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Anyone else shoot battery lugs?


Tom Bullweed

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Free surplus auto battery lugs into .45s via a Lee pot and Lee .45-230-5R mold.

I add about 12" of 50/50 solder per four pounds to ease the flow and add some shine to the bullets.

Reload cost is $.032 for magnum primers and $.05 of 777 FFFg in a .45 Cowboy Special.

20200322_175018.jpg

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Calcium contamination has become a concern since manufacturers starting using Calcium lead plates and connectors in auto batteries.

 

I would not use battery cable lugs because the same companies may be producing those as cast the plates and connectors.

 

Calcium makes the lead MUCH harder to cast and can cause generation of Stibnine and Arsene gas from the dross skimmed of the melt.

 

At the very least, you should want to have the alloy checked for calcium content. 

 

And to make better bullets, DON'T melt the dirty lead you want to recycle right in your casting pot.  Do a smelting step in an old cast iron or steel pot to clean up your scrap lead.

 

Good luck, GJ

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You want to see calcium, meltdown some old used lead pipes. THAT make a mess. Sure made good bullets, though. I'm no expert but seems to me Calcium would make the connectors much more brittle and not function well as a clamp. Which looks like the OP was actually using, not the battery lugs/posts. I have melted down quite e few clamps for BP bullets, never had a problem, but then I try and stay upwind of the fresh melt, if for no other reason  than tire stems STINK!

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1 hour ago, Tom Bullweed said:

Free surplus auto battery lugs into .45s via a Lee pot and Lee .45-230-5R mold.

I add about 12" of 50/50 solder per four pounds to ease the flow and add some shine to the bullets.

Reload cost is $.032 for magnum primers and $.05 of 777 FFFg in a .45 Cowboy Special.

20200322_175018.jpg

Wow, I never cease to be amazed at what I DONT know!

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1 hour ago, Springfield Slim SASS #24733 said:

You want to see calcium, meltdown some old used lead pipes.

 

Calcium carbonate from the inside of pipes just makes a mess of the dross.  It does not alloy with the lead.  That scale is not dangerous.

 

Calcium metal that is already alloyed in lead, as in maintenance free auto batteries, is a good way to get very sick and make your alloy hard to cast as well.

 

Two entirely different chemical experiments.

 

Good luck, GJ

 

 

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TB,

 

Where did you find free battery terminal lugs?  (Live near Detroit?)  Cheap/free pure lead is hard to find.

 

I find it hard to believe that lugs would intentionally be cast with hardened lead. Lead plates or mats, yes, but not lugs that need to flex and change shape to match a terminal without cracking. A lug should not have sulfate issues, either, given it is new and never been inside the battery.

 

If a lug is dead-soft, it is pretty close to pure lead.

 

Also, are you using 12" wire 50/50 solder, or bar?  If bar, about 1 pound, you'd be close to 9:1 mix.  4/10ths of a pound mixed with 4 lbs pure would give about 21:1, a more standard mix.

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Palouse, I have access to a company that produces truck bodies.  Most of the powered equipment comes with batt lugs that are cut off when connected by other means.  The equipment is used by many as an aftermarket add-on, but adding it in a production setting is different.

Velocities are around 900 fps in my rifle, so I could get away with adding nothing, but the little amount (2-4%) of tin added helps the lead flow in the tiny rings of the tumble-lube mold.  

One-hole groups at 25 yards and no lead in the barrel.

 

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10 hours ago, Palouse said:

Cheap/free pure lead is hard to find.

 

This could be the (real) practical reason folks don't melt down cable lugs - they just don't have a large pile of cables to cut them off of!

 

Good luck, GJ

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10 hours ago, Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 said:

 

This could be the (real) practical reason folks don't melt down cable lugs - they just don't have a large pile of cables to cut them off of!

 

Good luck, GJ

Walmart, 2:00am. Good supply of wheel weights too! :P

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1 hour ago, Michigan Slim said:

Walmart, 2:00am. Good supply of wheel weights too! :P

A lot of the wheel weights today are Zink and don't melt so well, I have a friend with a tire store and he gave me about 75 lbs of weights, 38 lbs were lead. 

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I have hundreds of pounds of ingots from wheel weights from back in the day when they were all lead alloy.  I have hundreds of pounds of ingots from range lead. I even have some linotype.  But when I started shooting cap guns a few years back I found I had no pure lead.  I went to the recycling center and they had several barrels of lead.  I got a bunch of sheet lead that had came from an X-ray room walls. It had been cut in about 3' squares and folded up. About 1/8" thick.  They had a shear and cut it up into manageable sizes for me.  

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8 hours ago, Michigan Slim said:

Walmart, 2:00am. Good supply of wheel weights too! :P

 

Hey!  You're cutting into my territory.

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4 hours ago, Matthew Duncan said:

 

Hey!  You're cutting into my territory.

I didn't know that Amish buggies had wheel weights!

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I have a handful of lugs that I replaced on my vehicle’s batteries. As I come to them I drop them into the pot. Also have pure lead that I add to my ww’s. But I also pc my bullets. 

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1 hour ago, Michigan Slim said:

Got two weeks off with pay today. Time to process my stash.

IMG_20200325_142719109.jpg

 

 

I see Walmart security didn't catch you!

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2 minutes ago, Matthew Duncan said:

 

 

I see Walmart security didn't catch you!

Lol. Comes in handy to work for an auto dealership at night. 

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I’m really confused about all this talk of battery lugs. Lugs aren’t sass legal in classic Cowboy, and pretty sure battery powered ones aren’t legal in any category, as they aren’t period correct. I could be wrong though. I’ll await the ROC’s ruling er, I mean clarification on the matter. 

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On 3/22/2020 at 6:55 PM, Tom Bullweed said:

Anyone else shoot battery lugs?

 

 

Well...around these parts we shoot steel or paper targets.  I've personally never shot a battery lug, at least not that I'm aware of.  What caliber do you use when you shoot at battery lugs?  :D

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21 hours ago, El Hombre Sin Nombre said:

I’m really confused about all this talk of battery lugs. Lugs aren’t sass legal in classic Cowboy, and pretty sure battery powered ones aren’t legal in any category, as they aren’t period correct. I could be wrong though. I’ll await the ROC’s ruling er, I mean clarification on the matter. 

 

In canada the shoes have battery powered heaters to keep them from slipping on the ice. 

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3 hours ago, Ramblin Gambler said:

 

In canada the shoes have battery powered heaters to keep them from slipping on the ice. 

I have heard all kinds of stuff about what goes on in Canada. Most of them are so far fetched that I feel like this Canada place doesn't really exist. It's a mythical place teenage virgins claim there summer girlfriends live.

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On 3/23/2020 at 11:23 PM, Major General Shagnasty said:

A lot of the wheel weights today are Zink and don't melt so well, I have a friend with a tire store and he gave me about 75 lbs of weights, 38 lbs were lead. 

I just got about 250 pounds. I've made about 160 lbs of ingots so far. The guy that gave them to me had them sorted pretty well. I also pick the lead off the machines at the dealerships I service. It's odd. Two dealerships in a small town get tons of lead weights. In Fort Wayne not nearly as much. 

Another buddy gave me about 100 pounds of linotype and another gave me an easy 60 pounds of pure plumbers lead. 

Friends with benefits! Lol

I reward them with bullets or ammo. Or several large drinks over a steak dinner.

IMG_20200325_142719109.jpg

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Back in my pin shooting days we had a source at a hospital that got us the solid lead containers chemo drugs came in. About 6 inches in diameter and 8 inches high with just a small hole in the middle for the vial and a solid cap over an inch thick and 100% pure lead. They weren't allowed to be reused so we got them for free. Don't know if the vials are still shipped this way or not. 

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3 hours ago, Doc X said:

Back in my pin shooting days we had a source at a hospital that got us the solid lead containers chemo drugs came in. About 6 inches in diameter and 8 inches high with just a small hole in the middle for the vial and a solid cap over an inch thick and 100% pure lead. They weren't allowed to be reused so we got them for free. Don't know if the vials are still shipped this way or not. 

Anybody out there know if lead picks up secondary radiation?  Not reusing the containers suggests that.  

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Radiopharmaceuticals are still shipped in lead containers (often called pigs). 

 

DDD: no concern about secondary radiation.  Only neutron-emitting radionuclides like Cf-252 would induce radioactivity in lead.  Radiopharmaceuticals don't use neutron emitters.  Further, the lead would be free of radioactive surface contamination from its contents.  It would not be sold as scrap if it was contaminated.  I've handled many pigs.  Most are fairly dented.  I think they are soft lead.

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NO, there is no residual contamination in the pigs (couldn't remember the name) and the lead is pretty much pure so it'll need something else added before casting. And I'm sure the cost of shipping empties back was a factor in not reusing them.

 

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I want to eventually start casting my own bullets, so I been collecting my bullets from my wood backstop. Alot of bullets still have the poly coating on them. Can you melt those or do you have to remove the coating somehow? 

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