I am just getting back into reloading after about a 20 year lapse. Previously, I purchased all my bullets for reloading, but with the current and possible future political climate I believe it imperative that I control all components in my reloading. That means getting into casting and stockpiling primers, powder, brass, and lead. I started my lead acquisitions a few months ago at a local auction where I won 100 pounds of lead in the form of tractor wheel weights for $15. I was attending the auction with a friend and when I won the lead he said I didn't know you were looking for lead, I have some you can have. He is a retired telephone lineman and gave me about 75 pounds of pure lead in the form of cable shielding. I bought 50 pounds of wheel weights on eBay and another 50 pounds of processed wheel weights in the form of ingots on this forum as well as some tin ingots. That was enough to get me started.
Then it was time to look for local, reliable, economic sources of lead for stockpiling several more hundred pounds of lead. I began by stopping by rural mom and pop local garages and wheel shops thinking they would have buckets of lead wheel weights "out back" that they would want to get rid of. The common theme was "we sell our wheel weights to the junk yard". I offered to pay more than junk prices, if they would save them for me. No one was interested. Today I decided to check the junk yard in the local town. I asked if they sold scrap lead. The guy behind the office counter said yes, it is 15 cents a pound, just see the guys in the yard. As I headed to the yard he said and we have wheel weights if you are interested. I found one of the guys in the yard and asked about the wheel weights. He took me to the back of the yard where there was a full 55 gallon barrel of wheel weights. The yard guy says fill your container and bring it to the front of the yard and I will weigh it and give you a weight ticket to take to the office and pay. Well, I was caught off guard, I didn't have a container. So I headed to the local Home Depot to buy a 5 gallon Homer bucket. On the way I got to thinking, I would have to carry the 5 gallon bucket full of lead across the junk yard to the office and then across the parking lot to my truck. I settled on a 2 1/2 gallon bucket as my "lead collection bucket". Back to the junkyard and to the 55 gallon barrel of wheel weights. Glad to have the work gloves from my truck. I began filling my bucket. This was some pretty nasty stuff. A mixture of clip on wheel weights (not sure if they are all lead, maybe contain some other metals), stick on wheel weights, and some strips of what looks like lead strips about a quarter inch thick, half inch wide and three to five inches long. And it was all DIRTY! Lots of crud on the wheel weights and loose in the barrel mixed in with the weights. But ***, it was 15 cents a pound. I filled my 2 1/2 gallon bucket to within about two inches from the top and lugged it across the yard to the scale. 39 pounds, paid my $ 6, including tax, and lugged the bucket to the truck.
Feeling proud of myself that I had found a source of lead at the local junk yard I thought what about other junk yards. So I headed to a junk yard in an adjacent small town. These folks were a little more upscale, as the billed themselves a recycle yard, not a junk yard, (and to prove it, they provide the plastic buckets for free!). I asked if they had any lead wheel weights. The yardman said yes and as he was guiding me to their 55 gallon barrel of wheel weights he asked me if I was one of those guys who reloaded his own bullets. When I said yes he said the boss had said to show "those guys" the heavier lead, and he led me to a bin containing linotype. BINGO! I get a bucket and fill it about half full, (about half the linotype in the bin, thinking I would leave some of it for some of the other "those guys" who reload). I put my bucket on the scale, 48 pounds at 77 ’ per pound = $ 35.42 plus tax. I then asked the yardman about the wheel weights. He took me to their wheel weight barrel and said it was 28 ’ per pound. This stuff was much cleaner than what I had bought at the previous yard and looked like it was 100% lead clip on wheel weights. I grabbed my gloves and another one of their buckets and threw several handfuls of wheel weights into the bucket and toted it to the scales. 30 pounds at 28’ a pound = $ 7.84 plus tax.
Bottom line.
Afternoon of scrounging junk/recycle yards
39 pounds of dirty mixed wheel weights
48 pounds of very clean linotype
30 pounds of clean clip on wheel weights
New 2 1/2 gallon collection bucket
Two free plastic buckets
Two new sources of lead
Total cost $ 56.69