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Old October 17, 2001, 10:13 PM   #1
jjmorgan64
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Fishing sinkers for casting?

i have some of these, but they melt down differently, they kind of crack, and look like pressed metal when melting.

howevert they look like lead after they are put into ingots

are these lead?, can tjey be used for bullets?

thank you
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Old October 17, 2001, 10:34 PM   #2
dick w. holliday
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if it is made of lead i'll melt it and make a bullet out of it (except car batteries and lead shot)....sinkers are generally pure lead because they don't really care how hard they are like we do... in order to get pure lead to cast good you probably would need to get it quite a bit hotter than you would your typical bullet alloy or tireweight lead...i live on the coast of NC and i play hell getting tire weights because there are a bunch more people making lead sinkers than there are making bullets so i always say that the lead sinker lobby is more powerful around here than is the bullet lobby........the answer to your question is to melt'em and shoot'em. But mix them with tireweights or something to make harder bullets with no leading.......Dick
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Old October 17, 2001, 10:40 PM   #3
Johnny Guest
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Dick - - -

Good answers, but you raise new questions in my mind.

Why NOT batteries and lead shot?


Well, aside from the fact that there's a LOT of work to reclaiming lead from old automotive batteries. I was always pretty careful about the acid - - - but that was a LOT of years back.

What about the lead shot? Is it too hard because of antimony composition? It might harden up the fishing sinkers about right.

Best,
Johnny
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Old October 18, 2001, 09:12 AM   #4
Southla1
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I had about 30 old batteries, and was going to take them to the scrap yard for fifty cents apiece, but then got a brilliant idea. It was right after Hurricane Andrew and I had a huge pile of tree limbs (and WHOLE trees) to burn. They were dry and seasoned. I mean this was going to be a FIRE! I pitched the batteries on the cneter of the pile along with 5 gallons of diesel and a match. Went back the next morning and all that was left was ash and coals. Took the leaf blower and blew that away and voila! There on the hard baked ground was well over 100# of lead, mostly in big clumps and really fairly clean. Melted it in my big pot that I use for that pourpose and hardened it and poured it in ignots.
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Old October 18, 2001, 10:43 AM   #5
slickpuppy
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Carlyle,
I bet the EPA nazis love you!
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Old October 18, 2001, 11:54 AM   #6
Keith J
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Battery no-no!

Batteries are made with lots of nasties in them now and are a poor choice of lead for casting. Its quite hazardous due to the calcium, arsenic and other junk. If you do it, several melts are necessary to clean it up and there is a lot of dross and slag. If you must recycle batteries, be very careful of the dross! Keep it dry at all times because it reacts with water to make a very toxic gas....

This was covered many years ago in The American Rifleman.
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Old October 18, 2001, 01:57 PM   #7
Southla1
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!Carlyle, I bet the EPA nazis love you!


Probably gotta agree with you on that point slickpuppy!

Some years ago the EPA idiots were talking about a ban on lead fishing weights.............no s*** this is a fact. Well, I lose so damn many of them trying to cast where no rod and reel was ever designed to cast, I went out and damn near bought out Wal-Marts entire stock, when I heard of the proposed ban. It may have been more out of a desire to "I'll show them" rather than needing them. Of course the ban went by the wayside so now I could start my own sinker shop! Of course I also bought some sinker molds and lead head jig moulds. Take that EPA!
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Old October 18, 2001, 02:46 PM   #8
Johnny Guest
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OOOOOPS!

Well, I thought it might be something of the sort, KeithJ, but I had no idea it would be THAT bad. Actually, I haven't done anything of the sort for over 30 years.

What about lead shot?

Thanks,
Johnny
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Old October 18, 2001, 04:44 PM   #9
Keith J
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Used shot?

Used shot is good for a base alloy although it loses some Sb due to drossing and most trap/skeet stuff isn't more than a few points from pure lead.

Make sure you flux it well as there is a BUNCH of dross from all that area. Knock the tin up to a few points for good fill-out and its good for low vel pistol stuff. Quench it if it is too soft as it will respond.

I use wheelweights. Plentiful and perfect as-is.
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Old October 18, 2001, 07:21 PM   #10
dick w. holliday
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Well if i could get used shot i'd shoot in my shotgun again for one thing...The other thing is that i've read or heard that shot has arsenic in it....Maybe read that in a Lyman manual or somewhere--

Here's a good used shot story for you----i live about 45 minutes frm the Nuclear plant at Southport NC---an engineer type that worked there years ago got a bunch of lead shot that they used to fill in cracks and other places that they needed to insulate..It was mixed sized shot with every size in it from #12 to #6...i was lucky (?) enough to get a couple of ammo cans full that i loaded in AA hulls with a load to send it out at about 1225 fps.....i guess you could call it a cincoplex load....anyway i killed a bunch of skeet and trap birds with them as well as a few dove shoots and i came to the realization that it really doesn't made a damn what size shot your shooting in a shotgun as long as you're on target....almost forgot to mention that since the shot glowed in the dark that they were very good for night shooting......Dick
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Old October 18, 2001, 10:25 PM   #11
Jack Straw
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If you want to water quench your bullets, then the arsenic in shot is a good thing; arsenic helps to harden quenched lead. Wheelweights have a trace of arsenic which is why they respond so well to treating.

If you are worried about arsenic poisoning then don't sprinkle shot over your grits.

Jack
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