This forum drives me nuts.

[RichardF]

I probably have a little over 400 lbs. 300 in pure lead and another 100+ in ww waiting to be melted into ingots. And I just found a garage owner that said he has as much as I want, will be checking that out early next week! Like a couple of gentlemen have said, if it’s available at the right price I’ll take it!

[Drm50]

I can't pass up any bullet metal. Scrap has got way ahead of me, have got around 800-1000 lbs
of sheet lead, pipe and slugs from plumbers pots. 100+ lbs of XRay pellet containers and 3 5gal
buckets of type, tin and WWs. Will be getting the last of pure tin since they are tearing down all
the old mills along the river. I wish I had time to smelt back in cold weather. It's a killer in the
Summer. I have more than I'll ever need in ingots now. They don't pay much for dirty lead at
Scrap Yard, but they won't sell any either. They claim they are buying to fill a contract. If you go
to trouble to smelt it into ingots they will pay more but it wouldn't cover your time and work.
I have no idea how much lead I have, 3 106mm ammo cases about 36"x16"x16" of lead ingots
2 are soft lead & 1 WWs. My wife screams everytime I drag more in.

[725]

More is more better.

[lightman]

Another "it depends" answer. I would rather my heirs have to sell it after I'm gone than to run short. Another member used to say something like " buy it cheap and stack it deep"!

[RogerDat]

Lead oxidizes but that is on the surface, it is sort of like aluminum in that once covered with oxidation it blocks more oxygen from getting to the metal so oxidation tends to stay on the surface. Melt it, little wax to drive the tin and oxides back into the melt, skim it. Back in business. I find plain lead is the most inclined to oxidize, pewter and high tin the least. One does want to have some care not to get the white lead oxide on the skin or breath it in. That white powder is a form of lead that is absorbed pretty easily.

A good stash does tend to allow one to wait for a deal, or be choosy about what alloy you buy. I fear I won't ever pass up a good price or a premium alloy. I consider most of it that isn't sewer pipe to be a premium alloy which probably doesn't help.

[kevin c]

I am fortunate in that I have, in a fairly short time, managed to put up enough alloy for about ten years worth of high volume (action pistol) shooting. I figure I'll slow down after that (will be in my seventies) but will still be shooting, so I am still in accumulation mode. I dunno if I should consider it a blessing or a curse to have access to lead in quantities above my anticipated needs but to also have the compulsion to buy it all.

Oh, and yes, RogerDat, I am working on the primers and powder.

[OS OK]

I'm with you about building the stash but...you can make the stash you have last almost forever!

"Catch-em & and run-em again!"

[sqlbullet]

I just am trying to get mine before the hoarders get it.

[RogerDat]

I just am trying to get mine before the hoarders get it.

So Sorry they already got and many are busy getting more. Join the ravening hoard and get yours too! Or wait for us to retire to an apartment or condo in a senior community and see if you can pick our stash up for cheap.

While hoping we don't just decide to stack it up inside the new place. Maybe put a box spring on a couple tons of ingots in ammo boxes and call it a bed in the spare bedroom. Then you will probably be able to buy it off our kids for less but your going to wait awhile longer. The longer the better!

Actually some members here have gotten to the point where casting is too physically demanding and sold their lead off. Or needed to move to a smaller place with less upkeep. Typically it is face to face and purchase whole batch. If moving lead around to cast is too much then packing and shipping it won't likely be a good solution so there is something to be said for stash of cash in order to be able to move at an estate, downsizing, or other reason someone wants to shed a supply of casting material.

Me I'm still in the steady wacks will whip the devil mode. Buy it if I find it and it's good stuff. I do have to stay within a budget, good lead keeps getting in the way of enough primers! Much as I would like to order 5k box of primers it doesn't save enough to deal with the pain of ordering $600+ for a primer order. So $70 here and there for a couple of 1k boxes is what I do. Key is to buy it faster than you use it. Competitive shooting or retirement with more free time can go through it faster, after a certain age one slows down their rate of consumption, maybe shooting one box instead of three on a range trip in order to avoid excessive joint pain. Lead and reloading stash should reflect your individual rate of consumption. Also can depend on if your kids or grand kids are interested. More than one member here is hoarding not just for themselves but for the next couple of generations.

Realize most folks will adjust their rate of consumption based on the cost of that consumption. If lead, brass, powder or primers get expensive or hard to come by people will naturally shoot less often and fewer rounds in order to conserve what they have available.

[ThomR]

I check on craigslist once in a while. I got a deal on a five gallon bucket, and a pretty good sized cardboard box full of wheel weights for $50. I had to drive two hours to get it, but I ended up with almost 200 pounds of wheel weight ingots.

[kevin c]

I am right now actually buying the lead stash of a retired shooter (a bad shoulder that surgery didn't fix enough has made him hang up his rifles). He insists on bringing it to the range where he still volunteers and where I shoot. I get it in dribs and drabs of a quarter bucket of ingots here or a roll of sound insulating sheet lead there as that is all he can manage to wrestle into his truck. He's glad that his lead will go to a caster and I am glad to help him clear it out, though I wish he'd let me go get it. I've offered to come out to his place, but, "no thank you, my daughter and I will drag it out from under my bench or from the back of my shed, if I can find it or remember where it is".