A little weekend humor. Everyone enjoys a good garage sale find (or you should!), and I had a nice score this weekend. Spoiler alert, no firearms or ammo involved. BUT! I got a Simmons spotting scope 20-60x60 with hard case and 5 pounds of rosin core solder for $15.00. The scope was brand new, still had the Cabelas plastic wrap on it, though the owner did manage to lose the ocular screw on cover. I think they are around $80 new, have several other scopes that are light years better but for that amount it was worth it.
The real deal was actually the solder. The cheapest I could find on flea-bay to replace it was $109.00, the high quality stuff was around $250.00. It will take me 6-7 lifetimes to use that much solder but now I'm prepared!
The solder should be 60/40 or 63/37 & have a percentage of tin, i.e. 40% or 37% tin. If so you can use it to add to pure lead for casting bullets. When added to a hot batch of lead the rosen should act as a flux to remove impurities. It will smoke a lot as does other fluxes but just light the fumes coming off. I have some out of a batch I bought many years ago at a great deal I could not pass up. Afterwards I picked up about 80lbs of pure tin for $5/lb so have not had the need to use the remaining solder.
80lbs of tin will make about 1600+ lbs of 20:1. That over 27,000 410gr 40 cal bullets. Even at 16:1 it's over 25,000. I'm currently casting around 2,000/yr so I doubt it but hope I live long enough to use up all that tin.
Wayne
NRA Life (Benefactor & President's Council) Member, TSRA Life Member, NSSF Member, Author & Publisher of the Browning BPCR book http://www.texas-mac.com
GREAT find!! We Love garage sales...and DIVORCE sales Rock!! I made a garage sale a couple of years ago and the old Garage had hundreds of pounds of old wheel weights still in boxes...all for 20 bucks. Another obvious DIVORCE sale had about 6 dozen Gold tip carbon arrows...most were new and I bought them all for 40 bucks.
Don't get any ideas if you read about my untimely demise...Jeanne knows the weight and value of all my alloy and each gun,bow and knife.
There are those that talk, and those that act. Make a choice.
The solder is 60/40 and I'll use it for soldering. a year (2?) or so ago when Woody was kind enough to post about the salvage yard lead out of the nuclear deal I ran down there and bought 1,000 pounds of virgin lead, man that is good stuff. Wish I could have bought a couple tons.. But happy to snag what I did. I have bought enough pure tin to keep me going for awhile, but I sure didn't pay $5 a pound! That dang stuff is dear as hell anymore.
The only thing (one of the things?) more fun than a good garage sale find are good metal detecting finds. Man that is a blast. I've found some really nice rings including my Sister in laws wedding ring. That was super fun to do. If I can identify the owner I will give it back, amaizing how many wedding rings do not have anything inside.
Many times I've considered metal detecting as a side hobby. Keeping it in mind when I'm too old to cast, load & attend matches.
Wayne
NRA Life (Benefactor & President's Council) Member, TSRA Life Member, NSSF Member, Author & Publisher of the Browning BPCR book http://www.texas-mac.com
Wayne.....
I metal detect. It ain't that easy on the body!! Back, arm swinging, and up and down a dozen plus plus times. I was up and down close to 100 times today..
I keep checking in with Rick, at the scrap yard for more lead. No luck. Looks like the rest of the lead, 60,000 lbs., went on Govt. auction sites. They routinely have several hundred pounds of lead pipe and or roofing on hand though. I still have 400 lbs of those bricks. I got my lead for "free", by filling orders from shooters and charging a .25 cent handling fee. I just kept re-investing those quarters and ended up with about eight years of lead. At the same time, a friend gave, (yes, free), me 53 lbs. of pure tin. These were flux covered 1/4 x 1/8 washers used in the manufacture of old sealed beam headlights.
I'm always ready for those great "finds".
Woody
Richard A. Wood
If you are surrounded. You are in a target rich environment.
Last year I found 37 bars of 50/50 solder for $60. I jumped on it. It will last me a few years. Woody, don't forget who "found" that 30,000 lbs of lead and called you because you lived close. I called Rick before my trip to MI to see if he had anything worth taking an extra day to drive back thru Indiana on my way home. He told me he really didn't have anything worth the trip.
"Perfection consists not so much in doing extraordinary things as in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well"
How to buy a boat on Cape Cod..
1. go to paper obits
2. read obit of someone who was an 'avid boater'
3. go to house, ring bell
4. say "Hi is John Home, I'm here for the boat"
5. they say...'OH, John just died"
6 say' Oh, I'm sorry, he was going to sell me his boat. Ok, never mind...I'll just leave, sorry for your loss"
7. walk away slowly...wait for it..wait for it....
"Well, if John was going to sell you the boat, I guess it's ok, come look at it"
think this is funny....IT'S TRUE AND BEEN IN THE PAPER TO WARN PEOPLE!
How to buy a boat on Cape Cod..
1. go to paper obits
2. read obit of someone who was an 'avid boater'
3. go to house, ring bell
4. say "Hi is John Home, I'm here for the boat"
5. they say...'OH, John just died"
6 say' Oh, I'm sorry, he was going to sell me his boat. Ok, never mind...I'll just leave, sorry for your loss"
7. walk away slowly...wait for it..wait for it....
"Well, if John was going to sell you the boat, I guess it's ok, come look at it"
think this is funny....IT'S TRUE AND BEEN IN THE PAPER TO WARN PEOPLE!
You are correct John. John Bly found the lead in my back yard basically. After I put the word out, Rick at the salvage yard, said people were coming from all over, like flies on ------ well you know what.
Recently a shooter found a O'Hare micrometer in a cigar box for .50 cents. He wanted me to modify it for use on a trapdoor. I told him it was worth too much to mess with, so he convinced me to make him one. We did modify the O'Hare though. We changed it's owner.
Woody
Richard A. Wood
If you are surrounded. You are in a target rich environment.
You are correct John. John Bly found the lead in my back yard basically. After I put the word out, Rick at the salvage yard, said people were coming from all over, like flies on ------ well you know what.
Recently a shooter found a O'Hare micrometer in a cigar box for .50 cents. He wanted me to modify it for use on a trapdoor. I told him it was worth too much to mess with, so he convinced me to make him one. We did modify the O'Hare though. We changed it's owner.
Woody
Richard A. Wood
If you are surrounded. You are in a target rich environment.
I stopped by the LGS today and they had gotten much stuff from the widow of a shooter who had passed away. I picked up 4000 Fed 210M primers for $80. It didn't take me too long to reach for my wallet.
"Perfection consists not so much in doing extraordinary things as in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well"
BUT! I got a Simmons spotting scope 20-60x60 with hard case and 5 pounds of rosin core solder for $15.00. The scope was brand new, still had the Cabelas plastic wrap on it, though the owner did manage to lose the ocular screw on cover. I think they are around $80 new, have several other scopes that are light years better but for that amount it was worth it. 
