The firearm thread

[Mr Merde]

Success!!

Picked up 18kg of wheel weights for $20, sorted the obvious ones out in iron zinc and lead piles then melted up about 5kg of weights (mostly stick-on though) and 5kg of my lead ingot.

Scooped the clips and extra crap off the top, fluxed and scraped a few times.

Cast up 50 bullets, it's a surprisingly quick process... That mold works beautifully, Chris, very impressed...

Then suddenly noticed I couldn't see a damn thing any more because it was completely dark so dumped the rest into my muffin tray ingot mold and it all fit perfectly...

Edit: Mould didn't fill out perfectly but I think that is because it is about 50% pure lead from the big ingot, 45% stick on wheel weight (pure lead) and 5% clip on wheel weight...

You are probably casting too hard.

A 1:20, 1:15 tin\lead mix would probably be better.
Pure lead doesnt get you the crisp lines of the mould.

Make sure the mould is up to temperature also.

If you dont you get the ripples that I can see in your bullets.

I usually balance my mould on the side of the melting pot while the lead is melting.

Still looks good for a first attempt.

[jono035]

You are probably casting too hard.

A 1:20, 1:15 tin\lead mix would probably be better.
Pure lead doesnt get you the crisp lines of the mould.

Make sure the mould is up to temperature also.

If you dont you get the ripples that I can see in your bullets.

I usually balance my mould on the side of the melting pot while the lead is melting.

Still looks good for a first attempt.

Yeah, I was pretty happy with it. Given that my wheel weight bucket is almost entirely stick on weights, I think I need some other source of tin.

I'm pretty sure I had the mold up to temperature as all the bullets are completely filled out although I guess casting from hotter lead and with a hotter mold the fine details could be picked up without adding tin...

Got a price back from the Chinese metal supplies for Bismuth, Antimony and Tin...
Bismuth: 15,580 USD/ton
Antimony: 6,130 USD/ton
Tin: 17,185 USD/ton

Minimum order quantity is 300kg... Haven't run the numbers yet to see what that would work out to in order to make bismuth shot but it's interesting nonetheless. 22 day shipping, no lead time.

[Mr Merde]

Yeah, I was pretty happy with it. Given that my wheel weight bucket is almost entirely stick on weights, I think I need some other source of tin.

I'm pretty sure I had the mold up to temperature as all the bullets are completely filled out although I guess casting from hotter lead and with a hotter mold the fine details could be picked up without adding tin...

Got a price back from the Chinese metal supplies for Bismuth, Antimony and Tin...
Bismuth: 15,580 USD/ton
Antimony: 6,130 USD/ton
Tin: 17,185 USD/ton

Minimum order quantity is 300kg... Haven't run the numbers yet to see what that would work out to in order to make bismuth shot but it's interesting nonetheless. 22 day shipping, no lead time.

Look online for the "Blackpowder Express" magazine in NZ

Publisher is Jim Reed.

Black powder rifle shooter but he sells strips of tin (like solder) at $20 a lb.

Have you tried those other two moulds?

Interested to see what size they are

[jono035]

Look online for the "Blackpowder Express" magazine in NZ

Publisher is Jim Reed.

Black powder rifle shooter but he sells strips of tin (like solder) at $20 a lb.

Have you tried those other two moulds?

Interested to see what size they are

Interesting, that would work out pretty reasonable, too... $44 per kg, 2% tin so $3.30 per kg instead of $2.50 for pure lead... Might see if there is a cheap source for plumbers solder floating around as well.

Didn't fire them up, was actually just planning to see if I could get the wheel weights to melt in the crappy thin-walled saucepan I have and then when that proved possible I decided to throw a heap more in then clean them up and cast them into ingots... Then figured what the hell, I'll give the mold a shot and started having a play... just dipped the corners of the mold into the lead to get it up to temperature and they started turning out good.

[Mr Merde]

Interesting, that would work out pretty reasonable, too... $44 per kg, 2% tin so $3.30 per kg instead of $2.50 for pure lead... Might see if there is a cheap source for plumbers solder floating around as well.

Didn't fire them up, was actually just planning to see if I could get the wheel weights to melt in the crappy thin-walled saucepan I have and then when that proved possible I decided to throw a heap more in then clean them up and cast them into ingots... Then figured what the hell, I'll give the mold a shot and started having a play... just dipped the corners of the mold into the lead to get it up to temperature and they started turning out good.

I heat my moulds up by placing them on the rim of the melting pot. Leave them there for about 10-15 min. First 10 or so casts go back into the pot. After that they come out reasonably well.

The 45-70 I have been casting need to have nice crisp edges. The base is particularly important and any faults here will allow the gases to folw past and upset the bullets flight.

One of those gas check makers may be of interest to you.

Chris

[Mr Merde]

I've never really sat down and worked out the cost of casting and reloading. Its something I really enjoy doing so up to a point cost is irrelevant to me.

[jono035]

I've never really sat down and worked out the cost of casting and reloading. Its something I really enjoy doing so up to a point cost is irrelevant to me.

Certainly, but I'm a numbers kind of guy really. I like having a big spreadsheet with all the costs worked out and being able to say that doing this saves me X per round and the cost per round with these is Y etc.

The next thing is figuring out how to make my lead alloy nice and repeatable without having the bother with BHN testing!

[jono035]

Just sorted the rest of my lead and I'm pretty shocked by how few clip on wheel weights there are. So far I've probably gotten a kilo or, at the most, 2 from my 18kg of weights with about 3 kilos of iron weights, half a kilo of zinc and the vast majority being stick on weights. This means that I'm dealing with another source of pretty much pure lead.

From reading up on the metallurgy a binary tin/lead alloy does not harden through heat treatment (such as quenching by water-dropping) and doesn't get much harder than pure lead until you're well up in tin content...

The advice for most people who are dealing with large sources of high purity lead has been to find a source of clip on wheel weights and then mix them 50/50 then top up with 1-2% tin... Given that a supply of clip on wheel weights is an unknown factor I started looking around for foundry metal suppliers and have a couple that I am going to contact tomorrow.

There is also a good looking company in the states (www.rotometals.com) that advertises on the bullet casting boards and just answered an e-mail (at 2am on sunday morning, their time!) saying they ship 19lb boxes for USD$44. This would put their 30% antimony, 70% lead alloy at $16.50 per kilo and would need to be added to the lead at a 10:1 ration, working out to $3.90 per kg when mixed with scrapyard lead.

Pure tin would cost $37.40 per kg from them so a chunk of Lyman #2 alloy (90% lead, 5% antimony, 5% tin) would cost $6.50/kg. Each kg would be made from 78.5% scrapyard lead, 5% pure tin and 16.5% high-antimony lead.

Interesting exercise, the tin price at least seems to mirror what you mentioned the guy down south selling it for, Chris.

Any ideas? From looking around I think I could get away with less tin and antimony content but would need to experiment to see how they went.

[Maha]

What would be the primary reason for owning a Sawn off pump action Shotgun?

[Indiana_Jones]

What would be the primary reason for owning a Sawn off pump action Shotgun?

Shits and gigs?

-Indy

[The Pastor]

What would be the primary reason for owning a Sawn off pump action Shotgun?

robbing banks.

[Wolf]

What would be the primary reason for owning a Sawn off pump action Shotgun?

Luser Attitude Readjustment??


LART party!!

[jono035]

What would be the primary reason for owning a Sawn off pump action Shotgun?

Kinda depends on what you mean by sawn off... With a pump shotty you can only cut to the end of the mag and slide rail so it would still be within legal length. If you're bush bashing for pigs or deer at close range using slug rounds then one would probably be brilliant. Rabbits could be ok too at close range but with no more choke you're going to have a hell of a spread.

If you mean something with the stock replaced or sawn down as well so that the gun is pretty much hand grip and short barrel then yeah, robbing banks.

[Mr Merde]

What would be the primary reason for owning a Sawn off pump action Shotgun?

Sawn off pump action.

I cant think of any practical use for such a firearm.

All I can think of would be to either boost the ego of the owner by having something perceived to be nasty looking or as the others have suggested, some illegal practice.

Thats not to say that all sawn off shotguns are bad. I have a side by side short barreled shotgun that I use in Cowboy Action Shooting. Its also pretty good at busting clays.

[ManDownUnder]

What would be the primary reason for owning a Sawn off pump action Shotgun?

2 reasons I can think of
1) Concealment
2) Achieve a much more rapid spread of shot which would indicate an intention for shooting things at a very short distance

Possession would also suggest a high degree of premeditation because you can't just buy them anywhere therefore
1) The owner went to some lengths to source one
2) The owner cut down a shotgun to a shorter length for some reason - again, taking some efforts to do so and if reduced to less than 762mm in length they were intentionally rendering the firearm illegal

Take from that what you will - but to me it all suggests sneak up on someone and threaten them or shoot them.

I can think of no legal use for such a weapon, and if you know of one I would quietly tell the cops. "Kev and Trev" - the firearms officers at Auckland Central would be good start if you don't have any other option. 09) 302 6400

It's not going to be used on non human targets, they stay too far away so the longer barrel is desirable for accuracy, and I would be very surprised if they responded any differently to a short or long barrelled arm.