Lead prices and availability during the last panic?

[brewer12345]

One of the reasons I started casting was to insulate myself from supply issues during the idiotic panics that seem to crop up periodically. I know bullets of every stripe (cast, jacketed and plated) became scarce and expensive during the last panic. What happened to lead prices and availability? Since I was not casting I was not paying attention and my view is that times are good as far as laying in a supply against future foolishness.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have never noticed any issues with Lead and Lead alloy availability.
with that said, Lead is a commodity and is (and always has been) subject to price rise and fall...but for our hobby purposes, those price changes are negligible.

[dragon813gt]

Price is subject to market fluctuations. Availability is never an issue. It's a raw material w/ a large supply available.

[brewer12345]

So the issue then is more powder and primers (and to a lesser extent brass).

[mold maker]

Lead has in the past been available everywhere, but plastics and health scares have fixed that. Wheel weights, plumbing, roofing scrap etc are fast becoming a thing we read about, but can't find. If ya find some even at an exorbitant price, it may sound like a bargain soon.
Now is the last decade that readily available cheap lead will exist. It's a matter of getting it now or wish you had.
Scrap yards are no longer selling to the public. Ranges are being regulated in how they may dispose of it.
When offered any lead that is usable, take it.

[brewer12345]

Lead has in the past been available everywhere, but plastics and health scares have fixed that. Wheel weights, plumbing, roofing scrap etc are fast becoming a thing we read about, but can't find. If ya find some even at an exorbitant price, it may sound like a bargain soon.
Now is the last decade that readily available cheap lead will exist. It's a matter of getting it now or wish you had.
Scrap yards are no longer selling to the public. Ranges are being regulated in how they may dispose of it.
When offered any lead that is usable, take it.

I tend to agree. That said, I am now sitting on close to 500 pounds of the stuff and wondering if a dollar a pound shipped is worth the trouble.

[Dusty Bannister]

Is that dollar a pound scrap lead or in clean ingots. There is a big difference in the value. I would hope that you are following the prices in the buy and sell list and comparing that with what you pay at the local scrap yards. From similar discussions, it seems that some areas are finding soft lead or nearly pure lead scrap is very hard to find, yet COWW and other harder blends are easy to find. This is where trades of alloy seem to be very beneficial.

500 pounds of soft lead scrap sounds like a lot, unless you have been at it for a while, then it is a good start.

[dragon813gt]

There is no shortage of lead and it's availability isn't going away anytime soon. What's slowly going away is free/cheap lead. But this doesn't mean lead is going away. Anyone can order foundry direct. But you need to buy half a ton minimum in most cases. I realize casters are a frugal bunch. The last batch I bought from a foundry was $1.32 a pound shipped. I don't consider that a lot for a certified alloy that contained tin and antimony.

[brewer12345]

Almost all of what I have accumulated is COWW ingots, with about 10% pure. What I am looking at is pure soft for a buck a pound in ingots. Based on what I see in the buy and sell list that is a good price, but I have been casting straight wheel weights for pistol rounds. All I see myself using pure for is alloying hunting bullets, which I doubt I will be casting huge volumes of. Maybe a muzzleloader eventually, but I do not own one at present.

[quilbilly]

Our metal recyclers near the big city always seemed to have enough lead to keep both my business and my boolit making hobby going. Over the last 20 years, I have paid as little as 30 cents a pound for dirty roofing lead or as much as $1 per pound for clean, beautiful, pure isotope lead in large sheets. The most recent price for me was 80 cents per pound for isotope lead sheeting a few weeks ago.

[Walter Laich]

as I have aged I find I'm more willing to pay a bit more and bypass the smelting process.

I weigh the additional cost of the clean lead vs. the energy needed to smelt the raw materials. Don't get me wrong--if I run across a great deal I'll take it but these days the folks that sell the lead ready-to-go need to feed their families, too

[waco]

So the issue then is more powder and primers (and to a lesser extent brass).

Brewer nailed it.......

[Idaho Sharpshooter]

this is one of the places I sometimes wonder about. I have had ten pounds of foundry pure Tin in one pound bars for sale here for a month at $16 per pound. Shipping included if you bought all ten pounds.
That is $3 a pound less than Roto Metals, and no response. Same for several pounds of 63/37% tin/lead alloy in foundry bars for $10 per pound.

Rich

[bangerjim]

Pb is and always has been VERY plentiful. I get it for a buck a pound soft or hard, alloy or Sn. It is used in so many industrial applications, we will never run out of it. It is one of those perfect recycle materials in industry. You may be in a bind if you live somewhere your local scrap yards will not sell to the general public. Mine do.

Back a few years ago (Obummer daze) there was a severe shortage of powder and primers. That has pretty much gone away. I can get as many primers and just about any powder I want now at very reasonable prices off the shelf. Or by mail.

Brass has never been a problem.......new or used. There are always clowns at the ranges that just leave their brass lay on the ground. Not after I have been there! Same with 50 count ammo boxes. They just throw them in the bins there. I take them apart at the glued seam, fold them inside out (printing on the inside) and re-glue with a hot melt gun and have a perfect BLANK ammo box ready for labeling, along with the plastic carrier inside!

Banger

[waco]

Pb is and always has been VERY plentiful. I get it for a buck a pound soft or hard, alloy or Sn. It is used in so many industrial applications, we will never run out of it. It is one of those perfect recycle materials in industry. You may be in a bind if you live somewhere your local scrap yards will not sell to the general public. Mine do.

Back a few years ago (Obummer daze) there was a severe shortage of powder and primers. That has pretty much gone away. I can get as many primers and just about any powder I want now at very reasonable prices off the shelf. Or by mail.

Brass has never been a problem.......new or used. There are always clowns at the ranges that just leave their brass lay on the ground. Not after I have been there! Same with 50 count ammo boxes. They just throw them in the bins there. I take them apart at the glued seam, fold them inside out (printing on the inside) and re-glue with a hot melt gun and have a perfect BLANK ammo box ready for labeling, along with the plastic carrier inside!

Banger
Very resourceful Jim. Good idea on the ammo boxes!

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

I would hope most of us here have stocked accordingly. That is the reason I started casting. I never wanted to run out of components. The next big panic, most of us should be fine. If you're not there already, start working towards that. There are fantastic deals right now on loaded ammo. And brass, primers and powder are easy to find at a good price too. Things are soooo much different than they were 3-4 years ago when all you could find was black powder and 50 BMG powder and no primers.

[GhostHawk]

I am sitting on 150 lbs of COWW in ingots, probably about the same in Range scrap.

I have mostly been running a roughly 50/50 blend with 1% tin added.
I have a couple of sources for tin, some 60% lead/40% tin I found here at a resonable price, some Lino in ingots also for reasonable price, and some 6 pounds of modern pewter my wife found for a total of 12$.

When she called about the pewter she found at the second hand store I checked the spot price for tin.

10.60$ per pound.

2 weeks later it is lower.

http://www.infomine.com/ChartsAndData/GraphEngine.ashx?z=f&gf=110568.USD.lb&dr=1w
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/tin/1-week/

I'd say at 16$ a pound it would appear that you are overpriced.
I'm sure much depends on where you look, who you take for a source.
I know I am sitting on what I have and watching hard for pewter.

[PBaholic]

I never used to worry about lead, until now. The scrapyard that I was buying 200#'s at a time all of a sudden say no lead sales. They say this came from corporate.

Luckily I have almost 1,000 pounds stacked up in the shed.

I'm gonna have to start looking for a new source.....

[wistlepig1]

I went to the tire shop for tires for my old Ford, I was treated well so I got a box of donuts for the Guys $4.00. The next thing I know I had 4 1/2 5 G bucket of WW's. bee nice to tire guys----- never know!!!! And a very sore back!

[Traffer]

I have a source for pure soft lead for a buck a pound. Have to drive 30 miles one way to get it though. But I haven't needed to get any in over a year because I always am the last guy at the range when no one else is there and I go dig up 5 to 10 lbs before I leave. So I always come home with more lead than I use. (Just fyi) I separate the lead between hard and soft so I always have some at approximately 8 bhn and some about 11-12 bhn. But folks are correct. The green police are clamping down on scrap lead. It is hard to find old flashing, pipes etc. But lead will always be available. It is used in too many things. The new source is Xray shielding and containers for radioactive isotopes.

[Andy]

I agree with dragon, lead isn't going anywhere it is just hard to find it free or nearly free like people talk about being the case 10-20 years ago. If you look up the historical commodity value of lead it increased greatly in the 2000's along with a lot of other metals, I think this got a lot of people's head in the game of "hey this is worth something" and now hardly anyone gives it away for free as a result. Lots more people "doing scrap," or at least aware of scrap value, than there used to be I believe.

Lead wheeel weights are still the standard in most states and I think that fact alone means we won't have too much trouble sourcing supply (albeit having to buy online) for decades to come. Until/unless it becomes highly scarce for an oddball reason (gov't bans etc) I think you'll see lead commonly sold online in ingot form for 1-1.5 times its scrap value shipped, just like it is now. When the price goes up, more people sell off some of their horde, so it tends to even out I think.

[lightman]

I've been through a few shortages and have not noticed lead prices or availability changing. Brass, powder, primers and loaded ammo will get scarce and more expensive during shortages. Free or cheap lead is getting harder to find. I do recommend building up a stock if you have the ways and means to store it. A dollar a pound is a fair price for lead that is already cleaned up and in ingot form.

[Hickory]

The increase activity in the economy is often reflected in the increase price of commodities.

[Wally]

Saw this and had to respond....I'd never call those generous benefactors "clowns" for leaving behind good brass. They are wonderfully generous and I am so thankful and grateful for them. Over the years they have given me many thousands of pieces of perfectly good brass. When I get the empty boxes, so much the better.



Brass has never been a problem.......new or used. There are always clowns at the ranges that just leave their brass lay on the ground. Not after I have been there! Same with 50 count ammo boxes. They just throw them in the bins there. I take them apart at the glued seam, fold them inside out (printing on the inside) and re-glue with a hot melt gun and have a perfect BLANK ammo box ready for labeling, along with the plastic carrier inside!

Banger

[bedbugbilly]

Lead can always be found/scrounged. The biggest issue during a "shortage" is the powder and primes to get ti down the barrel. I know . . . . i stood in a number of liens at 5 or 6 int he morning to get a number to just have the opportunity to buy a minimum of such supplies and ammo.

[Thin Man]

I work at an indoor range where lead and brass are left for the shop owners to recycle (most shooters there do not reload). We have a new owner now who sells the reclaimed (unprocessed) lead and brass to various buyers. One buyer in particular asks for both the lead and brass that is available when he calls. His story is that he is finding it harder to find sources for lead for his work making fishing sinkers, lures, etc. By offering to buy both the lead and brass together he comes out well (gets lower prices on both together) by re-selling the brass to recycling shops and reloaders, then using the lead for his own purposes. Indoor ranges in any location may be a source for raw lead material, just ask and see.

[quail4jake]

Great to hear so many chime in on this, I'm listening carefully. I still get great scrapyard lead in the form of sheet and spools of wire but WW are fading fast, last bucket was < 1/2 lead alloy weights. My concern is environmental regs and potential prohibitions on lead sales and maybe even on lead shot and any projectiles. Currently we have a favorable federal situation (go Don Trump!) but the pendulum swings and states can be pretty radical (the people's republic of New Jersey and Kalifornia), this is probably the good old days right now. I'm making a special effort to render all I can and assay batches of rendered alloy by physical properties, stamping the ingots. No panic, just preparation. My retirement plan is to shoot every day so my stores may be spent by my 100th birthday but if I die young someone will be willed a great stash of metals and alloys! Now, what about powder and primers?

[lightman]

I'm making a special effort to render all I can and assay batches of rendered alloy by physical properties, stamping the ingots. No panic, just preparation. My retirement plan is to shoot every day so my stores may be spent by my 100th birthday but if I die young someone will be willed a great stash of metals and alloys! Now, what about powder and primers?

I think this is a good plan. Not much different than mine. I don't expect lead to just disappear but gradually continue to become harder to find for free of cheap. Now, powder, primers, brass and loaded ammo will no doubt be effected by panics, just as in the past. I try to keep at least enough components to shoot and load through 2 election cycles (8 years). I hope to already have a lifetime supply of lead.