What happens when no lead????

[BAGTIC]

I don't know anywhere it is mandatory to turn in your old battery. I turn them in because the available lead in them is not worth forfeiting the battery core deposit.

[Winger Ed.]

An all zinc design would retain full diameter without the complication and expense of a two part bullet.

I think I have a lifetime supply of Lead, but if it runs low,
Casting with Zinc looks like a pretty good alternative, especially for rifles.

[Gunslinger1911]

Just go to the "wheel weight mine" - your local shopping center parking lot.

[Xxrainmanx]

This is a legitimate concern of mine too, and is why I've started getting into range sifting. I'm in my early 30s, and bullet taxes and lead restrictions are a real possibility given the current political environment. Spending my time at the range getting scrap is a chore, but if everything goes bad I'll have an advantage over those who waited. If they ever decided to shut down my local public range I would be out there nightly sifting for lead trying to get every scrap I could before it's gone.

[Outpost75]

Since the EPA shut down the last smelting company in the U.S., the major ammo makers are getting their lead from old car batteries. Sounds like a difficult process for the individual caster, though.

It was always cheaper to smelt the lead in Mexico where the environmental regs are lax and to import it back than to do it here. With lead being phased out for wheelweights there us a glut of lead on the scrap market so salvage prices are low. There is no shortage of lead. The ammunition companies have almost never used primary lead, unless required to meet some government spec. Almost all ammunition made in the US since WW2 has been made using recycled lead scrap.

Only fly in the ointment is that the scrappers don't want to sell to small hobby users because they need to sell to a company having an EPA end-user certificate, like an ammunition company or a manufacturer who uses secondary lead to make cable sheathing, flue pipe collars, chemical sinks, boat keels, ballast weights for fork lifts, etc.

[Rapidrob]

Contact your local X-Ray Service company. They remove old X-Ray equipment and install new. I should known,I did it for 35 years.
Each old GE, Siemans, Picker,etc X-Ray tables has hundreds and hundreds of pounds of hard alloy lead in them.
Ask them to let you disassemble the old tables before they take it to the scrap yard.
I have saved tons of lead for casting. All free for the taking if your willing to work for it.

[Bwana John]

M829!!!

Sabot, with mild steel penetrator.
Lose some mass, gain some speed.

Or

All steel with copper driving bands?

And

All copper has been working pretty well for hunting.

[Tripplebeards]

When there’s no lead I’ll retire on my stockpile sales!

[JSnover]

Since the EPA shut down the last smelting company in the U.S., the major ammo makers are getting their lead from old car batteries. Sounds like a difficult process for the individual caster, though.

It's always been cheaper to recycle lead than to smelt ore. So much cheaper that the lead mines couldn't compete, that's why they're gone.

[Garyshome]

Yep I be needin' a new flag pole

[Garyshome]

"Sailboat Keels...

Lotsa junk sailboats out there, many have 2600 lbs or so of lead in the keels, and they can't hardly give the boats away.

You get a nice Flag pole in the deal too."


Yep I be needin' a new flag pole

[richhodg66]

There was one advertised not too far from me, something like 2700 pounds and the guy is asking fifty cents a pound. Still in one block, he says he has the machinery to load it on a trailer for someone.

Probably a good deal for someone, but I think I have enough to last me and most of my shooting is where I can recover it someday. Kinda figured I can spend my time shooting and reloading or spend it breaking down a 2700 lb hunk of lead. I'd rather shoot and reload.

Salvaging range berms is a good answer if you have a place that will let you do it and there's enough shooting volume to concentrate it in a small area.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

There is so much lead out there in the world I doubt any bullet caster will not be able to get it. But I suppose they could regulate the helll out of it.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

There was one advertised not too far from me, something like 2700 pounds and the guy is asking fifty cents a pound. Still in one block, he says he has the machinery to load it on a trailer for someone.

Probably a good deal for someone, but I think I have enough to last me and most of my shooting is where I can recover it someday. Kinda figured I can spend my time shooting and reloading or spend it breaking down a 2700 lb hunk of lead. I'd rather shoot and reload.

Salvaging range berms is a good answer if you have a place that will let you do it and there's enough shooting volume to concentrate it in a small area.

Do you suppose a jackhammer with a spade bit could peel usuable sized pieces off?

[remy3424]

And when that happens ... Hello Jacket Bullets
If we ever reach that point, my daughters know my lead inventory and the per lb value then will provide them with several year's of college tuition for my grand daughters

I want to see this 20 some ton supply!!! Nice work. I have more than I could use, so no worries here. I will be one selling/trading some of my inventory sooner or later.

[6mm win lee]

There was one advertised not too far from me, something like 2700 pounds and the guy is asking fifty cents a pound. Still in one block, he says he has the machinery to load it on a trailer for someone.

Probably a good deal for someone, but I think I have enough to last me and most of my shooting is where I can recover it someday. Kinda figured I can spend my time shooting and reloading or spend it breaking down a 2700 lb hunk of lead. I'd rather shoot and reload.

Salvaging range berms is a good answer if you have a place that will let you do it and there's enough shooting volume to concentrate it in a small area.

Just my luck. I can find lead when I am broke and in debt but I can not find a thing when I am flush with greenbacks. Just one bonaza with the mother lode and I would be set for the next fifteen years or death, whichever happens to show up first. Currently broke and in debt. Go figure...

[Gunslinger1911]

My son just joined the local PD, got him asking his sarg about the berm at their training range.

[Winger Ed.]

Do you suppose a jackhammer with a spade bit could peel usuable sized pieces off?

If its still in the shape of a keel, a saz-all will chop it up, or carving on it with a decent size torch would do it pretty quick.

[rockythedog]

If its still in the shape of a keel, a saz-all will chop it up, or carving on it with a decent size torch would do it pretty quick.

I bought a 3000 lb keel about four years ago. The marina cut it into 600lb pieces so I could carry them in my Tacoma. They just hung it from a crane and chainsawed pieces off. I put a blue plastic tarp under it in my driveway and cut it into 100lb chunks with a chainsaw. Then I melted those down with a cast iron dutch oven over wood fires in a 55 gallon drum and poured it into muffin pans from the dollar store. It did wear out the saw chain. My neighbors already think I'm insane.

[Winger Ed.]

My neighbors already think I'm insane.

I have the same neighbors.
I have always felt that 'insane' is an ugly word, and I try not to use it.
I prefer the term 'misunderstood'.