Differant use for WW's but not for Boolits

[IcerUSA]

Got out of work this morning and had a flat tire on the truck , got it changes and headed home , did a couple of the usual things and then headed to the tire shop .

Now this is the place I had gotten most of my lead in the beginning when I started casting and a couple more times since but not anthing in the last year about . Well the Owner was there for a change and we got to talking and I asked about WW's , now here is the pits, get this, he smelts them down and sells them to the scrap yard for 85 cents a pound for clean lead . Now that sucks .

Keith

[uncle joe]

If you want to get them at a lower price just go tell the scrap people that they are wheel weight ingots not pure lead. They don't like wheel weights because of the other metals in them. The local scrap yard here really won't buy wheel weights unless they know you just because they can't resell them, they only buy them to help floks out.
:twisted:

[Kraschenbirn]

On the way home from the range today, I checked two tire shops and a community recycler and got the same story all three places. They have an "exclusive contract" with a local scrap dealer who sends a truck around every week to pick up their wheel weights (and, in the case of the recycler, any other scrap lead they've collected). Stopped by the scrap dealer's yard and was told by the yard manager that they "don't sell to individuals"...all their lead goes to a "reclaimation facility" in Indiana.

On the upside, though, I'd already collected a little over 60# of range scrap off our pistol berm. We had a line of heavy thundershowers blow through yesterday afternoon and what I scavanged had washed down to base of the berm and was laying loose on the ground. Took me all of 10 minutes to rake up 1/3 of a 5-gal. bucket.

Bill

[Jon]

I'm getting close to berm mining myself. I'd rather deal with wheel weights, but it's hard to find any places that will even sell them to you.

[dakotashooter2]

I'm not beyond telling my supplier I can buy my tires elsewhere, as a bargaining chip.

[Boerrancher]

All of the tire shops I deal with, and there is only 2, Know that If I don't get a good supply of WWs about 2x a year I will buy my tires somewhere else. I can still buy lead from my scrap dealer, but it is 60 cents a lb. If it ever quits raining and drys up, I will go back to berm mining. I have several hundred lbs of range scrap, but only a few hundred of WW's. Since I like my boolits soft (so they go splat) it is not super critical, but every once in a while I like to push that 2500 fps mark with my 30-06.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[jdgabbard]

I'm just trying to get into casting, and I wonder if you gents could answer a question for me on the subject. What is the going price for WWs? I've seen the stuff already put in ingots on Ebay going for about a $1 a pound. What about at the local tire shops? Whats a decent price to pay them? Any practical way to entice the one that typically sell back to the wholesaler?

[colbyjack]

same luck here, all the shops send them to the bone yard. they get .32 a pound for them and the yard comes to pick them up. i offered him .35 a pound and id take what he had right now. still got turned down.

think the WW lead round here is tied up. owell, may have to dig it from the hill also. -chris

[halfslow]

I almost hate to tell this, but I think I have enough lead to last for a while.

I go to garage sales, especially in older areas where old people like me are downsizing and moving to smaller homes and condos.
At one I spotted a stack of type trays for sale. Asked and sure enough, they had a bunch of foundry type in more trays in the garage. They were going to sell them on craigslist. I saved them the trouble.

At another, I saw a five gallon can in the corner of the garage full to the top with lead. It looked like one solid chunk. Maybe 500 pounds?
Normally I don't look at the stuff in peoples garages, but this was a moving sale, and the guy was very congenial. He laughed and said I could have it if I could pick it up and carry it out. Then he told me what I needed to know to get it. They used to melt a pot full at a time and pour the lead into the can. It was actually a pile of disks. By the way, they do really stick together that way. I told him I would cut the can open and seperate it into pieces to carry them to my truck.
He said ok.

[Typecaster]

halfslow, that's funny. You should be feeling proud to have done him a favor.

Back when I started casting (early '60s) I had a friend who tried to add weight to his Jeep by filling the bumper with lead. It didn't do what he wanted, so he just heated the bumper with a torch and let the lead make a puddle on the garage floor. It was mine for the taking, but I had to pry it off the concrete and chop it up with an axe.

Richard

[jdgabbard]

So do you think if I offered them .50 cents a pound I might have better luck picking them up? I am actually from a pretty small town. And two of the tire shops I know the owners pretty well. I think that I may be able to get one to give in (though I am not completely certain) as he is an avid outdoors kinda guy who loves to hunt. The other place it would probably be a miss as the two of us are not on the greatest terms. He kinda cost me about 7 big ones, and I lost my temper.

Though I do know that I've seen multiple 5gal buckets full at various times. I really hate the idea of spending upwards of $1 a pound. Since with 158g that only equates to about 40-45 finished product per pound (estimating). Which is still better then ordering them I guess. And does still leaves the price of a loaded round at a reasonable cost. However I'm looking at loading in bulk. So little costs savers will help greatly.

[halfslow]

I would approach him by offering to help him learn to reload with you. Maybe he could let you buy some of the ww's a few times in the next few months so the current buyer would not notice a sudden loss of ww's at his store.
Ask him what price he is comfortable with, and go from there.
One thing we must remember is that they will be harder to get in the future, and will cost more if we can get them.