Flea market report

Ok, Xavier has the pawn shop circuit, so on occasion I'll cover flea markets.

There's a big one over in Midwest city called Mary's Swap Meet, went over there this morning. Today was a good day, found
1. A pair of 30-round M1 Carbine magazines for a friend,
2. A WWII or just after side-opening .50 caliber ammo can and
3. A bucket of lead.

The magazines showed no rust, and if I'm not mistaken they were the version made for the M2 select-fire carbine. The ammo can was a prize; no visible rust, and the seal is in halfway decent condition. Most of these have some rust and the seals are completely dried out or missing. The bucket was full of mostly wheel weights, a few 3, 4 & 5oz sinkers and a big chunk that looks like was dumped out of a pot after it cooled with some wheel weight clips stuck in it. I'm guessing about fifty pounds total for $5. Very good. Except for carrying the heavy damn thing halfway across the market and out to the truck; I'm surprised the bucket didn't break or the bail pull out.

Did a little forging this afternoon(very little as it turned out; a few light pieces only because my elbow didn't like hammering today) and after that got out the pot and started melting weights and casting them into ingots. I've got one of the Lee ingot molds that throws two 1lb and two 1/2lb ingots. When all was done,














27 1lb ingots and 26 1/2lb with one about 1/4 lb; total about 40 pounds. And I haven't started on the big chunk yet, I'll probably have to use the torch to melt it into the pot a section at a time; I'm guessing it's about 15-20 pounds.

That's not the most I ever found there; one day found 5-gallon bucket of assorted lead, worked out to about 75 pounds, a mix of wheel weights, battery cable ends and-prize of all- a bunch of stained-glass window channel, pure lead.

So today was indeed a good day there.

By the way, it's no damn fun carrying something like that with a bum foot. I was originally going to go to Muskogee today with friends, but begged off because of crap needed to do and having trouble walking. I know, going to the market wasn't the best idea. And I'm paying for it now.