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View Full Version : Good lead source or not



Bo1
01-12-2013, 03:49 PM
Local indoor shooting range will sell me 5 gallon buckets of shot bullets for $20.
He says it's about 100 pounds. (.20 per pound)
Is that a decent price?

crawfobj
01-12-2013, 03:56 PM
Um, yes. I'd get all I could at that price.

Highway41
01-12-2013, 04:04 PM
5 gallon bucket should be closer to 200 pounds. Heck ya buy it all!

jdgabbard
01-12-2013, 04:48 PM
Yeah, it'll mostly be pure lead tho. But for that price I'd be able to afford some metal to alloy with it.

rintinglen
01-12-2013, 05:25 PM
Darned good price--I paid double that. One caviat though, if this range requires TMJ boolits, then you are in for a heck of a lot of work. If they allow lead boolits, though, all is cherries and cream.

imashooter2
01-12-2013, 05:43 PM
That's exactly what I've been living on for 8 years. My buckets weighed more along the lines of 150 - 165 filled to a couple inches from the brim. Figure 25 - 30% waste, a significant portion of that bullet jackets. Some folks report that they sell them to the local scrappers as dirty copper. None of the yards around here will touch them, but asking is free...

Anyway, great alloy. Mine casts beautifully with no additions whatsoever.

MtGun44
01-12-2013, 10:48 PM
Hardness will depend on what was shot on the range. If mostly handloads with commercial
cast boolits from pistols, it will be hard. If mix with jacketed pistol, it will be medium since
he cores of Jbullets are fairly soft. If mostly .22 ammo, it will be very soft. If a lot of
shotgun shot is included, it can have a good bit of antimony if much hard shot was used,
so again, it will be harder.

At .20 per pound with minimal dirt, it is a bargain.

Bill

fryboy
01-12-2013, 10:56 PM
a good price ??? no sir - talk him down :P especially on a condition that you buy mass quantities !!! it's a great price ( see - much better than good ;) ) evan price i believe will buy the copper jackets for those of you whom cant sell them locally , he used to have a add for them in the want to buy section

SlowSmokeN
01-12-2013, 11:37 PM
I also live off range lead and haven't needed to add anything once I got the fit down. Buy before they catch on.

zuke
01-15-2013, 09:02 AM
Like they say at Walmart,"stock up now and save!"

btroj
01-15-2013, 09:16 AM
At that price buy all you can get.

XWrench3
01-15-2013, 10:56 AM
buy up as much as your wallet will cough up! that is a terrific price!

Centaur 1
01-16-2013, 12:53 AM
Like Fryboy said, maybe you could talk him even lower with quantity. Offer him a crisp new $100 bill for 6 buckets, I bet he takes it. All of my lead comes from an indoor range, everything mixed together will water drop over 22 bhn. I keep some as a mixed alloy and it works great in 9mm and .357 mag, I've shot it over 1300 fps with no leading. Sometimes I will sort out all the cast bullets for use in my rifle loads. After segregating all the hard cast from the mix, the remaining alloy is still more than hard enough for use in calibers like .38 special or .45 acp.

I have another suggestion for you, but it depends on the backstop at your range. My local indoor range uses crushed rubber mulch to stop the bullets, and quite a few bullets come out looking almost as good as new. As I sort through the bullets before putting them in the smelting pot, any that look untouched with the exception of rifling marks, gets thrown into a large peanut butter jar. Actually one of 3 jars, one for 9mm/38/357, one for .40 cal and another jar for .45acp, and i'll just put them aside for a rainy day. When I get around to it, I select a jar and take one more look for damaged bullets using a magnivisor. If they still look undamaged, I clean them in my vibrating tumbler with walnut shells and Nu-Finish. After cleaning, I size the bullets using the appropriate Lee push thru sizing die. At this point they're ready to load. Unless you hand one to someone and say "check out what I did", your friends will never know that you're shooting a previously fired bullet. I'm sure that there is some gas blow-by happening in the previous rifling marks, but for plinking practice at indoor range distances, this ammo works great. Before I worked up a good cast load for use in my Glock 26, I shot these reclaimed bullets exclusively. Even though I have total confidence in my lead bullets in my Glock, I use reclaimed bullets when my wife and kids are shooting it.

nhrifle
01-16-2013, 01:16 AM
Don't listen to these guys! They are feeding you such a line of bull! Range lead is too hard to deal with, but I have developed a super secret procedure to reclaim it. Send it all to me and save yourself the headache!!!

:kidding:

Bo1
01-16-2013, 10:08 AM
This is all GREAT stuff..... My range uses steel boolit traps, so there are no unmoletsted boolits.
I'm gonna talk to the guy, because apparently he makes a deal with someone to come clean out the traps for him in exchange for the lead.
a couple of weeks ago, he apparently got 8-5 gallon buckets. I need some of that deal... :0))))

429421Cowboy
01-16-2013, 11:41 AM
I would say that is a very good price! Our local scrapyard buys lead at .15 a pound (but they sure don't sell it for that!) so .20 seems fair to both you and him.

DxieLandMan
01-16-2013, 12:27 PM
Buy all you can at that price.

on1wheel01
01-17-2013, 11:25 AM
I called my local range they said they have a company come in and clean it up and they take it. Lame!!!!!!!!!!