Local recycling shop

So I talked to the owner of a local reloading shop if he had any lead from the local indoor range they used to run. Apparently, they had already cleaned it all out and told me he gets some from a local recycling shop. I asked how much he was buying it for and he told me it was a $1 a kilo and he uses it for his business.

Went over there today and found that they had lead pigs that weighed 20 kilos average. Picked up 4 of them total for about 160 pounds or so. I've never seem them before but have been told they are pure lead. WW are pretty much non existent now and the local tire shops won't even sell them now if they have them. I do have some old muffin pan ingots I made a decade ago that I will mix in to get some tin and antimony in the mix and they will mainly be used for handgun velocities with powder coat.

Now to the real question, has anyone seen these type of pigs before? Any help appreciated.

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We have them on our campus, they were used as shielding around radioactive locations. The ones I have found are basically pure lead.

I heard they got them from the military. Do I need a Geiger counter? I hope I don't start glowing in the dark.

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Originally Posted by Tmaloy

I heard they got them from the military. Do I need a Geiger counter? I hope I don't start glowing in the dark.

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Double check, but I've read that Lead is old/ancient, decomposed Uranium to start with.

I've never heard of Lead shielding 'left overs' being radio active.
Whatever goes into the Lead has a real short 1/2 life, maybe even just minutes.

I got a few thousand pounds of 1/8" Lead sheet that had been behind the sheet rock of a X-Ray room for many years, and it was fine.

Unless directly contaminated by the radioactive material, lead used to block radiation doesn't emit radiation itself. As a matter of fact, lead is the stable decay product of uranium.

At least in the radioactive pharmaceuticals industry, any lead shielding must not be discarded until it is tested and shown not to have radioactive contamination. I'd guess the same applies for what you have.

Thanks gents, I started smelting two of the blocks and nothing happened. So I think I'm in the clear.

I have run into similar looking lead bricks
and like you took them to be pure lead and use them as such

A 20 kilo brick of that shape, would usually be ballast material.

A friend that worked at a local hospital and worked in storing those 35 lb. tracer shielding `slug` in a lead lined room for further disposal. He said the nuclear half life of that tracer radiation was 6 months and then was considered a non worry. The hospital kept that lead for 1 year to be safe then checked it with a geiger counter instrument to verify it was safe then gave it to any hospital personnel that wanted any. There was never any left within several hours of that announcement. He kept me supplied with these `slugs` as he referred to them as, at 1 time I had about 16 of them that I smelted and used as WW`s type lead.Robert

I'm going to pick up 4 more of these in a day or two. I melted down two of them so far and they came out pretty clean. From what I heard the recycler had them there for a few years. If there was any half life to these I'm sure they're long gone. Thanks for the info gents.

You can often pick up WW lead for around $1 a pound +/- with the shipping in 60 pound plus lots. in the Swapping and Selling forum. Sometimes printing lead such as linotype or mono/foundry type at around $2 per pound. COWW for revolver doubt you would need over 50% with 50% plain to have some really nice alloy. Printers lead even less of it per pound of plain. 1 pound linotype to 3 pounds of plain is close to COWW as I recall.

Can always post a WTB some COWW and see what people will offer it for, some might even be willing to trade. Plain and COWW were same price at one point. Straight COWW is sort of hard for some revolver bullets, and you need plain soft lead for muzzle loaders. I think those demands were what help keep COWW and plain close in price.

Nice score, if nothing else you will know you have a large quantity of pretty consistent lead to use as an ingredient for a good long while.