Notice how much stick-on WW lately?

[hunter64]

I went to my usual haunts to pick up 5 5 gallon pails of WW last week and last night I had some extra time to process them. I usually sort them out to WW, stick-on's and questionable (zinc/metal etc.). To make a long story short I have started to notice that there are alot more stick-on's lately. I counted the processed amount and I have almost 30% stick-on's, I have a few muzzle loaders that I use the pure lead for and that is great but man o man I would have to do a lot of shooting to use it up. 5 years ago I would get one or two pounds worth but not now. Anyone else see this lately?

[Ohio Rusty]

I too have acquired lots of stick ons. I have gotten a whole bunch that weigh one ounce a piece. It will take a bunch of muzzleloader shootin' to use them all up.
Ohio Rusty

[DLCTEX]

The increased use of aluminum alloy wheels is the reason for more stick ons. I am amazed at the number of aftermarket wheels our local tire shop is putting on vehicles now, with costs of somtimes more than $4,000 bucks a set. The oil and gas boom here has put disposible income into the hands of a lot of young persons(and a lot of older ones). The used gun market is non existent, as no one is trading in anything, just buying and keeping. Dale

[hunter64]

Dale: Couldn't agree with you more. Pawn shops are closing down left and right, there just isn't the need for them like in a recession. People are buying and not trading in there old stuff or getting rid of it. Used prices for firearms are alot higher than even 5 years ago before the oil markets took off. You could pick up a nice little J-frame .38 S&W for 100 bucks with normal wear and tear now the same revolver goes for 200-250.

I kind of figured it was Aluminum Wheels that was making the difference. I have 4 truck stop type tire shops that I go to and so I figured I would get more WW's than stick-on's but even them have alot of stick-on's now. You still get the odd cigar sized WW's but not many compared to a few years ago. Now if I could only find some monotype or lino to mix with it .

You need antimony in the mix to heat treat lead don't you?

[jawjaboy]

Since I started accumulating ww's, I have 10 buckets here at home, 5 at my sons house, ~unfiltered~. Out of those 10 buckets, I got about 140 lbs of stickons. Averaging about 10% per bucket. Between reloading forums that I haunt, they are almost gone!

[EMC45]

Alum rims are the culprit! I get some, but mostly the nice big clip ons!

[whisler]

Check the stick-ons closely. I recently found some stick-ons marked Zn. Not good.

[hunter64]

Along with the ZN ones I also found some metal ones, they actually had the Fe marked on the corner of it. I just segregate them when I do the stick-on's only batch and every once in a while I still get the odd floater. I just make sure that the temp is kept to 600-625F.