speculate on metals-lead

[randyrat]

Well i'm back up to 600 lbs of alloys (clean ingots) mostly WWs should i sell @ .40/lb. I still have my personal stash of 200 lbs some 20 lbs of pure,20 lbs of 60/40 and the balance of WW alloy. I've been offered .40/lb and they pick up. I have a good relationship with a tire shop that provides me with a steady flow of WWs big truck wws and car wws. I've already sold enough to pay for all my equipment and gas(from previous sales). Is it time to sit on lead? I'm just not sure how much i need for a life time supply of bullet lead for me and my son in the future. This forum is a great place to throw stuff like this out there and see were it goes.

[jawjaboy]

I'd just sit on it randy. Rainy days you know. But that's just me!

[waksupi]

Randy, if I was down to 600#, I would be in a panic. I'd hang onto it!

[arkypete]

I've got enough lead stashed down by the loading shed, I'm sure that it causes the earth to wobble.
Keep piling up the lead and let your children reap the benefits.
Jim

[imashooter2]

How much you need is pretty simple math... 10k per year of 250 grain average weight for 20 years is 7,143 pounds.

So how much do you shoot and how long do you want to do it? Your lead supply seems infinite today, but it could get turned off in less than a year by the stroke of a bureaucratic pen.

[Lloyd Smale]

I remember back when i started. I had about 500 lbs of ww in ingots and thought i had the world by the tail. I use more then that in some years now. Id hold on to it!! Even if you dont need it, wws are getting tougher and tougher to find and i would guess in 10 years you will be sitting on gold!! Like wapsuki said, right now if i was down to 600 lbs i wouldnt sleep at night!

[WHITETAIL]

If it were me, stash it and wait. If it is in your way I am sure one of us would haul it away for you.

[C A Plater]

Last I looked, the exchange price of lead was around 85 cents a pound.

[CT Kid]

I'd keep it, the price will only go up. Its only a matter of time before the tree huggers outlaw lead of any type. They are trying to scare people with the fillings that dentist put in. I'd be happy if I had a couple of tons, even as a new shooter I have used 400lbs in the last six months.

[FISH4BUGS]

I have some 500 lbs of smelted ww's and 1000 lbs of raw ww's and I am always looking for more. This stuff doesn't go bad you know. Ingots in a 5 gallon bucket with a snap on lid will last forever.
I am trying to learn about alloying now because the ww's will all be zinc soon. Then you will need to get raw lead (or some flavor) and alloy it to your needs.
NEVER ENOUGH!

[cohutt]

I've got enough lead stashed down by the loading shed, I'm sure that it causes the earth to wobble.
Keep piling up the lead and let your children reap the benefits.
Jim


Funny reference there..... "Lead, it's for the children"

Just don't sprinkle it on their capt'n crunch every morning...

I had a conversation with my 17 yr old son last night when I was dropping some of my own cast loads through case guages for the trip to the range today. We talked about components, i told him if i died suddenly that he needed to know that this stuff is worth some $$- my gear yes, but my brass, factory bullet stash and 1000 lbs of lead all would bring much more $$$ if properly marketed. So i basically said it is yours, keep it, study and pick up the hooby where i left off or sell it. What ever you do don't let your mother just toss it out.

[jawjaboy]

Funny reference there..... "Lead, it's for the children"

Just don't sprinkle it on their capt'n crunch every morning...

I had a conversation with my 17 yr old son last night when I was dropping some of my own cast loads through case guages for the trip to the range today. We talked about components, i told him if i died suddenly that he needed to know that this stuff is worth some $$- my gear yes, but my brass, factory bullet stash and 1000 lbs of lead all would bring much more $$$ if properly marketed. So i basically said it is yours, keep it, study and pick up the hooby where i left off or sell it. What ever you do don't let your mother just toss it out.

Sounds like you are pretty good at "planning" ahead! :bigsmyl2:

[cbrick]

I am currently down to 750 pounds of clip-on weights and 250 pounds of stick-on weights in 5 pound ingots and I have just about got the nervous sh*ts.

The day is coming when .40 cents a pound will not pay the sales tax on lead. Keep it. Put it in a safe deposit box and hire a guard to keep an eye on it.

Rick

[NVcurmudgeon]

I am 70 years old, and come from a family that generally gets called home by the age of 80. (Except for crazy old Aunt Tut.) Shooting 3,000 rounds of CB in a year would be a very good year indeed. (That doesn't count .22 RF, shotgun shells, or jacketed bullets.) At 200 gr. per round, I would need 86 lb. of metal annually. I'm getting nervous about beng down to 650 lb., which would be good for only 7.6 very good years. And what if I'm the one who beats the law of averages? Not to worry, I'll keep scrounging. My wife knows the value of good boolit metal, and will be tough to deal with!

[grumpy one]

Just to provide some balance here, I see this differently. If environmental controls on lead emissions are deemed necessary by the political elements, they won't handle it by making the stuff hard to buy - they'll more likely prohibit its use, as they have prohibited lead shot in duck swamps. At that point, a yard full of lead ingots or WW will become a hazardous contaminated site, and you'll have to pay hazmat fees to get rid of it. Just look at what happened with asbestos.

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade - if all this happens, most likely the disposal fees in the first five or ten years will be pretty low, as they were at first for asbestos, and site clean-up will be a manageable project. However you might bear in mind what happened to an acquaintance who was into classic and antique vehicles. He had some compulsion to buy them, in ordinary to awful condition, all his life, occasionally saying that the main worry in his life was that he "didn't have enough stuff". When he died he had 15 acres of his farm under cars, plus a lot of sheds spread around the property. His nephews had no interest in beaten up old cars so they contacted the enthusiasts for offers. Three months later they'd sold almost nothing - they just had a procession of smart-alecks coming around, talking prices down and wasting their time. They needed to sell the farm, and ran out of patience. They burned the whole 15 acres, and had a scrap merchant haul away the trash. I think they broke even on the disposal project, ending up with a clean farm, so they were happy.

When I die I'm pretty sure my wife or children will do something pretty much like what those nephews did, for equally sensible reasons. Consequently I keep my stuff minimal, compact, and tidy. That way the trash-hauling won't inconvenience anybody very much.


Geoff

[shooter93]

I'm with Grumpy one on this. that i exctly what will happen when they stop lead usage. It has happened with every other banned product. It's almost that way now in some places with paint and varnishes. I like to buy in quanity but if I'm just going to store it and not shoot it then it is of very little use. As an investment?...I'm not sure about that either considering what any number of other safe investments pay these days either. And ofcourse...nothing is an investment if it doesn't get re-sold. Nothing wrong with piling it up but like the guns it's being used for....it's for shooting.

[jerrold]

Boy,
You fellows know how to raise heads,
The last time I checked, I can buy 100%? lead at .50 cents a pound. Currently have about 90lb. on hand.
Shoot 25 to 1 lead /tin.
Did I miss the Boat

[arkypete]

I'm with Grumpy one on this. that i exctly what will happen when they stop lead usage. It has happened with every other banned product. It's almost that way now in some places with paint and varnishes. I like to buy in quanity but if I'm just going to store it and not shoot it then it is of very little use. As an investment?...I'm not sure about that either considering what any number of other safe investments pay these days either. And ofcourse...nothing is an investment if it doesn't get re-sold. Nothing wrong with piling it up but like the guns it's being used for....it's for shooting.


I doubt that lead will get banned, except in flaky liberal states.
Personally I would ignor the law any way.
I see it as my duty to attempt to subvert any idiotic law.
Jim

[Sundogg1911]

I start to panic if I go much under a ton of ingots. I'm not sure why. I've never paid cash, even for Lino. I have done some trading here and there. I've lent some alloy to a friend that was low, but I don't think I could bring myself to sell any. But that's just me. My goal is to fill one my garage with alloy, and the other with Harley's.:drinks: Unfortunatly my wife wants to keep silly things in the garages, Like Her car :(

[randyrat]

Thanks for all your thoughts. I think i'll hang on to it for a while. After reading more about metals and market trends i just don't see lead going down. Even if lead were to go down in price i have clean bullet lead in my garage already to cast and roll into my favorite recipes.

[imashooter2]

Bans on lead will come in the form of limitations on commercial use, not possession of private stocks.

[dakotashooter2]

While there are some substitutes for lead there will likely always be a need for lead in some applications. Therefore even IF your private stash of lead is deemed hazardous there will likely be someone that would take it off your hands for free. I personally plan to rid myself of this nasty suff by evenly distributing it throughout the countryside. Dilution is the best method of disposing of hazardous wastes. I'm more concerned about the hazards provided by the runoff of farm chemicals than of lead.

[nighthunter]

I have about 1500 pounds ready to cast in ingot form. I have 10 buckets of ww waiting for the weather to clear up so I can smelt outdoors. Would I part with any of it for $.40 per pound ????? NO WAY. WW are definately getting harder to acquire. I think they are going to get a whole lot harder to acquire. I have a few friends into shooting cast bullets whom are not into casting bullets. We have a deal .... I trade them cast bullets for buckets of bulk WW. So far it has worked out well. Look into the future with your lead stash. Put that stuff away for a rainy day and try to find some more to be on the safe side. Just my 2 cents worth.
Nighthunter