Where the devil are all the wheel weights!!??

[bennadatto]

Been searching the Atlanta area for junk wheel weights. Seems that no one around here disposes of their lead to individuals. Where do y'all get your WWs?

[Moonie]

Recycling places are a good source. I do have a friend who used to cast with his father 20+ years ago before his father died. He has a stash of over 1,000lbs of clean 20+ year old smelted ww ingots he sells to me for about what the local recycling place sells me the unsmelted ww's for.

Glad he doesn't have time for casting or shooting...

[bennadatto]

Moonie,

Thanks for your advice!! If you don't mind me asking, what price are you paying for your wws? I called a place and offered $.50 a pound. I'm waiting to hear back from the mgr.

[pathfinder]

Bennadatto, Have you tried any of the local garages. I dont mean the big chain stores like Pep Boys or Goodyear. I mean the little mom and pop places. Thoes are the types of places I target around here. Its hit or miss but sometimes you able to find the mother load and they are ususaly happy to just get them out of their way. I always offer to pay and if they decline I try to bring a box of dognuts or something when I go through the next time. Hope this helps. Good luck

[bennadatto]

Pathfinder,

Those are the places I targeted. I knew mega chains would be too corporately regulated to be of use to me. But...even the mom and pops wouldn't give 'em up. 3 out of 5 said that they could get fined by the .gov for handing lead out to an individual.

Good news is that I have a line on a source of wws. For those in the Atlanta area experiencing the same difficulty, it's ABC recycling. The manager quoted me $.80 per pound. That's much more expensive than free, but my bullets will have gone from $.20-$.60 per bullet to $.01-$.02 per bullet. I can't much complain about that!

[fredj338]

The lead ww is quickly becoming ancient history. Get what you can while you can & stack it deep. I predict before PBO has left office in 2012, there will precious few left at any tire shops. The small mom & pop places are reusing the weights & the large chains rarely sell to the public. The buckets that are out there are less & less lead, more & more zinc & steel. Virutally all new cars starting this year, will have non lead ww, Euro & Japanese cars already switched. It's not gonna get better, but worse. I've got maybe 1300# of diff alloys right now. Even at the small amount I shoot currently, maybe 250rds a month, I don't fell I have enough going forward.

[bohokii]

seems all my tire guys have agreements with "interstate batteries"

[prs]

Unless things have changed, my local guys are mandated to dispose of this "hazardous waste" through a certified salvage company and they have to pay to dispose of it. I've been a good quick to pay customer for auto service and tires for many years and they are happy to sneak me a few bucket loads a year, including large truck or bus weights. But more and more the auto weights are not lead alloy.

prs

[303Guy]

In my world the wheel weights get used for fishing sinkers! So I got clever and went to a scrap recycler - like that helped! They only had stick-ons. (We are not overly concerned about the hazzards of lead when we are having a rise in violent crime - why, we just had a double murder this past week!)

[KCSO]

Bwoohaahaha! I have them, I have them all, they are all mine...

It is strange and seems to go in cycles, last year I couldn't find any wheel weighs and this year I have been given 5 5 gallon buckets of them. Good thing too as I am down to under a ton.

[357maximum]

It is quite simple lead ww are going the way of the dodo. Get them now if you have not done so. I have seen it go from free ww to almost non-existant at any price inside of 3 decades and I am not happy about it, but it is what it is. Someday soon all ww's will be expen$ive, non-existant, or corralled up in personal hoards.

I got lucky and started collecting early, but I still feel like I am lacking and I have several stacks such as this:



On the plus side one day I will have something I can trade at an exchange rate for pure lead as I am lacking in that department.

[qajaq59]

Try looking in the car junk yards in some of the small towns. They'll have them from the pulled wheels and you might be able to make deal with them.

[44fanatic]

Some of the big "chain" stores are privately owned and do not turn over their WW to the battery companies. Check with them all, who knows, you may get lucky. Ive had one place that turns over their WW to Interstate give me half a bucket and another one that is privately owned sells them to me at the current recycle rate.

Ive also had the small Mom n Pop places offer me the stick ons as they reuse the clip ons.

[chris in va]

Try a truck tire store. They have these massive weights about 4x the 'normal' WW size. They're the old style clip-ons too.

[Hickory]

Hoarder!

[357maximum]

Hoarder!

See boy scouts rule #1.