Do You Have a Lifetime Supply?

[lightman]

Its good to see this thread moved up to the top. I always enjoy reading about everyones stashes!

[WILCO]

Its good to see this thread moved up to the top. I always enjoy reading about everyone's stashes!

Same here!

Fun to see the "Scores" with pics.

[fredj338]

Yes, I would rather pay 1$# as I have in the past but I was not able to find any locally. I have a good supply of coww ingots, pewter and lino type but no pure lead.

Look to trade for pure. I have quite a bit from a buddy that got 2200# of sheet lead.

[Tall]

I think I probably do. I stocked up when it looked like there would be a President Dukakis. Bought way more primers and powder than I ever would use.

[fredj338]

I think I probably do. I stocked up when it looked like there would be a President Dukakis. Bought way more primers and powder than I ever would use.

Yeah but that was just $$ in the bank if you sell now. When the pandemic started, I could get $200 per 1000 of any pistol primer. I didn't sell any but if I had a lifetime supply, would have bought a couple new guns for just a few 1000 sold.

[Land Owner]

yep...lifetime supply and most importantly, somewhere to shoot it at both target and game! Also, one can always recast boolits from one to another caliber...

[GlocksareGood]

Think I am now over 10,000lbs of lead. I am in the process of pulling it all together and getting a count. Pretty sure I will never run out.

[lightman]

Its good to see someone post and help this thread alive. I enjoy reading everyone's replys. Its sad to read the post from the members that are no longer with us, but thats life!

[bowfin]

I think I am to the point that I have more than enough lead to cast boolits, jig heads, and sinkers for family and friends for the rest of my life. I still do not let any cheap / free lead go past me because some caster, somewhere, will get my remaining stash.

[Rockindaddy]

Can never have a lifetime supply of lead! Went and scrapped 600 lbs of batteries several weeks ago. The salvage yard paid me $ .10 /lb Wow! could not believe it how the market is depressed. Good time to buy lead ! A friend was hauling 350 lbs of lead to the salvage yard last week. I poached it before he made it to the local salvage recycle company. $ .10/ lb !!!! My Gatling Guns really gobble up the lead. At 385grs a pop shooting 2500 rounds at a shooting session really puts a dent in the lead stash ! The 20 lb pot on my Magma Master Caster empties quite fast casting 385 gr 45-70 boolits: two at a time. My advice: By scrap lead now! Don't think it will get cheaper.

[lightman]

I agree, don't see it getting cheaper nor more plentiful. Get it now!

[Land Owner]

Another "feature" of having a place to shoot (post #686) is the berm at the end of that 250+yard shooting lane, which is "mined" for its lead, cleaned, fluxed, recast, and reloaded time and time again.

[technojock]

I suppose it depends on how long I live...

Tony

[barryjyoung]

I voted unsure. If the Chinese nuke the US, I will need more lead. Currently I have 2120 pounds of processed lead in 2 significantly different piles. The first pile is 650 pounds of pure lead to be used for making into wire from which cores are made when I swage jacketted bullets. The rest is in another pile which is mostly wheel weights. This pile is for casting bullets which get powder coated. Everything is in nice small ingots. The pure ingots are half round ball ingots, and the wheel weights are in cupcake shaped ingots. Having different ingot shapes helps me keep them sorted easily.

[lightman]

It sounds like you are well prepared! And extremely organized.

[35 Rem]

I'm sure I have a lifetime supply now. I was working on building wooden boxes full of sand to catch my bullets but once I got into it and started measuring the weight of the volume of sand I needed, it became obvious that wasn't the best way to go. Earlier this year I had a fella doing some skid steer work on the farm and while he was at it had a berm built in the back yard. Now I can do all my handgun shooting right there in the shade beside the house and recover practically all the lead again and again.

[ElPistolero]

Somewhat passed 8 decades, I might not remember if I posted to this thread before, but:
Scrounged from tire shops for years before they started charging, then got some more free because I was using much of it to make Cub Scout Pinewood Derby weights.
Hooked up with an old Southwest miner & smelter and did some chemistry for him: got a bunch of "samples" and pot-bottoms in payment.
Was teaching a computer science class and discovered that one of my student's husband was rebuilding a hospital radiation facility and had no place to store scrap 2'x2'x3/4" pure Pb plates.
Had (sadly) the husband of my wife's very close teacher colleague give up the ghost while engaged in casting miniature soldiers. He left me a pile of Linotype that had my 3/4 ton truck angled substantially nose-high.
Even some years casting two or three TYPES of projo's for nine different calibres, including combat practice, Cowboy competition and general pest control, the back end of my pier-and-beam 4/2 house stills groans in cold weather.

[ebb]

I am just getting started. I have a guy that builds custom trucks and mounts very large tires, he also does everyday vehicles. I provide a bucket and he gives me the wheels weights. Night before last I had 2 5 gallon buckets, one slightly over half full, the other less than half. 24 one pound ingots of COWW, and over 60 one pound ingots of soft lead stick on wheel weights. a bunch of steel and a few zinc. Probably over 300lbs now and a very thick folded up sheet from Xray room dry wall still to process. The recycle center my friends own had a sailboat keel that he said was over 2000 lbs, the yard cut it in two with a chainsaw to deliver it.

[SeabeeMan]

I actively sought lead for about a year and ended up with over 1000lbs of mostly wheel weights. My wife's cousin works for a major construction company that primarily does hospitals, and he started getting me X-ray shielding out of rooms, so that pushed me up to nearly 2K. I have it all melted down into ingots and stored in ammo cans on dollys. My COVID project, amongst other things, was a 250yard range on my property with auxiliary pistol range so at 40, I think I'm pretty good for the rest of my life.

[Rickf1985]

I am just getting started. I have a guy that builds custom trucks and mounts very large tires, he also does everyday vehicles. I provide a bucket and he gives me the wheels weights. Night before last I had 2 5 gallon buckets, one slightly over half full, the other less than half. 24 one pound ingots of COWW, and over 60 one pound ingots of soft lead stick on wheel weights. a bunch of steel and a few zinc. Probably over 300lbs now and a very thick folded up sheet from Xray room dry wall still to process. The recycle center my friends own had a sailboat keel that he said was over 2000 lbs, the yard cut it in two with a chainsaw to deliver it.

Be aware that not all stick ons are soft lead!