Canadian Airgun Forum

I'm a mechanics for Ford and i'm pretty sure you could use the lead from tire balancing machines! just a tip...

That is true for smoothbore rifles but the common "wheel weights" is made up
Of mixed metal. It is a few points harder and is harmful
To typical barrel rifling. Essentially filing down the inner barrel.
I pay for my lead to ensure its the cleanest and purest available.
Thanks for the suggestion but that is a smoothbore only kinda dealio.

Reaper

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I'm O.C.D. and A.D.D. so everything has to be perfect, but not for long.

ohhh i didn't know about that but hey it was only a suggestion and happy to know not to use them

Yeah it's good info to know. Before someone goes
Out there and destroys there Rifle. You are sitting on a
Gold mine there if only you had a smoothbore. So easy
To find as much as u could carry. Pure lead is not so easy
To find and even harder to find at a cheap price. But I find
It to be way cheaper and more practical to shoot and recycle
bigbore lead then picking up .177 mouse poop or dust.

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I'm O.C.D. and A.D.D. so everything has to be perfect, but not for long.

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May the cry of the pack be with you upon your hunt

Whitewolf

13 Sizes of Boolits Available.
Prices similar to a tin of .22.


REAPER

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I'm O.C.D. and A.D.D. so everything has to be perfect, but not for long.

Care to expand on that? Sizes/weights?

Darren

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Marksman 1010
Daisy 188 "Repeater" and
a Detuned at44

WheelWeights, containing only lead and antimony are great for pistol bullets for power burners. For large size, .45 and .50 cal. PB rifle bullets they do well for up to 2,200fps. WW bullets, if cast of Canadian WW, due to specs will usually be 12 to 13 brinel. The well known Lyman #2 alloy is about 16 brinel and a 10:1 lead to tin ratio, used for many years by lead bullet shooters, runs about 13 or 14 brinel. A 'stronger' mix of tin and lead will not produce a harder bullet. Unfortunately, tin and lead cannot be hardened further, unlike real antimony and lead WW. These also have a smidgen of arsenic in them - something like .05% (don't breath the fumes -poisonous) but it is enough to allow hardening of the bullets. If you want your lead bullets to act like African FMJ bullets for punching through bone without deformation, hardening the WW bullets is easily done. If interested in this, mail me. I've been doing this for 35 years. Suffice to say, that 13 brinel WW bullet can be hardened to 34 brinel and will not be brittle like higher antimony bullets become (Linotype- 22 b, Monotype, ie: high speed babbit is about 26 b). Note that dead soft copper is 35 brinel.

Modern wheelweights as we find in auto shops today are being made with more and more zinc and California WW are 100% zinc - zinc will not only destroy your melt (what is in the pot), it will also contaminate the pot itself and will rarely cast well again. If checked carefully, you can still find lots of real WW of antimony and lead. They are about 5 to 7%, I seem to recall reading somewhere. In a 150 pound bucket, you'll probably get 140 pounds of good WW's. Anything with a Z on them are throwaways.

An air rifle should have pure lead - that's 5 brinel -----------------------5

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Best Wishes
Daryl

For muzzleloading rifles of the larger sizes, we've found reducing the ball size and going to a thicker patch works well with WW and other harder lead balls. I used to shoot WW in my .69 and .58's but ran into a batch of pure, so I'm using that now, saving the WW for the Sharps.

That looks like lots of practice bullets, Kim and Reaper. I used to do that - casting marathons - now I hate casting (I guess I'm fumed-out) and only do it as necessary.

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Best Wishes
Daryl

Well i have my mould from JJ Tanner in England. Butnow i need to hire Kim or Dan to cast me up some .300 rounds for me! I have the lead to with 1% antimony. Or i can just buy ingots from Dan! I imagine 250 would last a few years, asmy property is 't big enough to fire that safely! So if either of you'd be interested, that's cool!

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-Rick

Brocock Concept .22
3 Crosman MK 1 pistol .22

Daryl,
Those are some big balls ya got there! If your lungs are not up to I'd be willing to take a birth defect or to for ya budz!
Or maybe I'll just stick to the respirator what the heck! If ya wanna send me your mould I'm sure we can work something out
that we can both grin about. how Bout we start with 5000 balls? I'd also like to see a pic or two of these muzzle loaders!
Rick,
.30 is a nice round man, you wanna send me your mold to thats a good deal. Luckily I have great neighbors and alittle elbow room
work so I can cast and store about 500 lbs of lead next to the pot. Although, I only have .308,.309,.311 and .313 sizers.
Darren,
SIZE GRAIN
309 90
311 93
313 90
356 105
356 140
358 110
358 140
358 148
358 158
401 175
429 240
454 298
456 220
510 340

Cheers Fellas!

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I'm O.C.D. and A.D.D. so everything has to be perfect, but not for long.

Thanks Dan! Wife says there is a package for me at home! Hopefull it is from you??
I will pack the mold up in a few weeks!

Cheers!

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-Rick

Brocock Concept .22
3 Crosman MK 1 pistol .22

No Problem!
Awesome!
Should be.
Sweet!

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I'm O.C.D. and A.D.D. so everything has to be perfect, but not for long.

Unrelated:

Why are big bore slugs fashioned this way and not like the smaller calibre pellets with the crimped waist and skirt?

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The flaw with experience is, it causes us to forget what we were like when we didn't have any.

Casting season is nigh

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I'm O.C.D. and A.D.D. so everything has to be perfect, but not for long.