WW's Ain't What They Use to Be

[ColColt]

I thought I had found a great source of ww's. My neighbor I go shooting with a couple times a month gave me about 20 pounds of ww's a co-worker gave him and said he could get a lot more. Knowing I cast bullets the neighbor gave them to me. Unfortunately, most of them looked suspect and I discovered most were either steel or iron(marked Fe). I guess this has been going on for some time where lead is slowly being swapped for those materials. A sad state of affairs. i think I may have found a pound of usable material. I guess I'll stick with Kathie as my best source.

[500MAG]

I was getting mine from a scrapper. Just a couple years ago, a 5 gallon bucket yielded 85% or so lead. Last load I got about 5 months ago was 500 pounds which yielded about 200 pounds of lead.

[truckjohn]

Yep... Lead ww's are becoming fewer and fewer each year....

[45 Shooter]

Defenatlly getting harder to come by. Fortunatlly the last two five gallon buckets full I got were probably 99% lead. Had a heck of a time getting them in the trunk of my car too.

[williamwaco]

I no longer even look for them.

I buy all my wheel weights already smelted from board members here.

I highly recommend that.

Nice, shiny, pretty, little, one pound ingots for about a dollar a pound delivered to my front door.


.

[exdxgxe4life]

My source of wheel weights is drying up as well. I forget who it was, but I saw a video on youtube of a guy who was calling up dentists in his area. For the few that still use non digital xray's they have lead scrap in the form of thin lead film, approximately 2 inches by 3 inches. Might be a source for you to look into.

[Jal5]

You need a ton of those dental lead shields to get any amount of lead out of it, believe me I have been saving those from a dentist friend for two years now. I will smelt them next month but I know it won't amount to very much.

[Shiloh]

Lots of non lead in the scavanged wheel weights. Zinc and mystery metal. I have even found magnetic iron like weights.

Shiloh

[shadygrady]

save that zinc for me

[captaint]

I recently got 2 5gal buckets for free. Good thing. They were exactly 50% steel & zinc & junk. Guess I'll go back one more time. This gets old. Mike

[Boerrancher]

I still have lots of lead and I don't scrounge for WWs much any more. I have several hundred lbs of the old Lino type still in letters and nearly a ton of pure laying around. It doesn't take much Lino to get the bhn of my 50/50 alloy.

Best wishes,

Joe

[milprileb]

I still have lots of lead and I don't scrounge for WWs much any more. I have several hundred lbs of the old Lino type still in letters and nearly a ton of pure laying around. It doesn't take much Lino to get the bhn of my 50/50 alloy. Best wishes, Joe

No doubt this is true and Joe is good to go. Don't work for those who shoot a lot. If you shoot , you got to find ways to ramp up the hardness of lead. A couple of hundred pounds of lino or wheel weights is hardly "Enough" but I guess, if you are an occasional hobbyist that casts and shoots few times a year, its just perfect.

Light a fire under wheel weight searching, its later than you think. Every year I find my last years sources dry up. I can no longer just blitz the area once a year and buy up a years supply. I now have to hunt every 3 months in order to maintain a steady supply of WW to fill my shooting needs.

[reloader28]

Shady, I've been saving the zinkers in a seperate bucket. Well over a 5 gal bucket full so far.

[remy3424]

Just in the last 3 years or so thing have really changed from an occasional zinc or steel to 30 or 40% being scrap.

[Vinne]

I recently got 2 5gal buckets for free. Good thing. They were exactly 50% steel & zinc & junk. Guess I'll go back one more time. This gets old. Mike

Mike, count your blessings. Down here it takes months to get 1/4 of the mixture you get. Don't give up...there will come a time when you will wish you could have it this good!!

[jonp]

Man, when I worked building chimneys we used lead flashing. Threw away a ton, literally, of the scrap pieces.

[shadygrady]

ok send that zinc to me pm me your address an amount to send

[captaint]

Yeah, I'm not really giving up. I've been at this a while and as long as we keep looking and pay attention, we can, and I have, accumulated quite a bit of lead. Pure(er) and WW's. After I smelt the WW's I already have ready to go, I may never have to do it again. Of course, when I retire, I will be shooting considerably more than I do now - so...... Guess I should keep at it for a while, anyway. Good luck in your searches.
Mike

[Slow Elk 45/70]

YUP, zinc, iron/steel, alumn, & who knows what else...I gave up about a year ago. easy to buy from people selling "pure" lead. IMHO