Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting lead pipe for muzzleloader bullets?

Is it true that lead pipe has zinc in it and will disintergrate in flight? If so how do I seperate the zinc out?

I don't know if lead pipe has zinc in it or not but I doubt seriously that, if it does, bullets made from it would disintegrate in flight. I would try casting some bullets from the lead pipe in a clean pot and see what you get. I believe that I have read that zinc in alloy is a bad contaminate and good bullets will be impossible to get. Compare the lead pipe bullets with other pure lead and see if the hardness is comparable.

Zinc is hard to flux out, but in lead pipe it usually doesn't exist. Zinc is usually used in fittings between lead and some other metal, so they don't anodize together. Type setters used zinc a lot in linotype opperations. Lead and zinc wheren't mixed together, but used as buffers on a type set board, vs. the actual letters. I hope that made sense.

Bullets with a bit of zince in them will NOT fly apart in flight. They "may" blow apart on impact if the zinc levels are high enough, which is extremely doubtful. The zinc will also cause pin holes in the bullets when in high levels. Flux the lead pipe in a pot you don't care about and cast some bullets. Actually, I don't even mind a little zinc in my bullets. It gives them a bit of yellow tint in certain light <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Flinch