# Hunting Ammo Resources, scrounging from your environment.



## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

Evening everyone,

I was recalling on a thread regarding casting lead balls how I admired those who scrounge lead and cast it themselves, because a hunter must always be adaptable and improvisation is the ultimate way to success with homemade hunting tools. My hats off to guys who scrounge lead and cast their own ammo Jmp, frogman and others I missed good going on that.

Here I present some of my own recent scrounging exploits with heavy steel balls which I'm sure will get the job done on just about any small game you shoot with them. As steel balls are very expensive its always a good idea to get them for free, if you know somone that works in a junkyard or place that uses heavy machinery then you always have opportunity for some serious ammo.

In the place I work there are always machines in repair and they have metal bins full of mechanical throw aways often filled with Bearings full of ball bearings proportionate the size of the machinery they come from.

While helping store the stuff I separated some of these bearing disks and in some cases I was able to break free the ball bearings to collect them and in others I kind asked the local mechanic if it was hard to open these and he asked "what do want them for" I said _hunting ammo for my slingshot _he said gimme a few be right back and cut off the seal and I harvested some heavy steel balls.







I have three times the ammount of those steel balls in that bag in the picture all harvested from the scrap yard.

These steel balls are large I placed a 7/8 marble next to them to show what I think are 5/8 or 6/8 steel not sure maybe someone can help me with this sizing?

At any rate they weigh 20 grams and shoot well with heavy bands so if you use heavy tubes, double gold therabands or heavy chains like I use then you have some killer ammo and free to harvest. All it takes is some time and searching.

Virtually all junk yards and places that use heavy machinery have these scrap parts so its just an idea on the many ways to recycle what is already amongst our environment. If you dont like stones then you can use some serious steel balls and they do come in all sizes so they arent always as monsterous as these.

Nico


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## Frodo (Dec 19, 2009)

Those are big! But are these worth the effort? I mean it's easier to cast some 16mm lead-balls, they weight more than 20 gramms!


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

Did you even read the description of the topic?

Its an alternative for those that dont cast lead..


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## Frodo (Dec 19, 2009)

Nico said:


> Did you even read the description of the topic?
> 
> Its an alternative for those that dont cast lead..


I know that. You don't have to be so pissed of. It's just my thought. Lead is much easier to obtain even if it's possible to get these steel-balls for free.

In the time you talk to a few guy's to get 40 20mm-steel-balls you could cast 150 lead-balls.

Friedrich


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## bushwacker (Jan 20, 2010)

about 10 mins walk from mine the is a bearing manufacture you can find bearing from about 4mm up to over 50mm on the floor out side the loading bay,they have a bit of rust on them	but there free


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## jmplsnt (Jan 1, 2010)

That's pretty cool Bushwhacker.....just walk over and pocket them right off the ground. Simple as that! Almost like getting some stones......

Frodo, lead casting isn't for everyone. For whatever reasons, some just don't want to deal with the risk, gathering the equipment, or just may not have time. I've had all the stuff and some fair luck gathering lead, so it does work for me. Nico's just trying to relate some experiences for those who may live in places where lead casting isn't practical or perhaps just don't want to deal with it. He's not knocking lead, rather presenting a solid alternative.

Good work Nico and while I'm no steel-ball shooter I'll keep my eyes open next time we're in the shipyard.


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

When I was a kid we lived near a rather large highway.

I found that most of the rocks along the side of the road were very spherical in shape and some almost perfect spheres.

A ten to 15 minute walk would often result in hundreds of projectiles. I had to scavenge a different section of road each time but that's what the BMX was for


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

Frodo said:


> Did you even read the description of the topic?
> 
> Its an alternative for those that dont cast lead..


I know that. You don't have to be so pissed of. It's just my thought. Lead is much easier to obtain even if it's possible to get these steel-balls for free.

In the time you talk to a few guy's to get 40 20mm-steel-balls you could cast 150 lead-balls.

Friedrich
[/quote]

I guess its a language barrier with you as usual.. Obviously lead is easy to cast and your not saying anything too intelligent in stating that. Again your comment is pointless as its a thread about alternatives to lead casting that can be found in your environment, if you lack the imagination to see that there are many sizes of steel balls and that what I pictured is an example? Then its really not a lost thread because you lack the intelligence to understand the point of the thread.


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

To the guys that understood the point of the thread

Thank you and I hope this information is some how useful ..Obviously this was about alternatives and you guys were sharp enough to see that this is what the thread is entirely about and not an unintelligent comparisson of ammo materials.

Nothing is worse than a thread hijacker trying to ruin a thread with a pointless comparisson..


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

Hrawk said:


> When I was a kid we lived near a rather large highway.
> 
> I found that most of the rocks along the side of the road were very spherical in shape and some almost perfect spheres.
> 
> A ten to 15 minute walk would often result in hundreds of projectiles. I had to scavenge a different section of road each time but that's what the BMX was for


Hey Hrawk,

Thats awesome I usually use stones myself and collect them from a defunct railroad nearby and usually I use spherical and oval shapes. The majority of the small game that I take with my slingshots is taken with these stones, I feel a lot of satisfaction in taking small game with stones the old way of slingshot hunting. Love scrounging effective ammo from my environment..


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## Hrawk (Oct 25, 2010)

Or you could go completely environmentally friendly and grow your own.

Macadamia nuts, seeds from cherries, plumbs & peaches. Pretty much any stone fruit really.

Small unripe citrus fruits, grapes, cherries.

Frozen peas for getting pesky birds off your antennas when you don't really want to hurt them. Frozen grapes for when you do!

None of which are useful for hunting, but still fun to shoot. Cherries are very similar to paintballs with the marks they leave behind, don't wash off though


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

Hrawk said:


> Or you could go completely environmentally friendly and grow your own.
> 
> Macadamia nuts, seeds from cherries, plumbs & peaches. Pretty much any stone fruit really.
> 
> ...


Good one Hrawk,

I've shot down a few starlings with unripened cherries from the very cherry tree those starlings raided lol


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## ZDP-189 (Mar 14, 2010)

I've used pistachios. Didn't get any trouble from people in China, even police.

Edit: BTW, not for hunting obviously!


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## Chepo69 (May 1, 2010)

When you can be a little benevolent ... lol

I do my ammunition for "achicalar" (bother) disobedient to cats,avocado bone lol! medium pieces and go.

And I have also found ammunition but those bearing the more carelol! besides it is also the most environment friendly stone street lol!


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## Holzwurm (Nov 5, 2010)

Those ball bearing cages from scrap are usually very hard to crack up to access the balls , done it during my apprenticeship in the metal industry about 30 years ago(also to gather slingshot ammo) .

On smaller bearings(say ball size up to 8mm) one can can cut one or two deep sideward grooves into the outer cage with a powerful cutting disc , afterwards clamb the bearing in a very sturdy vise and tighten it firmly to finally crack up the bearings cage thus access the balls .

On bigger bearings(10 mm to 20 mm balls) the cutting wheel won't work that well anymore , so one needs to utilize a gas-operated welding torch to separate the bearing cages by burning trough them , also the vise won't handle these thicker cages anymore .

Just my experiences on the subject , ......................greetz , Holzwurm


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## Frodo (Dec 19, 2009)

Nico said:


> Did you even read the description of the topic?
> 
> Its an alternative for those that dont cast lead..


I know that. You don't have to be so pissed of. It's just my thought. Lead is much easier to obtain even if it's possible to get these steel-balls for free.

In the time you talk to a few guy's to get 40 20mm-steel-balls you could cast 150 lead-balls.

Friedrich
[/quote]

I guess its a language barrier with you as usual.. Obviously lead is easy to cast and your not saying anything too intelligent in stating that. Again your comment is pointless as its a thread about alternatives to lead casting that can be found in your environment, if you lack the imagination to see that there are many sizes of steel balls and that what I pictured is an example? Then its really not a lost thread because you lack the intelligence to understand the point of the thread.
[/quote]

Same thing with the tungsten-ball-discussion. It's possible to use a "3$-tungsten-ball" but in the end not a real option. The same with your BB's. In the end you will return to stones, they are cheaper and easier to obtain.
The (stupid) comparism with lead was just my two cents and i'am SO sorry i made you cry.


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

[/quote]

Same thing with the tungsten-ball-discussion. It's possible to use a "3$-tungsten-ball" but in the end not a real option. The same with your BB's. In the end you will return to stones, they are cheaper and easier to obtain.
The (stupid) comparism with lead was just my two cents and i'am SO sorry i made you cry.
[/quote]

yawn... Learn to spell..


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## BaneofSmallGame (Sep 22, 2010)

Excellent topic Nico, now lets get it back on track...

I do not cast lead either, but I fully understand its benefits....and risks for that matter. For those that cast, power to you, take advantage of some of the best ammo out there on the cheap, I've got a long life ahead of me and I'll keep away from it for now. I get enough toxins living my daily life in this world!









Thank you for letting us know about these bearings, as I love large steel shot but lack the funds to run off of it (why I use stones).....therefore this is great for me. I have a cousin who owns an auto parts shop that crushes car wrecks and has an expansive junk yard.....sounds good to me. At some point I'll drop in and inquire about these bearings. Then I'll find out from experience the process required to retrieve them...

As to my scrounged ammo input. I have shot upwards of 500 scrounged projectiles downrange in the last 4 months or so. Each week I gather more and more hex nuts, broken bolts, square nuts, locking nuts, acorn nuts, castle nuts, lead balls occasionally, and stones of course (probably shot about 800+ of those too). Just for an idea of some loot here a picture of what I've gathered up just this past week, not bad eh?










The bolts on the left were broken off an old plow hook up, and those sinker like shapes are lead, and seemed to have been a decoration of some sort....?

The huge hex nut is off copper and the big square nut is of steel, both very heavy, good for my heavy chains and will surely devastate on impact with anything.

Okay, thats it for now, I also gather nicely sized and shaped heavy stones from a massive gravel parkway filled with river stones. They are perfect for my purposes, and are very smooth. They get the job done ans are free. Just be aware and alert with slingshots on the mind...









Take Care - John


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

Thats good John,

This is the whole point of this thread sharing a resource for a time when you may not have anything else.
Scrounging ammo is about the times you cant invest in making ammo or when you prefer not make ammo from lead.

Not only that, even if you did pour lead and didnt have it with you and you have your slingshot but no ammo and you need it right now? 
Well you can always scrounge ammo thats why I was sharing this scrounging source its a good one if you have it available.

From that metal bone yard I have scrounged hexnuts and ball bearings when I was out of my favorite ammo "rocks" and there were no suitable rocks for ammo available. Yet all around are prey to shoot.. Sometimes you run out of ammo too and must improvise in the moment, this is what this thread is all about.


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## Nico (Sep 10, 2010)

...........


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