That 40 year old bucket of wheel weights should be hard lead -- not much good for muzzle-loader bullets, but *great* for everything else.
Modern WW's will have a mixture of all kinds of stuff. The ones stamped "Fe" are steel -- useless, but harmless. The ones stamped "Zn" are zinc. You want to separate those out because just one getting stuck in the bottom of the lead pot and overheated can ruin a whole batch of lead.
A lot of stick-on weights are Fe or Zn now, too.
The rest could be anything. Some of them *look* like they might be zinc or aluminum but they are lead with a thick painted-on coating. "AL-MC" comes to mind. After picking out the obvious Fe and Zn weights (you probably want to pick out the valve stems, dead birds, and chewing tobacco too) put everything else in a smelting pot and heat it *slowly*, with a big handful of sawdust stirred in, and maybe a little motor oil. It's gonna smoke and stink, just be ready for it. Skim out the steel clips and the zinc weights you missed as they float to the top.
Modern WW's will have a mixture of all kinds of stuff. The ones stamped "Fe" are steel -- useless, but harmless. The ones stamped "Zn" are zinc. You want to separate those out because just one getting stuck in the bottom of the lead pot and overheated can ruin a whole batch of lead.
A lot of stick-on weights are Fe or Zn now, too.
The rest could be anything. Some of them *look* like they might be zinc or aluminum but they are lead with a thick painted-on coating. "AL-MC" comes to mind. After picking out the obvious Fe and Zn weights (you probably want to pick out the valve stems, dead birds, and chewing tobacco too) put everything else in a smelting pot and heat it *slowly*, with a big handful of sawdust stirred in, and maybe a little motor oil. It's gonna smoke and stink, just be ready for it. Skim out the steel clips and the zinc weights you missed as they float to the top.