Smelting TMJ bullets?

[BIGRED]

i have found laying them out on the driveway and giving the kids a hammer works the best... i usually only smelt them in a small 4# lee pot, as their is only a few handfuls of them. i made a small wire basket that fits inside of the 4# pot. after i get about 1" of molten lead i lower basket in and toss in a handful of TMJ's.. after they melt i shake the basket a few times and all the lead comes out. I used to have some lead stay in the jacket not anymore.

[CGT80]

Why do any of that? The base of some have a thin copper disk that doesn't hold molten lead in. The plated ones lead lead like a sieve once the core melts.
None of these bullets have a thick, hard core completely surrounding the lead. Get them hot enough to melt lead and the lead pours right out.
Having done better than 10 five gallon buckets of this stuff I can assure you that hammers, bolt cutters, and vises are not required. Way too much extra work.

Don't over think it guys. The bullets aren't gonna hold in the molten core.

x2

I have had very few bullets that made it out of the dutch oven and fish fryer with any weight intact. That was out of enough bullets to fill a 5 gallon bucket with jackets.