Buying old boolits

[Marlin Man]

Hey there,

I have an opportunity to buy thousands of old Star Wadcutters from an estate. We do not know for sure, but we are thinking they are at least 20-30 years old. All boxes are packed with 500 and are stapled shut. I popped a couple open to check the lead and they aren't oxidized, but the lube is toasty on a good percent per box.

I am trying to determine a value that is fair, but want to take in account the additional work they are going to take. Also, not knowing much about Star, I did some research and it appears these boolits are swaged and can be pretty dirty.

Based on the above, would you:


Relube them all
Relube only the bad ones, and shoot the rest
Shoot the good ones, and melt the rest
Melt them all


What do you think is a fair price per box of 500 would be?

Thanks,
MM

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Me, I like to cast...so I'd "Melt them all"
Price? I'd pay $1 per lb
if they are 148gr? a 500 count box would be 10.5 lbs...equals $10.50 per box.
Good Luck.

[marlin39a]

Was in the same situation 10 yrs ago. I bought them as scrap, and into the pot they went.

[frkelly74]

#3 is a good happy medium???

[tazman]

I used to shoot Star back in the day. They always worked well for me. The lube looked frosty even when new on the ones I shot.
I would load up and try some of the ones you think don't look right and see how they do. They may surprise you.
As far as value. I can buy wadcutters locally for $75 a thousand. I would say the Star boolits should be worth $25-$30 per box of 500 if you can shoot most of them.
If you think you will need to rework them, then $20 per box .
At $20 you are paying a little under $2 per pound just for the lead but you expect to get some boolits you can use out of them. The percentage of usable boolits has to be determined by you.
I must say, I seem to be more generous than most.

[Thumbcocker]

Tumble lube may be an option.

[Lloyd Smale]

Buying cast bullets? Now that's a strange idea[smilie=1:

[Paper Puncher]

I had a couple OLD boxes of Star wadcutters that I loaded up last year. The lube looked a bit iffy so I just gave them a very light coat of White Label Lube 45-45-10. I may have even thinned it a bit, can't remember. But they shot well.

[reddog81]

Somewhere between $10 and $20 per box is probably reasonable. How cheap depends on how desperate they are to sell and if anyone else has expressed interest in them.

I'd shoot all the good ones and relube or powder coat the others. There's no reason to remelt them unless that's what you want to do.

[mdi]

Depending on the diameter of the bullets. If they run .357"-.358", I might relube and shoot them. Depending on the alloy, I might melt or pass on the deal. If I wanted the alloy I'd just offer scrap lead price...

[Larry Gibson]

Agree on 10 to 20 $s a box.

I see no reason to reject perfectly good bullets and remelt/recast if you can shoot them. A very lite coat of LLA is what I would put on them, load over 2.7 gr Bullseye in 38 SPLs and enjoy shooting them.

I've shot thousands of the Star 38 WCs back in my PPC/TRC days and they were excellent bullets for commercial's. I've also TLd thousands of "iffy" lubed or oxidized bullets and then shot them with quite satisfactory results.

[Marlin Man]

Thanks guys, appreciate your comments and insight. I have never run across something like this and was overwhelmed with the sheer amount of supplies this man had and the age of things.

[merlin101]

I wouldn't pay more than $1.00 lb if I'd have to melt more than 50%. Keep in mind you have to separate and grade them, remember for a buck a lb you can get clean lead and cast them yourself. They want to get rid of them just as bad as you want them!

[Echo]

Tumble lube may be an option.

Plus one - a cinch to do, to try. That's what I would do...

[44Blam]

I wouldn't pay more than $1.00 lb if I'd have to melt more than 50%. Keep in mind you have to separate and grade them, remember for a buck a lb you can get clean lead and cast them yourself. They want to get rid of them just as bad as you want them!

+1
$1 / lb of good lead is a reasonable price.

[richhodg66]

I'd never melt down useable bullets if I didn't have too.

I got most of my Dad's stuff, a lot of which were cast bullets which had been stored for years in plastic containers that some of the lids had broken or come unsealed and had gotten dust and grit on them. I've boiled old lube off a lot of bullets, relubed and shot them in various things. I like to cast too, but it's a lot of time and work, more than boiling a pot of them, drying and tumble lubing them.

[bedbugbilly]

Don't know the situation of the estate and your relationship to the heirs, etc. - but if nobody showed an interest in them, my guess is that someone who doesn' shoot would dump them all and take them to the scrap yard for scrap price they'd get out of them. I have had to clean out several estates and it's a big job having to sort through everything, liquidate things, etc. You get so tired of it that a dumpster looks like a good spot to deposit things. You don't want to take advantage of the situation, but, "lead is lead".

[45-70 Chevroner]

It's too bad they don't live in kaliforina, you could tell them that their toxic and for .25 cents a pound you will dispose of them in a safe manner. Of course I am kidding. Another thing they are probably pure lead so you could melt them and ad an amount of hard lead to suit your own needs. A $1.00 a pound is a good price, but ask first what they want for them and go from there.

[2wheelDuke]

Without getting to really inspect them all, I'd be offering roughly scrap value as others have said. As long as they mic correctly, I'd tumble lube them all in 45-45-10 and load them.

[sw282]

Buy em CHEAP. Load em. SHOOT em.