Good afternoon everyone, I'm new to the forum as well as reloading. I've been reloading for about 2 or 3 months now and I'm having a great time.

I got into reloading when I bought my first specialized rifle. I picked up a Howa Hogue Kryptek Ceracote Package in 22-250.

In reading about the 22-250 on the internet I was happy to find that it's a very versatile rifle.

Not only have I been reloading regular ammo for it, but I've also gotten into using Blue Dot to fashion reduced loads for it to cover a plethora of usages.

I found this forum a few months back when I was looking for reloading information for the 22-250. I think that it was Sierra information to be honest, and this sight popped up with a PDF file with the information since I don't have that specific book.

I'll most likely be doing more reading than commenting but just wanted to say hi.

One question though, when it comes to forums I like to hit the button that makes all of the forums READ so that I may see when new content is posted. I have not been able to find the way of doing that on this forum. Is it available?

Chad

Welcome.

I believe what you are looking for is under
GO/personal zone/notifications

The Big1---If you want to really have reduced loads, use cast bullets. If you don't already cast, I'd take that up. Many try to make it rocket science---but it aint. I cast the 58 grain bullet from an RCBS mold and shoot it about 2000-2200 fps --very pleasant to shoot and hell on jackrabbits. This mold casts a bullet designed for a gas check, but I shoot them without a gas check and they work fine--I don't notice any difference with or without the check.

Big1---More on casting bullets---Get a Lyman reloading manual and you can learn a lot about it. Again, it's not rocket science and there are parts of the book that try to make it that way. For example---the manual gives precise measurements for making their alloy. This formula will take an unknown (wheel weights) for 95% and then add precise amounts of knowns for the other 5% and come up with an exact. Amazing--pure BS. Get some wheel weights and make some bullets and you'll be good to go.

quote:

Get some wheel weights

For YEARS I could pick up 5 gal buckets of wheel weights and cast I don't know how many 1000s of pistol bullets.

Like everything else supplies dried up. Haven't cast a bullet in 20yrs.

Just curious with the availability of 2nds for something like the 22-250 do you really save any $ now days?

Ramrod--I can still get wheel weights and so yes, a big savings is to be had casting my own.

quote:

can still get wheel weights and so yes

That explains it. I actually sold ALL my casting stuff a couple years ago. Just couldn't get the cheap weights anymore. Plus don't shoot near as much as I used to. Glad it is still working for people.

So 2nds now fit my bill. Think I paid around 8 cents for the last bunch of 224 stuff.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:

quote:

Get some wheel weights

For YEARS I could pick up 5 gal buckets of wheel weights and cast I don't know how many 1000s of pistol bullets.

Like everything else supplies dried up. Haven't cast a bullet in 20yrs.

Just curious with the availability of 2nds for something like the 22-250 do you really save any $ now days?

Good luck finding wheel weights that are of any use. And I have looked.

The overwhelming majority of wheel weights out there now have been re-used to the point of all the tin being cooked out of them IF they are lead based at all. There was a law passed a couple of years back that eliminated the use of lead based wheel weights. Nowadays they are zinc or steel...

Stole this from a whell manufacturer site.

I thought it was more than six states. The tire place I used to get mine from simply said it was too hard to sort so everything when in the same bucket.

""Lead wheel weights remain in a state of flux. Currently in the United States, their use is banned in only six states, although other states have proposed bans. Part of the reason is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has asked for a voluntary shift away from lead. And it appears to be working, although slowly.

“We are seeing that the majority of the market is switching on its own,” says Greg Parker, marketing manager at Perfect Equipment Inc. He estimates that the North American market is roughly half non-lead.

Keefe says that because the market now is about 50% lead, 50% lead-free, wheel weight manufacturers have a new cost structure to deal with. The current market requires them to tool one or two lead-free alternatives while maintaining lead wheel weight operations. That is starting to change.

“We made the change to non-lead last year as a statement to the industry,” says Daniel Molinari, product department manager at Wurth USA Inc. Molinari says consumers are making the switch to non-lead too, especially younger people. He also sees the switch taking place at repair facilities and with distributors and manufacturers.
""

Again glad some are still able to get a supply

Paul, this is agreeably a very old article, but it gives at least some support to what is going on, and how long it has been going on:


E.P.A. to Ban Lead Tire Weights


By Jim Motavalli
September 9, 2009 8:23 am September 9, 2009 8:23 am

It’s no secret that cars pollute the environment, but not all of that pollution comes out of the tailpipe. The Environmental Protection Agency says 2,000 tons of lead tire weights — used in wheel balancing — are “lost from vehicles and ultimately end up in the environment each year.” Exposure to lead, the E.P.A. said, has a variety of health effects, including brain and nervous system disorders, high blood pressure, reproductive problems and hypertension.

Recently, the E.P.A. reversed previous decisions and agreed to follow Europe’s lead and seek to ban the manufacture and distribution of lead tire weights.

It’s been a long haul. The E.P.A.’s action was in response to a 2009 petition from the Ecology Center, the Sierra Club and other groups. Four years ago, the federal agency, then led by Stephen Johnson, a George W. Bush appointee, rejected a similar request.

“Over the last few years, we’ve gained more information on the effect of lead tire weights in the environment,” said Steve Owens, an assistant E.P.A. administrator. “Also, a number of states have moved to ban these weights, so there’s clearly rising concern.” State bans on lead tire weights have been passed in Washington State, Vermont and Maine, and others were pending, the Ecology Center said, but a national ban would make those efforts moot.

“We requested that the weights be phased-out by 2011, and we think that is feasible,” Jeff Gearhart, research director at the Ecology Center and a longtime campaigner against lead weights. He called lead tire weights “the largest ongoing unregulated release of lead into the environment,” and said a rule-making process could take six to 12 months.



In a press release from the environmental groups, Tom Neltner of the Sierra Club says that lead gets into the environment when “cars and trucks grind the wheel weights into a powder that spreads into the neighborhoods along our busy streets.”

Ironically, most automakers and North American manufacturers of lead weights are not opposing the ban, Mr. Gearhart said. American automakers have largely switched to coated steel weights for new cars, so the ban will largely affect tire shops, garages and aftermarket suppliers. Without a ban, some weight companies say they are reluctant to voluntarily switch to steel because Asian suppliers could then undercut them by offering cheaper lead weights.

According to Mark Aiken, vice president of sales and marketing at Canadian weight manufacturer Plombco, 90 to 95 percent of its present business is in lead weights. But he said that the company has been making lead alternatives for six years. “We have the capacity to completely switch to steel weights if required,” he said. According to Mr. Aiken, zinc weights are widely used in Europe, but American automakers are trending toward steel alternatives. Steel is lighter, so the new weights are slightly thicker and bulkier than lead (and also more expensive).

Tire retailers that had already agreed to phase out lead wheel weights by 2011 include Wal-Mart and Costco. Kory Lundberg, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said that the company has already stopped ordering lead weights, and is phasing in steel replacements. “We thought it was the right thing to do,” he said.

According to a spokesman, Patrick Langsjoen, the United States Postal Service this year said it would get the lead out of its national fleet of 215,000 under-two-ton delivery vehicles, following the success of pilot programs in the western United States Environmental benefits, he said, were “augmented by employee support for the initiative.”

One opponent of lead bans is the London-based International Lead Association, which says in an online fact sheet that “lead is a sustainable commodity when produced, used and recycled in a responsible manner. Efforts to restrict or even ban its use are not backed up by sound scientific evidence, but rather based on emotive comment and misguided public perception.”

Very interesting.
My article was dated August 9, 2013.

So more a voluntary phase out not a legal ban???