Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting lead

Can I use just the lead tire weights alone ? or do I need to add tin, I am going to start with round ball 454 for pistol . Also wondering will regular plumbers flux work ok ? I'm thinking instead of buying all the stuff, I will start out with a coleman stove, pot, dipper, and a Lee mould. Thermometer, Then if I like it, buy the good stuff.

What kind of pistol are you referring to? If it's a black powder you should use pure lead rather than wheel weights. For flux use paraffin obtainable in the grocery store in the canning section, or beeswax which costs more. Some fluxes as used by the trades are acid based and unnecessarily expensive. A little more info required from you.

Until you come to a decision about wanting to cast seriously, you really don't need a thermometer for your casting. Before casting melt a piece of parafin about the size of a pea in the metal and stir it into the metal good. It will smoke terribly so be sure you are outside or in well ventillated room. This is called fluxing and will enable you to take a cheap spoon and skim off and discard any impurities in the metal. Be sure not to skim off the sheen on the top of the metal as this is your tin. You want that to say in the metal. Get the little crumbles of dirt, and stuff that will come to the surface. Mix the tin back into the alloy as best you can. Then try casting a few bullets once your metal has melted completely and see if you can get good bullets. If not, let the alloy heat up a bit longer and try again. With iron moulds, it sometimes takes a dozen or so tries before the mould is hot enough to get good bullets. Aluminum, Lee moulds, may take only 6-8 bullets to get up to temp and cast good bullets. You see, the mold needs to be what seems to be, nearly as hot as the lead for the lead to fill all the little nooks and crannies and give a good bullet. Keep all moisture away from the melted lead as it will cause an explosion of molten material if even a drop of water, or perspiration, or even a live fly falls into the lead pot while hot.

Thanks for the info , I am using 1858 remington pistol, I just come home with about 200 pounds of wheel weights, Should I NOT use this for the round ball in the pistol ?

Bullets: I would use pure lead and don't think wheel weights should be used in your 1858 Remington. Wheel weights are more suitable for modern arms.

Thanks stocker, I have a supply of bees wax coming also, how much of it should I use ?...Whats pure lead running these days? wondering where to get it also. I think I will go ahead and get the moulds for the rifles, seeing that I have all these weights now.

What's the bees wax for? If the wax is for fluxing, use about a pea size amount for your lead melter. It doesn't take much. Reflux every hour or so of casting or after adding fresh metal to the pot.

My brother keeps bees, I have about a million and one uses for the stuff, including this, so he is sending me a mess of the stuff.

Pure lead for blackpowder pistol applications.

Mike