Is bird shot soft lead?

[Firewater Forge]

I have an individual that I am doing a trade with that has a bunch of birdshot. Is bird shot generally soft enough to cast into balls/slugs for ML rifles?

 

[michiganmuzzy]

I dont believe it is pure lead. More likely a hard alloy. May not even be any lead in it.

 

[CatamountRob]

Shot has some antimony in it, magnum shot has more than chilled shot. I believe that all lead shot has some arsenic in it so you might want to melt it outdoors.

 

[Firewater Forge]

Shot has some antimony in it, magnum shot has more than chilled shot. I believe that all lead shot has some arsenic in it so you might want to melt it outdoors.

One of the first things my old man beat into my head when learning bullet casting was "always do it outside my boy". I can hear it as if it were yesterday.

 

[Matthew323]

Either cast outdoors, or indoors with a laboratory-grade exhaust hood that is capable of immediately pulling the fumes upwards, and away from the caster's face, to be vented outdoors. Another method is to work in a garage-type space with the door open, and a powerful fan blowing directly across the melting pot so as to push the fumes out into the open air. For which there must NOT be a wind blowing back into the garage space.

For myself, I ALWAYS wore a lead-rated respirator while casting.

 

[edmehlig]

I don't wear a respirator but I do the exact same thing in my garage. Plus it also pays to wear shoes, long pants, gloves, and eyeglasses. Sometimes I forget to wear gloves and I have little burn marks on my hands to remind me to wear them.

 

[eekjellander]

I have an individual that I am doing a trade with that has a bunch of birdshot. Is bird shot generally soft enough to cast into balls/slugs for ML rifles?

All the shot I ever shot was hard , it is good for selling / trading for soft lead /Ed

 

[Firewater Forge]

I got the stuff after posting here and it is indeed soft. Of course I will find out when I start casting.

 

[HC]

If it’s not pure lead then it will “age harden” over time. I’m talking about a year or longer. Speaking from experience.

 

[Firewater Forge]

If it’s not pure lead then it will “age harden” over time. I’m talking about a year or longer. Speaking from experience.

Age Harden? Can you elaborate?

 

[HC]

Can’t elaborate too much, just know it happens.

 

[Matthew323]

The first lead that I ever purchased was a 25 pound bag (special order) of buckshot (can't recall what size) at age 16 at the same gun shop where my friend & I purchased cap & ball revolvers. He got the steel frame .44 caliber 1858 Remington, and I got the brass frame .44 caliber 1860 Colt.

I'm sure that the buckshot had antimony in it, I don't know if arsenic was used in buckshot. This was 1970.

When the .45 caliber longrifle finally showed up from Golden Age Arms Company, I used that buckshot to cast 0.445" diameter balls for the rifle. I radiused the crown per an article in Muzzle Blasts magazine. They called it coning the muzzle, but of course, no cone is produced.

By the end of the second range session, I had stumbled upon what traditional muzzleloading shooters all now see as the Holy Grail. That combination of crown, smooth bore, patch material, patch thickness, & ball diameter that fills the grooves completely, loads easily, & pushes 99.999% of the previous shot's fouling down onto the new powder charge so as to be blown out ahead of the hot combustion gases, behind the patched ball. Thus, eliminating ALL need to swab the bore to clean it until one is finished shooting for the day. It's such a beautiful thing to experience, and I had NO IDEA at age 17 learning everything on my own just how LUCKY I WAS.

Even more incredible, I was able to replicate those early results with my next two rifles, both Getz barrels, one .50 caliber, and one .62 caliber. Having figured that first rifle out so easily, the next two were as simple as pie. Sour cherry pie with a lattice crust & vanilla ice cream on top.

And, I kept using that buckshot to cast balls with, obtaining stunning accuracy in all three rifles.

 

[southdakbearfan]

Chilled is typically around 2% antimony.

Magnum is 4-6% antimony.

 

[idahoron]

Chilled shot is hard. Magnum shot is even harder. I use reclaimed shot to slightly harden my bullets I shoot, and hunt with. It doesn't take much to harden to my 6 to 7 BHN that I like.
You can harden soft with a tiny amount of shot. You pretty much can not soften lead by adding soft. I learned that lesson years ago. Don't try it you will mess up a lot of good pure lead trying to soften hard.

 

[Idaholewis]

You can harden soft with a tiny amount of shot. You pretty much can not soften lead by adding soft. I learned that lesson years ago. Don't try it you will mess up a lot of good pure lead trying to soften hard.

I made this mistake as well Ron, I ruined a bunch of Soft Plumbers lead (PURE Lead) by adding unknown to it, I have about 50 pounds of it in a pile out in my Garage that measures 15 BHN The more soft Lead you add, the more Hard Lead you end up with A tiny bit of Hardness goes a LONG LONG way

 

[idahoron]

I The more soft Lead you add, the more Hard Lead you end up with A tiny bit of Hardness goes a LONG LONG way

That is the truest statement that can be made right there.