#Lead

The U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command plays an important role in guiding the future of our warfighters’ lethality and survivability. Their mission statement is “To provide the research, engineering, and analytical expertise to deliver capabilities that enable the Army to deter and, when necessary, decisively defeat any adversary now and in the future.” To this end, they engage in scientific pursuits like advancements in weaponry, exploring quantum communication, improving electronic warfare effectiveness, and working on new ways to purify water in the field. At the heart of these endeavors lies the Army Research Laboratory. These military scientists have been responsible for many breakthroughs in areas such as grenade-launched drones and better 3D printing. Now they have teamed up with academic scientists at Purdue University to develop lead-free explosive material that could be used to produce nontoxic ammo, as announced in a July 16th press release from Purdue.

We have arrived at the third part in out bullet casting series. Today we birth the pew. Our gestation period consisted of gathering scrap lead, sorting it, and creating our lead ingots. Since today is our expected date, we should gather all our equipment, and prep our workspace. When the little fellers are born we will be excited, so prepare ahead of time. Clear your workspace, and have proper ventilation.  You can find Part 1, the intro at  https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/08/22/bullet-casting-for-beginners/ and Part 2 Processing the Lead at  https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/08/31/bullet-casting-for-beginners-part-2-leads-dead-baby-leads-dead/.  At the end of Part 1, I list all of the equipment you should need to get started–it is repeated at the end here as well.

CCI has introduced  .22 LR ammunition with polymer coated bullets. Although the polymer coating is nothing new in the industry, looks like nobody has commercially offered polymer coated .22 LR before. These CCI cartridges are loaded with 40-grain bullets traveling at a muzzle velocity of 1,235 fps.

The house I live in was built at the turn of the century – the 18th century. And on really cold days I sometimes like to think of what firearms had walked in through the door in years past. More than 50 years before the birth of our nation, flintlock smoothbores put food on the table and protected the homestead. (Flintlocks. Wow, I get annoyed after loading five Glock mags.) But eventually the occupants here were blessed with centerfire guns, thanks in large part to the development of the primer.

At the end of 2014, The State of Texas completed a 2-year study to, “evaluate the effectiveness of lead vs. non-toxic shot should ammunition regulations change in the future.”  As a result of its double-blind methodology, there was “virtually no difference between lead and non-toxic shot.”

Suddenly the US Army’s obsession with lead-free ammunition makes perfect sense, it was about security not the environment. A reader writes …