Gentlemen,

Let me say up front that I know nothing of casting bullets. Now, with that in mind:

I've worked in a stained glass window studio for several years and over in the corner of my work area is a large box of lead came scraps from previous stained glass projects.

Also, I recently aquired an S&W .357 magnum and handload 38 specials for it. Now since I can buy a couple boxes of cast bullets for about what I could pay for a couple bullet molds, I'm wondering if I could use that scrap lead I have. I believe this lead is fairly pure and if so, what do I have to do to it to make it useful for bullet production? I've been told to add some tin to it. What should I do? There's simply too much of it available for me to pass it up...

Thanks guys,

Tex

Tex21. I'll let others with more experience in hangun loading help with that, but I may be able to shed some light on what you have.
Canadas largest lead foundry is about 75 mi. from where I live and I'm friends with the guy that does their alloying. On a trip there a couple of yrs. ago, I asked if they had any deals on something near pure lead. He told me they had a barrel full of lead window leading rejects that I could have cheap (about 200lbs) He told me it contained .45% antimony and .06% copper. At least this might tell you something about where you're starting from. Hope it helps. Ron.D

I think you'd have to add some tin to that mix, but I'm not sure if thatsmall amout of copper would be a problem, if Ron's assessment of what the composition of that lead alloy is. Still, at that price, it wouldn't hurt to give it a try. if you can get hold of some Wheel weights, clean them and use a 50/50 mix of wheelweights and that scrap lead for target loads and maybe moderate loads as well. Add about an 18 to 36" piece of 95/5 % lead free solder to the mix, starting with the 18" piece. All you want is just enough tin to fill out the mold properly. That should work. If it doesn't, you can always use that stuff to make a life time supply of fishing sinkers. Either way, it wouldn't go to waste.
Paul B.

Tex, I concur. Treat that scrap as pure lead. If it has some soldered joints in it, it already has a bit of tin in it. If the studio has a can of soldier spatters around, grab it. That will be about half tin. Lead with 1-2% tin added will make perfectly decent wadcutters, but I would not try to push bullets that soft past 800 fps.

While chemical analysis of an unknown lead containing alloy would require real skill, confirming that an unknown is PURE lead only takes time.

Fill a twenty pound furnace with the stuff. Melt it. Insert a good lead thermometer. Pull the plug. Look STRAIGHT at the thermometer and take a temperature reading at EXACTLY one minute intervals.

A good lead thermometer can be bought from RCBS.

If your metal is pure lead the temperature will drop until it hits the lead melting point. Around 600 degrees if memory serves. Then there will be a LONG time when the temperature is constant. Then it will drop again until it all hardens.

The exact temperature at which this happens is unimportant. Lead thermometers aren't all that accurate. The temperature that they show can be off by quite a bit. That isn't important. It is the LONG CONSTANT temperature that matters.

That kind of long constant temperature can only occur for a eutectic alloy, like linotype, or a pure chemical element, like lead. Linotype has its long constant temperature around 450 degrees. Lead has its around 624 (if memory serves). These two temperature are far enough apart that you can not confuse the two.

So you can confirm that your alloy is lead. If it isn't, then things REALLY get complicated.