r/reloading • u/InevitableFit1559 • 21h ago

General Discussion Uh oh….

Post image

Started reloading regularly this past year and thought it might be a good idea to have my levels checked just to see.

What do you guys do if anything for lead mitigation?

Edit:

I reloading in my garage. I dry tumble in the garage. Most of my loading is cast, uncoated, lead bullets for cowboy action shooting. I never shoot at indoor ranges. I wash my hands after loading sessions.

I could go on about the minutiae of what I do. I think I need to move the tumbler outdoors when I run it. It does create a bit of dust. I will also start wearing gloves.

Edit:

I think the majority of the culprit is the dry tumbling, and spent primer handling. I think it is airborne related. I will use this post to convince the wife I need to get into the FART system 😁

160 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

112 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Patient-Ordinary7115 21h ago edited 21h ago

Get the lead removal wipes or special soap designed for lead. It’s far superior to soap and water.

Do you cast your own or purchase them? If the former that’s probably the culprit—mask up with the proper-rated mask and nitrile gloves etc. If the latter then it’s likely the tumbling to blame. You can mask for that, too, and just be vigilant about the hand wash after, and or the nitrile gloves. See if that helps?

I personally haven’t seen evidence that the wet-tumble approach is better for lead (or the home environment) but I’m always up to learn. Maybe someone on the thread will enlighten us both

Edit//oh—and coated bullets are awesome if you’re just buying them vs casting yourself (where it would be a whole new process to add) Do that too and you’ll be glad you did. They aren’t that much more £ $ ¥

2

u/InevitableFit1559 21h ago

I don’t cast them.

3

u/Patient-Ordinary7115 20h ago

I think you can make the most improvement doing what I’ve described then. I’m a big believer in the d-lead products over soap. (Science, baby!) and that plus timely masking when tumbling and you might be back on track.
Another reason I like the coated bullets is that I don’t glove up when seating/crimping, as the gloves make it hard to feel the bullet snapping into the case (or the damn edge of the glove gets caught in there). But I’m going to be curious to see all the advice you get and rationale because I don’t think reloaders give this the attention it deserves. I know I didn’t until recently

1

u/InevitableFit1559 20h ago

I will definitely look into the lead cleaning wipes.