Fishing sinkers

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  • Last Post 11 April 2016
fa38 posted this 11 April 2016

About a month ago I was at an estate sale and the guy must have been a rabid fisherman. Over 30 rods with reels and hundreds of plugs.    I purchased a coffee can with about 15 pounds worth of sinkers for the dollar asked.  Are sinkers made of anything other than lead or lead alloy?   I have been reluctant to throw them into my range scrap in case they contain metals other than lead or tin.  I googled fishing weights and tungsten comes up as the modern sinker.  My sinkers are about a half inch to an inch long with a slot for the line and little wings that fold over to capture the line.  None of the pictures of the tungsten sinkers look like my sinkers.

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Scearcy posted this 11 April 2016

Add a little tin and try a test run using just the sinkers.  If nothing is amiss, you are likely golden.

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onondaga posted this 11 April 2016

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=562>fa38

Hardness is an indicator if the sinkers are suitable for bullet making. Try a thumbnail scratch test. If you can scratch into the alloy with your thumbnail at all with a good hard scratch, at least the alloy is soft enough for bullets no matter what it is.

The ones you can't scratch at all, I wouldn't use.

If you have a hardness test kit like the Lee that would be useful too.

unfortunately, there is no industry standard alloy for sinker makers.

Gary

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tlkeizer posted this 11 April 2016

Greetings,

I too got a lot of lead sinkers, from when my father died and from when the dam by where he lived had the spillway shut down to check the apron after flooding. I know there are at least three alloys from soft to hard as nails. I use the thumb nail test to see if the sinkers remain sinkers or become bullets. Of course, some of the sinkers have been sold as sinkers as I could make enough money to buy good lead. If the sinkers are really hard, sell them in small batches at a garage sale, you will be money ahead IMHO. The large sinkers I got are mostly hard, and they work well when I go down to the sound in Valdez.

The hard ones will melt, but after the soft ones do. So, if you melt a bunch, right after they melt check the bottom of your pot to see if there are any sinkers not melted; if so, discard them before they melt and contaminate the rest of the lead. I do my initial melting NOT in the Lee lead pot.

Good Luck

TK

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fa38 posted this 11 April 2016

The finger nail test puts a scratch on them. I guess I will melt several in a ladle and pour a couple of bullets to see how the breech seat as compared to my regular alloy.

I was thinking maybe they had zinc or some other cr-p in them.

Thanks

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onondaga posted this 11 April 2016

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=562>fa38

The least expensive alloy to make sinkers from is reclaimed bird-shot. So, that is popular but is not a given standard. Bird-shot alloy is generally 98% Lead, 2% Antimony, the same as .22 bullets and range scrap from jacketed cup and core bullets.

You can verify the presence of antimony by drop chilling  bullets as you cast them. If there is no antimony, then the bullets will NOT drop chill any harder than as cast and cooled of their own accord. If Antimony is present, then the bullets will drop chill to a significant hardness increase.

Drop chilled bird-shot alloy bullets are about BHN 12-16,  air cooled bird-shot alloy bullets are BHN 10. Pure lead should be BHN 5 but is usually BHN 6-7 unless it is purer than .999. Lab grade 100% Lead will be BHN 5.

Gary

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