Is there anything wrong with just using straight wheel weights for hunting and target shooting? I have 38/55 Marlin 1893 and Win 1885 LTD; 1893 30/30 and 32 SP; Shiloh 40/70 SBN; and 45/70's plus pistol calibers in rifles. None of the above are driven over 1400 fps. My eyes are too poor for BPCR but am interested in LR levergun and buffalo matches.

I've never molded that many bullets and want to improve my skills with casting. Plus mailorder bullets of the desired alloy are pretty expensive and I have a good supply of WW and soft lead. As I understand it, WW are BHN of about 12 though it varies. This isn't too far from the seemingly preferred 1:20 tin:lead bullets that I'm buying now.

I've used them for years in handguns with nary a problem. I use a turkey fryer and an old cast iron pot to melt them down. Then just use an old stainless dipper to fill the lead molds.

I don't cast bullets anymore but I have melted and shot enough wheel weights to sink a battle ship and have never had a problem if you don't count the time my son hit a golf ball into my lead pot while I was molding bullets. OUCH!

only "trick" to getting soft-ish bullets is to let them cool slowly. Use a pile of rags, moving the bullets around so that the one falling from the mold hits padding and doesn't "clink" into another one. taht will get your hardness to a low level, which is what is usually wanted for sub 1400fps.

Also tend to lube them and shoot them at the as-cast size; I do check their size but find that even .002" over bore isn't a problem at these pressure levels (and slightly too big is WAY better than slightly too small).

As for melting them down, would be better to wash them first (making real sure they are dead dry before melting). Wheel weights are coated in grease, salt, grit, sand, brake dust, etc.

Just melt them...the steel clips will float to the top of the melt to be skimmed off with the other crud.
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If you are the technical type, then keep track of the pot-fulls. Will cast the pot full, marking each ingot with a 1..next pot full gets a 2...etc. Once all the wheel weights are melted, cast, and marked, will use one ingot from each pot full when I cast bullets. Can't really control wheel weight consistancy very well, but at least this way eaqch pot full of lead I use will be just like the last one, so my bullets stay consistant until I run out of ingots (then i start all over with wheel weights again).

Yellow house wheel weights will work just fine just watch out for zinc ones you can tell buy they look like they are riveted to the clip. They will screw up your lead and when sorting thorough if you think it is zinc throw it away not worth screwing up a batch.Next IF YOU MELT YOUR WEIGHTS AT LOW HEAT AND SLOWLY the zinc ones wont wont melt lead melts at lower temp. Turkey fryer base 20# propane tank cast iron pot melt away!! don't mess with a electric pot for this too slow and small.I like casting out of my cast pot only use the electric for small bullet batches 100 or so big slugs and only cast outside not in house not worth chance of lead health problems

When doing lead wheel wgts I generally smelt them in a very large old cast dutch oven remove the slag then pour them into smaller molds. That way you get at least a good consistancy for a large batch of lead. If you can find one at a bone yard get an older chevy V-8 rocker cover with no baffles or PCV hole in it. Pure lead puts it full at 55lbs, wheel wgts a little less metal stamp the date into the larger molds as well as smaller. Then you'll know the lead content is close with same dates. When we mine the shooting banks at my blackpowder club it sometimes gets into the hundreds of pounds of mixed lead and that old cauldron we have at the club gets used. Don't know how much it would hold but more lead than I've ever seen at once would be a guess. Heed Ribbonstones advice on letting them cool slowly for softer bullets, quench them and they take on a charactor akin to Woodpecker Lips.