fill me in on what is the norm. I no longer reload and want to get rid of the lead without moving the bucket more than once. I am able to melt them down into small ingots and remove the steel.

Is this going to be worth the work in melting and making ingots or should I just dispose of the lot and carry on?

What can I expect to get from lead?????

thanks

Edited May 19, 2011 by gunnut34

[Marc 147]

Who ever told you that wheel weights aren't used for bullet casting doesn't know what they where talking about, wheel weight lead is still very much sought after for bullet casting. Today we do have to watch out for Zinc wheel weights (zinc is slowly replacing lead for balancing wheels) as one little zinc weight will ruin an entire pot of otherwise good lead. Modern lead wheel weights also are not made out of the same alloy that they used to be made out of so sometimes, if you want to make a higher velocity bullet, you have to add stuff to your pot to make the alloy stronger.

 

If you recovered the lead and cast into ingots, I would expect you could get roughly a $1.00 per pound or more.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Barnett3006

[stuken3 0]

I live in Salt Lake City, Utah and buy lots of wheel weights for casting bullets and dripping shot. Many states have outlawed the use of lead wheel weights on new vehicles and replace their use with steel, aluminum, and zink. All of these metal types can be sorted out by keeping your melt pot temperature below 700 degrees F. Lead melts here at about 640 F. Zink melts next at about 780 F. As long as you keep your temperature below 700 F all the zink, aluminum, and steel will float to the top and can be easily skimmed off. Here the resultant cast ingots sell for about a 1.00 a pound. Good luck.

[Scott Kenny 144]

"As long as you keep your temperature below 700 F all the zink, aluminum, and steel will float to the top and can be easily skimmed off. "

 

Awesome info! Thanks!

[saigafan2 3]

thanks for all the info, I kind of thought that wheel weights were still used as they always have been. I have had these in the shed for at least 18 years so I am pretty sure all are lead. I have melted a couple of hand fulls for weights in other use and just done it over a grill fire.

Appreciate the input.

[THX1138 7]

I know this thread is old, but I thought I would pipe in.

 

My brother and myself have a couple of old 8mm Mauser rifles that we fire lead bullets out of. We make our bullets out of wheel weights.

 

We keep the velocity about 1200 to 1350 fps, not much faster, and they work fine, they don't lead the barrel up.

 

For what we doing, wheel weights work great.