Air Gun Home :: View topic

Mike Lanum · Banned

Anyone ever melt down their spent pellet lead for casting muzzle loading bullets or maybe sinkers? My back yard range backstop is saturated with pellet lead. Filled up a tin can and probably could have filled another. Not sure of the leads purity, but figure it might be good for casting round balls or maxi-ball bullets for my TC.

rws48 · Member

Most likely pels are near pure lead thus good for muzzle loader bullets.
Also sinkers or add tin for hardness and make pistol bullets.
After years of shooting I just started saving recovered pels and since
we had a bad, long, cold, winter I didn't shoot all that much but
gather up almost 1.5 pounds of smashed pels.

Mike Lanum · Banned

Have shot a lot of 177 pellets and never really noticed it in the back stop. But have been shooting a lot more 22 and 25 caliber pellets in the last few years and its a little more noticeable. I imagine I could cast 25 or 30- 50 caliber round balls with the spent lead laying out there if I take the time to pick it up and clean it. I have a maxi-ball mold, but my TC has the 1:66 twist so I shoot patched round balls in it exclusively.

shawn706 · Member

It's realy good lead. I get it from the highschool when they clean out their backstops. Use it to weight BB guns with.

Mentolio · Veteran Member

I have actually been planning to make a hi-temp silicon mold so I can melt down all my "junk pellets" into ingots (I do try to recover as many as possible from my trap and backstops). Not certain what I will do with them after, but they will be significantly easier to store, I suspect. Maybe I'll buy a .22 mold and cast some slugs for my Disco?

Mike Lanum · Banned

I think I will look into getting a couple molds for my 22 and 25. Would be pretty cool if I could cast some accurate bullets instead of having to order them on line. Can't find anything but Benjamin and crosman (same thing) around here and that's only in 177 and 22, no 25's around at all. Anyone know of anyone making an inexpensive (cheap) pellet mold?

shawn706 · Member

If you can't think of anything better, the ingots sell on e-bay.

Mike Lanum · Banned

If nothing else I think a person would be better off keeping their lead and maybe using it for barter or sell to someone else that casts bullets. Although the cost of lead has gone up a little its the cost of shipping that hurts. I might start up the melting pot and see what I get today.
On a semi related note. I picked up an old 22 rifle the other day and it just felt heavy, like some of those older rifle do, but upon removing the butt plate I saw that someone had drilled 2- 5/8" diameter holes in the stock and filled them with lead. The forearm also had shallow holes drilled under the barrel and lead poured in there and then rounded off to conform to the barrel. Anyone ever seem this before? This 22 is from around the mid 60's to early 70's. Its a marlin model 80 and looks very plain. I have another model 80 that's about 10 years newer and looks like a new and improved version.

Slavia · Moderator

I don't imagine it's original to a sporter .22LR like the Marlin, but it's not unheard of. I have a Hakim airgun with solid (i.e., poured in) lead in two spots. The Hakim was an Egyptian army trainer, and I read somewhere that the lead was to mimic the weight of their main infantry rifle.

I have done the same thing for synthetic stocks by mixing the pellets with epoxy or RTV. It all depends on what you want. For me it improves balance and recoil, but then I don't tromp around in the woods all day.

Mike Lanum · Banned

I plan to use the beater rifle on the trapline. I've carried my better model 80 last year, but was afraid I'd tear it up. Now I've got the perfect trapline rifle. I won't carry it all the time, but there are times when a rifle is better than my little single action 22 pistol. I drilled most of the lead out and it seems to have a little bit better balance to it now.