I am going to move to a place in a third world country and I'm going to stay there for a long time to hunt. So I can only carry so many pellets and I'll eventually run out. Since they don't sell pellets over there, I was considering making my own. So I want to ask how effective are airgun pellets made from Solder, do they have similar properties as commercial lead-free pellets ? Properties like density, hardness, deformation, damage, velocity etc.
Homemade Airgun pellets made from Solder.
- Thread starter sprotz
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I googled this and what I found was solder is an alloy of lead and tin . It has the same density and hardness and melting point so I would assume that if you can get the right kind of solder it “ should work”.
I would seem like a challenging way to obtain any sizable amount of pellets.
I would seem like a challenging way to obtain any sizable amount of pellets.
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I can get or make molds, but pure lead is a bit hard to come by there, except from lead acid batteries. Another reason for not using pure lead is because lead is toxic for the environment.
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G
Guest
Guest
It was in the old days -- where the solder was actually pretty useful and good and didn't produce an abundance of tin whiskers. Today's solder is mostly lead free thanks to RoHS. You might get lucky and be able to score some lead-based solder but it might be the same problem you're facing with pellets due to RoHS. See https://hackaday.com/2019/03/26/ask-hackaday-get-the-lead-out-or-not/ if you want to read up about it, lead-free solder is a huge pain to work with and I hate it.
You could always melt down tire weights? Certainly they still rotate/balance tires in your new destination?
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...and lead wheel weights are made of lead. The OP is still in threat of pollution in the environment. He will spread pollution and contamination faster are farther when he mealts lead for casting.
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G
Guest
Guest
Yeah -- I guess I'm hung up on "I am going to move to a place in a third world country" and the need to avoid lead all together. Many of the 3rd world countries that come to mind are still smelting gold by boiling mercury. Maybe there are lead free tire weights now considering their contact with ground water would be greater than the contimination risk of lead fishing weights.
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Don’t know much about solder pellets but I’m willing to bet there’s a high amount of interest in seeing pictures of your upcoming off the grid hunting expedition.
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Maybe have a look at an arrow or bolt shooter . Similar to blowgun darts . This would solve both the lead and save the planet at the same time .
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I’m assuming you can’t have some one send you pellets. If you can have the gun why not the pellets? If leads the problem there are non lead pellets . If you are just hunting a couple tins of pellets would last a long time
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I don't think wheel weights would be good for pellets. They are not pure lead and are harder than pure lead. I used to use them for shooting handguns (powder), I mixed 50/50 bar solder with them to add some tin to the mix. Old lead pipe from old water systems should work well. It is pretty soft.
Bob in WV
Bob in WV
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I may consider starting a youtube channel showing videos of my activities. I will bring with me enough pellets for a few years but I am simply preparing for the event that I do run out. I have no friends to be sending me pellets while I'm away,
I think car batteries and solder (lead and lead-free) are the easiest options. Any other options not mentioned here?
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