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Thread: Wheel Weights By Location

  1. #1
    Boolit Master

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    Wheel Weights By Location

    Just a quick informal poll:

    What state / location of state or country are you in?
    Is wheel weight scrounging still worth your time?
    Time frame of the change (if any)?
    Alloy you're switching to (if any)?

    Here in SoCal, I've lucked into two free stashes of the old stuff from coworkers who knew I was looking, but have never actually gone out seeking them, figuring it was futile in the present day. I found an old 3-5 ouncer on a Jeep trail while hunting two years ago and felt like I had just tripped over the Ark of the Covenant while going to 7-11 for a chips run. About to cast my first mix of range scrap & Superhard as a surrogate.
    WWJMBD?

    In the Land of Oz, we cast with wheel weight and 2% Tin, Man.

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy glockfan's Avatar
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    well,i partly live in vermont in the winter and ontario,canada in the spring-summer time ....then get back in vermont for the fall-cold season.

    in canada, i can stop by any car repair shop and claim as many buckets of WW i want. most are 5 gallons buckets,and it is most of the time 60% lead and the rest is iron-nickel-zinc.

    in vermont? pfffft. i don't do any of my WW '''shoping''' there, but i know that it would be close to impossible to find as much lead WW as north of the border. i'm guessing laws regarding lead and environnement are differents.

    however,i find the WW collecting a little bothersome, and i contacted a foundry who would sell me 92-6-2 for 3.00 usd a pound !! it is not cheap, and i started casting because i have 2 guns to feed (wife started to shoot ipsc-uspsa too) and it is costy,so i'm gonna try to keep my ww collecting habit alive for now,but i might eventually turn my back , in favor of the
    said foundry's product .
    Last edited by glockfan; 03-26-2018 at 10:13 AM.

  3. #3
    Boolit Bub solman's Avatar
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    I live in NJ. Lead COWW has been a no go for years now. I grabbed half a 5 gal bucket of WW recently because I could. After sorting it out I had maybe 2 doz lead weights the rest was mostly zinc. I work in the auto repair field and used WW are plentiful but they are no longer made of lead. I don't even bother anymore and I am right in the shop. Have gone to purchasing and begging to get lead these days.

  4. #4
    Boolit Buddy

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    I'm in Bakersfield California. So far I've got 1 good haul abou 500lbs of lead (more than that of Zink and steel mixed in) but mu brother knows the owner of the shop. No luck anywhere else.

  5. #5
    Boolit Buddy wddodge's Avatar
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    I'm in northwest Ohio. I work in an auto dealership and get about 1 5 gal bucket a year after sorting. The decline started about 6-7-8 years ago and is not getting any better. The other tire shops/repair shops that I've checked want $30-$50 for an unsorted bucket so I've quit looking.

  6. #6
    Boolit Buddy Arkansas Paul's Avatar
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    I'm in central Arkansas and it is definitely changing. Five years ago I would buy a bucket of wheel weights and it was probably 10-15% zinc or steel. I could easily net 100-110 pounds of ingots from a full 5 gallon bucket.

    I got a bucket this weekend and it was probably 40% steel and zinc. I only netted about 70 pounds of lead. Now I'm not complaining about this particular bucket, because it was given to me by a friend who owns a tire shop, so if it had been 3/4 steel it would still be worth sorting through and I appreciate him giving them to me.
    But it does point to the way things are going.

    I used to be willing to pay $40-$50 for a full bucket. Not anymore if this most recent bucket is indicative of how they all are now.
    Life is a series of bullseyes and backstraps - Ted Nugent

  7. #7
    In Remembrance


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    Here in Michigan you can still do well scrounging for weights. I have stopped due to deterorating health. My friend has a car dealership and gave me the weight throw away pail when it got full for free. I stopped taking them since I already have at least 5 full overflowing pails of hand sorted weights and a full pail and one half of unsorted just sitting there. I have already about 100 +/- lbs in ingots of WW so I doubt I`ll run out anytime soon. Sadly the percentage of non lead weights I was getting was approaching about 40% of the 5 gal. pail. Best of luck in locating WW around you.Robert

  8. #8
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I'm in South Central Arkansas. The lead ratio in used wheel weights is still holding up pretty well. Somewhat better than 60% I would say. I'm in a small town and the shop that I use gives them to me, so it is still worth while for me. I also have a pretty good network of friends who are always looking out for me! Even in our State the bigger shops have contracts to sell their used weights or they already have a "Guy". Most of the bigger scrap yards will not sell to the public either. Hitting on smaller scrap yards and smaller tire shops has always been more productive for me. The yield probably changed for the worst maybe 10 years ago. I probably have a lifetime supply but I also have a stock of Isotope containers that makes a good bullet. I also have a stash of cable sheathing and printers type that can be alloyed together. If I were not sitting on a decent stash I probably would buy my lead a 1000# at a time from RotoMetals. Probably 96-2-2 or Lyman #2.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master


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    can't get wheel weights anywhere I have found in central florida. adition ally, the last scrapper in my area buys only, won't sell.

    I have to get lucky and find lead from casters estates, or people moving.

  10. #10
    Boolit Buddy Arkansas Paul's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by lightman View Post
    I'm in South Central Arkansas. The lead ratio in used wheel weights is still holding up pretty well. Somewhat better than 60% I would say. Probably 96-2-2 or Lyman #2.

    That's good to hear.
    Hopefully I just got one stray bucket, and like I said, it was free, so anything was a gift.
    Life is a series of bullseyes and backstraps - Ted Nugent

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    I'm getting 100% lead wheel weights from my local scrap yard for $.40 per pound.

    Don
    NRA Certified Metallic Cartridge Reloading Instructor
    NRA Life Member

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
    CastingFool's Avatar
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    Last fall, a friend who owns a repair shop gave me a 5 gal bucket that was about 2/3 full of ww's. After sorting, I ended up with 2-1/4 gallons of raw ww's. At the time, I told him I would bring him some venison. I fulfilled my promise about a month ago.

  13. #13
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by CastingFool View Post
    At the time, I told him I would bring him some venison. I fulfilled my promise about a month ago.
    Good on you! This should result in more weights in the future!

  14. #14
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    Rural SW MN, local co-op tire operation. They do a LOT of semi trailer tires for the farmers who trash them in the field or when coming out of the field and they run over roadside trash. Still running about 90% lead and mostly 2oz and above weights.

  15. #15
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    If I had to switch alloy's?
    I'd use range scrap for plink'n fun
    and Pure (or near pure) lead, blended with type metal for anything else...blend to suit the application.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
    ― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001

  16. #16
    Boolit Master

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    A local Chevron station sells WWs for $50 for a five gallon bucket.
    I live in SW Oregon 12 miles from the California border.
    I have not bought any myself but sorted and smelted a bucket for a friend.
    There was a lot of zinc and steel plus stickons, which I only use for sinkers.
    I didn`t pencil it out but seems like a fairly bad deal....dale

  17. #17
    Boolit Buddy jessdigs's Avatar
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    I pulled in about 5 or 6 full buckets in norcal the other day, but they were being horded by an older gentleman, and he recently passed. I got them for free though. I wasn't actively looking, my father in law found them and called me. Mixed, mostly COWW with some SOWW, no steel or zinc so far.
    To say they are old is an understatement. They are so old that they buckets they were stored in disintegrated when I touched them. I had to transfer them over to other containers.

    Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

  18. #18
    Boolit Master


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    Quote Originally Posted by JonB_in_Glencoe View Post
    If I had to switch alloy's?
    I'd use range scrap for plink'n fun
    and Pure (or near pure) lead, blended with type metal for anything else...blend to suit the application.
    i bought 50-60# of range scrap last year to do the same. cast the scrap for plinkers.. alloy my straight lead for 'real' stuff.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master D Crockett's Avatar
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    here in Florida in some places you can not get any but in others you can still get them last time I went hunting ww I ended up driving over a 100 miles away before I found some they are getting harder and harder to find here D Crockett

  20. #20
    Boolit Grand Master Bazoo's Avatar
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    Here in ky, wheel weights are available. I paid 30 a bucket from a local tire place that turned out to be 60% or so usable weights. I had a buddy that worked a tire place, and they sold him the buckets for 5 each. I lost my hook up though. I aint good at BSing my way into them free and I dont drink, so I aint comfortable paying my way with a case of beer.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check