Share your thoughts on scrounging up lead.......

[Alvin]

For those in San Diego, or anywhere close to the Mexican border I suggest taking a trip down there and look to make a deal with the scrap yard or tire shops. I am friends with a taxi driver there and he is trying to procure me at least a thousand pounds of lead at rock bottom prices. I'm hoping they will be melted into ingots even if I pay a little more, but I'll take a thousand pounds of lead wheel weights all the same.

[dbosman]

My cynical side says I must suggest you be careful melting those ingots. Particularly if the driver insists on unloading inside your garage.
They may contain strange fluxing agents.

[Alvin]

My cynical side says I must suggest you be careful melting those ingots. Particularly if the driver insists on unloading inside your garage.
They may contain strange fluxing agents.

I understand exactly what you're saying, and I will be driving them back anyways. Probably best that I don't melt them down so that way it's a little less suspicious to the border agents.

[RogerDat]

I was able to find a scrap yard that sells lead to the public, some will not (hazardous material argument). I checked at 15 tire stores at least and found 3 with existing personal arrangements, and 4 that will sell them for about a nickel more than the scrap yard would pay them. Knowing that price and beating it by even a little helps encourage selling them to you. As does stopping in with a box of donuts for the crew to say thank you. I hit those tire shops on a semi regular basis and it is pot luck as to if someone else gets them first. But persistence pays off, over time I have accumulated several buckets of sorted WW's. Sometimes I get 30# and sometimes it's 130# from making my rounds.

I budget a set amount for lead and carry some of it in cash all the time. I have a home bathroom scale in my car trunk. Ready for the opportunity to put money in the hands of someone with lead at a slightly better price per weighed pound than they will get from scrap yard. But a whole lot less than I will pay once the scrap yard has it.

I will also say between a dozen donuts, and regular purchases from scrap yard I pay a somewhat discounted price, guy at the counter said your a "regular" customer call it $40 for what would have been closer to $50 at the "going" rate. They have also been willing to scan some of my ingots of scrap to verify content. Relationships in business count for a good deal. I try to stop in every week, sometimes I buy a little, sometimes more, and sometimes nothing but I have made it my business to be seen as a repeat customer.

Going to shops or scrap yard at off peak hours is good also. When tire shop is busy you can be an annoyance and scrap yards may well have "other" stashes of lead that if they have time they will let you into or direct you to.

[a.squibload]

Hmm, advice for new lead scroungers?

DON'T DO IT!

(Leaves more for me! )

[kenn]

For me it is ONLY scrap yards! All kinds of stuff. Tire stores are a waste of time. And playing "parking-lot-lizard" is too time consuming to find 1 or 2 WW's. OMG! I don't even mess with WW's any more. I mix my alloys from the various alloy components to arrive at what I want....with NO water dropping.

good luck finding lead in some areas of the coutrny. Thank you....... to the owl huggers and tree kissers of America! :kissarse:

banger

One of the many scrap yards in Texas wants .50 per pound for COWW and SOWW. I'm gong to go clean them out one day if someone hasn't already and try to get it down just a little to account for the clips. That's a great deal, I think. Shop around as Banger says.

For the tire store hunters, forget the big chains unless you know someone there personally that is a manager. They have contracts in place. Otherwise the small independent stores are you only hope IF lead is still legal in your state.

I've found my own local "very small" tire shop that will fill a 5 gal bucket every 2-3 months and it's donuts and a new bucket as far as cost. It will take a very, very long time to reach my collection goal at that rate so I'll be filling in a little from sellers here and local yards over time. As many have stated, it's probably best to start collecting NOW and not wait if you really want to do this casting thing. The value/cost of lead won't be going down - ever. You'll always be able to get your money back in the future if you stop casting assuming lead bullets don't become completely illegal to shoot anywhere, even on private land.

[JSnover]

Garages, too, but not the way you think. I had a transmission replaced five years ago. Noticed the collection of junk cars behind the shop, waiting for a scrapyard run. Asked the owner if he ever found anything interesting in those cars. We swapped stories for a few minutes and he dragged out three 5-gallon buckets. One had a few pounds of mixed WW, another had about a dozen 1 pound ingots (two or three were zinc), the third one held about 20 pounds of Lino.
I was one of his favorite customers because I always paid - his shop was in a rough part of town - so he gave me the buckets for nothing.

[40-82 hiker]

True story; there was a shop I stopped and asked about weights at least 5 times over a 4 year period. The last time I was in that town I had a flat on a trailer and stopped there to get it fixed. So while they are fixing the flat, I say to the guy, "Hey, how about selling me some wheel weights?" He says "Sure. How much do you want?"

I bought 11 five gallon buckets.........Why he would not sell any before I don't know, but he did that day A little persistence sometimes pays off.

I think this is one major key to lead mining. Keep going back, but not too soon. Also, vary the day of the week. Many tire stores have recycle guys come by on the same day of a week, so if you are told "you just missed our recycle guy yesterday", go back the next week or a couple weeks later the weekday before that. Doubt they would have a full bucket before then...

[WILCO]

A big bump to the top!

[62chevy]

After that other thread this needs another bump.

[el34]

A tip I got on this forum a while back is to check yellowpages dot com for "used tires". Most results are small shops that don't have rules against selling to you. In the Dallas/Ft Worth area I pay $60 for a full bucket (120-130lb) that is running about 70-80% SOWW and COWW, mostly SOWW.

[1989toddm]

I've pulled a couple battery cables out of the auto parts store trash lately with lead clamps on them. Lead and copper! Not much lead but it's a boolit! Or several if casting .224.

[fredj338]

Scrounging is fine, but gas costs $$, so driving all over hell & gone to find cheap ww is cost foolish. I always ask when in a location that may have lead something, but stopped doing drive bys long ago. It is location driven, but around here, just a huge waste of time. I do get lucky now & then, but not often. Put the word out, let the scrap guys come to you. I get the occasional call form a contractor or other guys that have alloy to trade for bullets I have already cast. Work that angle too.