Pure Lead Worth $1/lb? Access to 1000s lbs.

[psychbiker]

I'm getting my supplies together. I live in California and figure at 33, when I have kids, they'll only be able to have nerf guns so being able to make my own bullets is key.

I have probably 500lbs right now BUT have access to 1000+ lbs of pure lead in ballast form in 1lb and 20lb blocks. Seller is only selling in 1000lb lots which seems insane to me.

That said, is $1lb worth it? I'm loading 9mm, 40, 45, 30cal for 308/300 black, eventual 223.

[John Boy]

Scrap yard lead in sheet for is now 80 cents a pound - these are ingots! You decide

[dubber123]

Are you positive it is pure? Ballast is often made up of whatever lead alloy is available cheaply. $1/lb isn't bad for much of anything, but real pure stuff usually goes for a bit more around here.

[GLL]

I pay 90 cents- $1.00 for soft lead. For a 1000 pounds you might ask for a slight discount !
That 1000 pounds on a pallett is not a very big pile of lead though !

Jerry "GLL"

[bangerjim]

I generally pay $1/# for anything "lead" - pure, hardball, tin, ingotized COWW's, and anything else that shows up.

Since you in CA, lead may get hard to find?!?!? The Left Coast as a big h-on for that favorite condor food!

bangerjim

[Bigslug]

For what you're currently loading, pure (or close to it) may not be the best large purchase to make unless you have a ready source of hardeners. Don't get me wrong - it's great to have it around to use for getting more mileage out of the extra hard alloys you'll inevitably come across, but you probably don't want to buy it with the attitude that a thousand pounds of straight lead will have you set for life, leaving you set with nothing else to buy. You'll be glad to have it, but you won't be "done"

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

In Ca, it would be good for trading stock if nothing else. Find someone to go in with you if you dont want that much.

1000- pounds sounds like a lot till you see it in a square pile

[Hardcast416taylor]

I pay my scrap yard .95 cents/lb. for any type lead. I am picky on the soft lead issue and only pick out the ingots or other pieces that I know are soft lead or are marked as such. Kinda amazing how much lead in ingoted form that was used by the plumbing trade, etc., is winding up at salvage yards. My last time I stopped there I wound up with 135 lbs. of pure lead in 5 lb. ingots all marked pure lead from a plumbing shop, I was told. The occasional linotype ingot also makes my day a little brighter.Robert

[Springfield]

pshchbiker: You aren't going to find pure lead for any cheaper. I know, I have been looking and buying it for a couple of years now to have something to mix with my wheelweight lead. If you are anywhere close to me I would trade you your pure, if it really is, for WW if you need to. Also have a large pile of Hardball lead, which is even harder than WW, which I would trade also. I do mostly blackpowder shooting so softer is better for me.

[2wheelDuke]

Check against the swapping and selling section here. You can get wheel weight ingots for around the same price in much smaller quantities and shipped right to your door about 65# at a time.

I'd personally have to see a good bit less than $1/lb to move on a 1,000 pound lot. But I don't live in CA and I have other supplies open to me. As others have noted, ballast is usually whatever would melt. It might be whatever tire shops had, old pipes, or maybe it's a gold mine and it came when the newspapers were getting away from lead plates. Maybe you can see about getting some samples tested if you can find an agreeable guy for that then decide.

But for that sort of money, I'd personally look into a shipment of certified composition casting alloy from Rotometals, Widener's, or even Swapping & Selling here instead.

[62chevy]

The only thing that would stop me from buying it is the 1000 #. Around here that last lead I bought from a scrap yard was $1.75 a pound. About 80 cents cheaper than Rotometals but then theirs is certified.

[Steve Steven]

Dubber123 said " Ballast is often made up of whatever lead alloy is available cheaply." but this is not always true, the Navy requires its ballast lead to IAW Mil-L-171, grade B which is required to be 95% lead, 5% anything else. You normally get pure lead, I know, I have a number of lead bricks marked Mil-L-171 and they "thud" when dropped & soft enough to be marked by fingernail.

Steve

[RogerDat]

That is a big commitment to lead that won't be of much use for smokeless reloading without something else added to it. Considering that 60# of WW or berm lead ingots cost about the same in swapping and selling even with shipping cost. That WW and berm lead is pretty much bullet ready. That 1000 lbs. of ballast would have to be something better than plain to make bullets (except muzzle loading).

Unless you want to buy 1000 lbs. of plain then invest in 1000 lbs. of WW's to mix with it, or significant amounts of other alloy to bring it up to a hardness suitable for smokeless bullets you won't be able to use it. So your original $1000 investment is probably no more than half way to a bullet making stash. If you can make that "double" financial commitment (and pool acid test shows no zinc) then not a bad price, and half way to your first ton.

Me I would try for more balance with my first $1000 investment. For the money I would rather have 800 lbs. (swapping & selling) I could turn into bullets than 1000 lbs. that is only usable to the extent I purchase additional lead alloys. Or even the approx. 400 lbs. of excellent known good alloy from Rotometals. Or some combination. Pile of lead is a pile of lead, pile of bullet lead is useful.

[lightman]

Lots of good advice and ideas. A dollar a pound would not tempt me, but I have been pretty successful scrounging free or cheap lead. I also live in a different place than you do. It also sounds like I have a head start on you, so the $1/lb might look different if I was short. I would look at paying a little more from one of the bullet companies or Roto-Metals for a known usable alloy. Roto-Metals runs sales sometimes. The swapping and selling section offers a more usable alloy for about the same price.

[psychbiker]

How about 97/3 with the 3% being antimony. I can add some tin to help casting.

I have roughly 200lbs of Lino/mono already.

[dragon813gt]

How about 97/3 with the 3% being antimony. I can add some tin to help casting.

I have roughly 200lbs of Lino/mono already.

Use the lead alloy calculator to see what the mixing ratios would be. I personally have no need for that much pure. But it's always good trade bait. W/out an XRF analysis I would not treat it as pure. Ballast lead can be anything.

[Eddie Southgate]

I'd buy it in 1 lb ingots for $1 per pound , not crazy about the 20lb blocks . I shoot cartridge and black powder so I like to find large lots of soft lead . Just buy you a bunch of lino and mix it however hard you need for whatever you are doing at the time and mark any left over so you can keep up with what it is .

Don't really understand why Pure lead would cost more than an alloy since everything you normally add to lead to harden an alloy cost considerable more than lead .

[ascast]

i wish i could buy in that quantity at that price- fpr 230 grns 45's. that's over 60,000 boolits. you might just flip it on/via flea bay and make some cash

[ulav8r]

long gone by now.

[bangerjim]

This thread is 5 years old! OMG!