There are two big advantages to using lead as a basis for ammunition. It has a low melting point and is a soft metal.
Lead has a melting point of 621.5ºF. This is one of the lowest melting points for a metal, making it easy for many private individuals to melt lead and pour it into molds, especially molds for bullets and fishing weights.
If you are familiar with any of the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry movies, there is a scene in one that prompted a friend and me to make our own bullets. In the movie, Dirty Harry is at the firing range, shooting his .44 magnum when several younger policemen noticed that it had very little visible kick or recoil. When they asked, Dirty Harry told them that he was shooting a very light load, a 110-grain slug. If you’re not familiar with shooting, the heavier the lead bullet, the more kick or recoil there will be when fired. My friend and I were very familiar with shooting a .44 magnum and most of our loads were eight 180 or 240 grain loads. So, we began tooling down some .44 bullets till we got some down to 150-grain and others down to 112-grains. We molded some forms, melted some lead and poured a number of lightweight bullets. After loading them in a home reloader, we test fired the new lighter bullets and wow, the kick was a lot less, muzzle velocity and accuracy a lot higher. I’ve also helped melt lead to pour for .30-06, .30-30 and .357 bullets.
Thousands of hunters and target shooters melt lead and form many of their own bullets. That’s what many of our fore-fathers did for hundreds of years. If you do a lot of hunting and shooting, pouring your own lead bullets can be a whole lot cheaper than buying them already made.
GET MORE STORIES LIKE THIS
IN YOUR INBOX!
Sign up for our daily email and get the stories everyone is talking about.
