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Old lead bullets

mowartmowart Member Posts: 1,392 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited September 2005 in Perry Shooter Competition Shooting and Reloading Forum
The Civil War bullets in my possession are noticeably harder lead that the modern reproductions that I have purchased. Did they use an alloy back then or is there something about 130 years in the ground?
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    MIKE WISKEYMIKE WISKEY Member, Moderator Posts: 9,972 ******
    edited November -1
    THE OUTSIDE HAS FORMED A HARD CRUST, TRY MELTING AN OLD WHEEL WEIGHT, THE INSIDE WILL MELT AWAY BUT THE OUTSIDE WILL MORE OR LESS HOLD ITS SHAPE.
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    nononsensenononsense Member Posts: 10,928 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    mowart,

    It is something about being the ground for 130 years:

    "Studies at Virginia Tech show that, although the metal in lead bullets and shot corrodes rapidly in the natural environment, the lead becomes trapped in the corrosion products so it cannot easily migrate away.

    Research carried out by Donald Rimstidt and James Craig, professors of geological sciences in Virginia Tech's College of Arts and Sciences, shows that reactions between the lead metal and ions from the soil solutions deposit minerals like cerrussite (lead carbonate) and hydrocerrussite (lead hydroxycarbonate) onto the surfaces of the bullets and shot. Under normal conditions these minerals are quite insoluble. They form a coating on the metal that traps soluble lead, and this coating protects the metal from further corrosion."


    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/11/001129074745.htm



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