Rmr lead

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Just a quick FYI to add. The lead scrap at RMR tested at 12 when we tested it with a lee hardness tester years ago but it's only 2% antimony. It really should only have a hardness of like 8-10. I'm not convinced that the lee testers are terribly accurate. Granted, we were testing the cores which could have had a harder surface because of being swaged. Anyway, the big thing I wanted to mention is that the price is pretty good because we're actually selling it for about what we pay for it. We buy 120,000 lbs a month right now so we have a pretty good discount on that kind of stuff. We end up losing a little money on the shipping, but it's way better than selling to a recyler. Thanks for buying it up. It helps keep the cost of our bullets low. I only wish it wasn't such a pain for our packaging crew to box and ship.
 
longdayjake said:
Just a quick FYI to add. The lead scrap at RMR tested at 12 when we tested it with a lee hardness tester years ago but it's only 2% antimony. It really should only have a hardness of like 8-10. I'm not convinced that the lee testers are terribly accurate. Granted, we were testing the cores which could have had a harder surface because of being swaged. Anyway, the big thing I wanted to mention is that the price is pretty good because we're actually selling it for about what we pay for it. We buy 120,000 lbs a month right now so we have a pretty good discount on that kind of stuff. We end up losing a little money on the shipping, but it's way better than selling to a recyler. Thanks for buying it up. It helps keep the cost of our bullets low. I only wish it wasn't such a pain for our packaging crew to box and ship.
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I'll be grabbing some real soon, I'm waiting for my mold in the mail. It's great that you make it available to us thanks.
 
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longdayjake said:
Just a quick FYI to add. The lead scrap at RMR tested at 12 when we tested it with a lee hardness tester years ago but it's only 2% antimony. It really should only have a hardness of like 8-10. I'm not convinced that the lee testers are terribly accurate. Granted, we were testing the cores which could have had a harder surface because of being swaged. Anyway, the big thing I wanted to mention is that the price is pretty good because we're actually selling it for about what we pay for it. We buy 120,000 lbs a month right now so we have a pretty good discount on that kind of stuff. We end up losing a little money on the shipping, but it's way better than selling to a recyler. Thanks for buying it up. It helps keep the cost of our bullets low. I only wish it wasn't such a pain for our packaging crew to box and ship.
Click to expand...

Thank you for selling it to us for a good price, really appreciate it:thumbup:
 
Is there an RMR discount code for us at THR? I'm starting to cast and this would be a great option and help support a good vendor. Thanks!
 
Placed my order for 120 pounds today. Let's see how well this mail person does... I wonder if they will just come and get me at the door ;)
 
Didn't read the replies, so my apologies if someone already said this, but check local scrapyards to see what they will give you lead for. One of my neighbors works at a scrapyard and gets me lead sheets(from roofing and sealing the vent pipes) for 75 cents a pound, and that's with him dropping it off on his way home from work. I did some checking and those pieces of lead are typically 99+% pure(minus debris that gets on it, but that rises to the top and gets skimmed off when melting), so they will need a little antimony added(I use a 5 pound ingot of rotometals "superhard" for every 100 pounds). After the losses, I get about 100 pounds and the total comes out to about 100 bucks, so roughly a buck a pound and it shoots just fine out of my pistols. Lately, I have been asking him to bring me 100 pounds every 2 weeks, and I'm getting a hell of a stockpile. Granted, I also do him the favor of letting him keep the scrap value from any soda/beer cans i have. I think it's a fair deal, and so does he.

Local scrapyards are a good place to check. If you're handy with a welder, you can also see if they have any sheets of steel and make yourself a bullet trap and just recapture the lead from when you shoot it.
 
I have recently started casting and I bought the 128 pounds or whatever it is that’s right at $200. I’m pretty impressed by it. The description says it may be oily, and it does smoke just a bit but so far when I have fluxed it I have gotten no impurities out of it to speak of. I’m not even going to flux the rest of it, just going to make ingots to store and not worry with it. It is an incredible product at a cheap price by a company who supports us. What’s not to love. I may just go ahead and get myself another 128pounds for Father’s Day, and again for birthday and Christmas. You know what they say... invest in precious metals and all.

@longdayjake thanks again brother, you support us all and your reputation is stellar. I’m proud to be your customer.... now as a second business venture that would also support your primary business, you could fire up a machine shop and turn out molds...
 
jebova2301 said:
Didn't read the replies, so my apologies if someone already said this, but check local scrapyards to see what they will give you lead for. One of my neighbors works at a scrapyard and gets me lead sheets(from roofing and sealing the vent pipes) for 75 cents a pound, and that's with him dropping it off on his way home from work. I did some checking and those pieces of lead are typically 99+% pure(minus debris that gets on it, but that rises to the top and gets skimmed off when melting), so they will need a little antimony added(I use a 5 pound ingot of rotometals "superhard" for every 100 pounds). After the losses, I get about 100 pounds and the total comes out to about 100 bucks, so roughly a buck a pound and it shoots just fine out of my pistols. Lately, I have been asking him to bring me 100 pounds every 2 weeks, and I'm getting a hell of a stockpile. Granted, I also do him the favor of letting him keep the scrap value from any soda/beer cans i have. I think it's a fair deal, and so does he.

Local scrapyards are a good place to check. If you're handy with a welder, you can also see if they have any sheets of steel and make yourself a bullet trap and just recapture the lead from when you shoot it.
Click to expand...
I hit up the local scrap yards and they either did not care or had no product, Memphis sucks what can I say. I have done a lot of business with rmr and I will continue to support a good company. I would order their bullets if I could but the word is out. Their match winners are my favorite.
 
I haven't been tracking the lead. When I ordered not too long ago they had thousands of pounds.
Either the locusts descended upon the lead and bought it all up or RMR temporarily removed it from the website to relieve pressure on their shipping department to get bullet orders out.
 
WeekendReloader said:
I haven't been tracking the lead. When I ordered not too long ago they had thousands of pounds.
Either the locusts descended upon the lead and bought it all up or RMR temporarily removed it from the website to relieve pressure on their shipping department to get bullet orders out.
Click to expand...
I did notice their website either changed or was being changed so maybe that has something to do with it
 
Their Facebook page seems to show how slammed they are filling orders. They have been taking down some items that they have low or no stock of to ease the demands on shipping and try to keep the backlog down. I fully intend to buy more this year as soon as I find more molds and get tooled up for more bullets. Molds are still crazy right now.
 
AJC1 said:
Did you plan to wash the lead first or make ingots. I ask because the write up says that it has oil on the product from machine operations. I was curious how oily it was. I had considered trying to rinse it before or making ingots to keep the oil out of my casting pot
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Oil will act as a flux. I've used motor oil for fluxing/cleaning early in my casting. Works OK outdoors. I just went to the RMR site and wasn't able to find any lead, perhaps sold out?
 
Cast my first RMR Lead bullets. Everything went fine and the mold fill was excellent.
1200 bullets from a LEE 356-120-TC 6-cavity mold with very little rejects.
These were cast around 700-750 Degrees F. All are shiny, none frosted. The only rejects were a few in the beginning to bring the mold up to temperature and a few from not filling the mold fully. Other than that, we just kept feeding the pot a little at a time with the RMR scrap lead while casting, keeping the temperature somewhat constant. My friend and I switched off between feeding the LEE 10lb bottom pour pot and operating the mold. Nice consistent cadence with the mold resulted in an excellent yield. This took about 3 1/2 hrs from setup to cleanup.
There was some smoke whenever we added more lead. This is probably from whatever lubricant that was on the scrap from processing. There was only a little crud on the top of the pot, most likely some oil and dirt residue and a little bit of oxidation.
LEE356-120-TC.jpg
 
WeekendReloader said:
Cast my first RMR Lead bullets. Everything went fine and the mold fill was excellent.
1200 bullets from a LEE 356-120-TC 6-cavity mold with very little rejects.
These were cast around 700-750 Degrees F. All are shiny, none frosted. The only rejects were a few in the beginning to bring the mold up to temperature and a few from not filling the mold fully. Other than that, we just kept feeding the pot a little at a time with the RMR scrap lead while casting, keeping the temperature somewhat constant. My friend and I switched off between feeding the LEE 10lb bottom pour pot and operating the mold. Nice consistent cadence with the mold resulted in an excellent yield. This took about 3 1/2 hrs from setup to cleanup.
There was some smoke whenever we added more lead. This is probably from whatever lubricant that was on the scrap from processing. There was only a little crud on the top of the pot, most likely some oil and dirt residue and a little bit of oxidation.
View attachment 988464
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I'd live some range followup as I'm interested in using the same mold and material. Was curious if I will have to add some superhard or if it works as is.
 
AJC1 said:
I'd live some range followup as I'm interested in using the same mold and material. Was curious if I will have to add some superhard or if it works as is.
Click to expand...
It will be a while for any observations on this batch. I set these aside in a cardboard box on the shelf to dry as I dropped them out of the mold into a bucket of water.

I found a couple hundred 356-120-TC from a previous casting session (unknown scrap alloy) that are already powder coated and sized. I'm going to load those and use them up first. They shot well but I get a bit of leading. I have a Walther PPQ with a polygonal rifled barrel. This may influence my leading. It's not much and is easy to clean, and I like casting, so I lived with it.

When I powder coat the RMR ones, I think I'll try water dropping them as soon as I take them out of the toaster oven to see if it makes a difference.
 
WeekendReloader said:
It will be a while for any observations on this batch. I set these aside in a cardboard box on the shelf to dry as I dropped them out of the mold into a bucket of water.

I found a couple hundred 356-120-TC from a previous casting session (unknown scrap alloy) that are already powder coated and sized. I'm going to load those and use them up first. They shot well but I get a bit of leading. I have a Walther PPQ with a polygonal rifled barrel. This may influence my leading. It's not much and is easy to clean, and I like casting, so I lived with it.

When I powder coat the RMR ones, I think I'll try water dropping them as soon as I take them out of the toaster oven to see if it makes a difference.
Click to expand...
I do exactly that so they cool fast..
 
longdayjake said:
Just a quick FYI to add. The lead scrap at RMR tested at 12 when we tested it with a lee hardness tester years ago but it's only 2% antimony. It really should only have a hardness of like 8-10. I'm not convinced that the lee testers are terribly accurate. Granted, we were testing the cores which could have had a harder surface because of being swaged. Anyway, the big thing I wanted to mention is that the price is pretty good because we're actually selling it for about what we pay for it. We buy 120,000 lbs a month right now so we have a pretty good discount on that kind of stuff. We end up losing a little money on the shipping, but it's way better than selling to a recyler. Thanks for buying it up. It helps keep the cost of our bullets low. I only wish it wasn't such a pain for our packaging crew to box and ship.
Click to expand...
Why dont you just melt it down and alloy it properly for your cast bullet production?
 
WeekendReloader said:
I don't have anything else to alloy it with and no way to test it.
Understand, I'm cheap. If they shoot fine, I'm good. My cast bullets are powder coated and loaded with low-mid powder charges for Sunday afternoon paper punching.
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I think he was asking jake why they dont use the scrap they sell us to make in house cast bullets but I could be wrong....
 
AJC1 said:
I think he was asking jake why they dont use the scrap they sell us to make in house cast bullets but I could be wrong....
Click to expand...
That's affirmative.
My best guess is that it'd introduce quality control issues. Or maybe they dont have the staffing and facilities to set up a large scale smelting line when they can buy the proper alloy for less than it'd cost 'em to smelt and re-alloy it in house.
 
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