Finding lead without WW

[b money]

I'm sure this has already been discussed, but I couldn't find much so here goes.

What do you guys(and girls) plan on doing when wheel weights dry up? I really don't want or mean to start an argument about when and why, but I think most casters see the writing on the wall. Were does everyone plan on finding lead? And in what form?

[stainless1911]

rotometals I guess. Never bought from them, but I hear they are good. Costs money, but the end results would be better.

I do know a guy with a few tons of pure lead, but he wants 2.50 a pound. Which is why, I suspect, he has a few tons of lead.

[imashooter2]

WW dried up a long time ago around here. I've been living off indoor range scrap for years now.

[Ole]

I will cast from my stash. :mrgreen:

I got into the hobby last Feb and made it priority #1 to buy as much as I could afford.

Some old timers will say that buying lead is expensive, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than buying bullets! :drinks:

[stainless1911]

Make a bullet trap.

[zxcvbob]

I get more lead from the local pistol range than I do from WW's. Also I'm on the lookout for lead plumbing pipe (haven't found any yet, but I know it's still out there.) Got 10 pounds from my dentist last time I was there.

[Jailer]

Make a bullet trap.

That's what I want to do. At least I'd be able to recycle everything I shoot at home.

I have my plans all set for one in my pole barn so I can shoot in the winter too, just have a couple of priorities ahead of it to get taken care of first.

[lwknight]

When you get a chance to buy lead @ $1.00 per pound , don't be shy. Just because a few guys find it cheaper at scrap yards don't mean you can. The comex spot is about $1.10 and the going rate from the mines are about $1.25 in bulk orders.
It will only go higher. And if it happens to go lower , buy a lot more to offset the higher buys.
I bought options on silver and it went down a lot so I bought more. When it went back up , so did my profits. You just can't go wrong stocking upon commodities. If they go down , who cares. What goes down will come back up in the commodities market.

[John Boy]

b money ... you have to be creative and knock on doors. Got a telephone book? Start turning the Yellow Pages:
* Recyclers: pure lead, pewter for Sn, lead shot, etc
* Radiator Repair Shops: Pb & Sn
* Dentist Offices: XRay Pb Shields
* Club Ranges: Bullets and Lead Shot
* Small Auto Repair Shops: Still have WW's
* Truck Repair Shops: Large WW's
* Roadways: WW's off tires on roads with a lot of pot holes
* Stain Glass Shops: Pure Pb scraps
* Roofing Contractors: Sheet lead
* Plumbers: Lead pipe and sheet lead
* Plumbing Supply Houses: Pig Lead (you pay)
* Hardware Stores: Ask to put up a Wanted sign
* Internet: Pb, WW and range lead
* eBay - all kinds of lead
If you can't score from one or more of these sources... well, you might want to consider shooting wax bullets or ordering from RotoMetal. So get out there and look [smilie=2:

I have over 1000 lbs of WW's, pure Pb and XRay shields by knocking on doors and visiting recyclers @ 60 cents a lb

[fredj338]

I will cast from my stash. :mrgreen:

I got into the hobby last Feb and made it priority #1 to buy as much as I could afford.

Some old timers will say that buying lead is expensive, but it's a heck of a lot cheaper than buying bullets! :drinks:

Depends on what you pay, but @ $2/#, you can just about buy commercial delivered to your door. Be careful of what you are buying on sites like e-bay or others selling "lead". It could be anything from pure to ww to zinc mixes. I'm pretty much reduced to range scrap now days, although I still ask at the local tire shops or oil change place that does tires.

[sargenv]

While you might be able to buy commercial, in my case, commercial doesn't offer what I want.. so even if it costs the same as buying commercial, I will continue to make my own simply due to unavailability of what I want.

[Jal5]

Nothing at all wrong with using range scrap, that is the most of what I have been able to find locally. Just needs a little more propane to melt it down than WW.
And it can be a little softer alloy than WW too.
Joe

[*Paladin*]

My plan is to continue stockpiling as much as possible for the future, so when availability becomes an issue I will hopefully have a stash that will last the rest of my life. In just a couple months of hitting up tire shops I've managed to smelt into ingots 300+ lbs of lead for free. Unfortunately, I just got into this so I'm a bit behind the power curve...

[arjacobson]

I will keep looking for ww for a while yet. We have a pretty good supply of pure pipe lead during the summer so I should be able to mix that with ww (and pewter stash)and shoot for many years. We are also building a very large bullet trap this summer so we should be able to reclaim quite a bit.. Just keep looking there is always some kind of lead to be found

[canyon-ghost]

http://www.missouribullet.com/

[b money]

My plan is to continue stockpiling as much as possible for the future, so when availability becomes an issue I will hopefully have a stash thet will last the rest of my life. In just a couple months of hitting up tire shops I've managed to smelt into ingots 300+ lbs of lead for free. Unfortunately, I just got into this so I'm a bit behind the power curve...

same here, I havent even smelted yet, although I have all the equipment to do so. I also have a few molds ready

to the people that mentioned range scrap; How do you go about getting it? I mean the copper jackets alone must be worth quite a bit, and to be honest I cant see many ranges just giving it away. although(to me anyways) this does sound like the best way to find an unlimited supply of decent lead.

[zxcvbob]

I take a gallon ziplock freezer bag and a trowel in my range bag whenever I goto the outdoor pistol range. If I'm the only shooter there, when I'd done I go scoop the lead up from under the metal popper targets. It just takes a few minutes to get 15 pounds or so. (the "only shooter there" part is because I don't expect the other shooters to wait for me to scoop up the lead)

[imashooter2]

to the people that mentioned range scrap; How do you go about getting it? I mean the copper jackets alone must be worth quite a bit, and to be honest I cant see many ranges just giving it away. although(to me anyways) this does sound like the best way to find an unlimited supply of decent lead.

Just like we used to find WW. Go to an indoor range and ask. As for the jackets... plenty of folks have reported selling them as "#2 copper," but the scrap yards around here won't touch them.

[b money]

oh wow, thats not bad. I do know the club I belong to had a company come in and dig up some ranges, but I belive that was just for the skeet/clays range. So now I'm kinda wondering if they would even let me take range scrap. I guess I'll have to ask next time I'm there

[Jal5]

At my club and at the public range I just take a plastic coffee can and pick up the scrap laying on top of the berm. Especially easy to see after a rainfall. I don't dig anything up, there is so much there laying on top you just pick it up. Its easy to fill a can in a little more than half an hour. Nobody can criticize you for tearing up the berms that way. When I get enough jackets from the smelting I will try to trade them at the scrap yard.

Joe

[Suo Gan]

My take is that rendering wheelweights is a time consuming, stinky, somewhat dangerous prospect that costs me money in the form of propane and did I mention my time?? Now that 15% are zinc, and it is UNREASONABLE to hand sort each and every filthy, disgusting, little wheel weight, I smelt at 500 and it takes so flipping long. I am getting 2 hours per full five gallon pail. Now that ww's are rarely free I wonder if buying clean lead ingots would not be a better deal after all. Buying them for even 2-3 bucks a pound might be justifiable in light of all this. But I am sitting on a stash that is downright shameful, and I still want more!

There is something about taking a free ww and making boolits though, I must admit. But if life has taught me one thing it is that change is not always bad. Look at the bright side gang.

[imashooter2]

oh wow, thats not bad. I do know the club I belong to had a company come in and dig up some ranges, but I belive that was just for the skeet/clays range. So now I'm kinda wondering if they would even let me take range scrap. I guess I'll have to ask next time I'm there


Around here, no clubs with outdoor ranges will let you mess with their berms. They pull your card. Pick up a few off the surface and they'll look the other way, but bring any tools and you are gone. The berms have near infinite holding capacity. You can shoot into a berm for years and years (and years) before it needs to be rebuilt. They don't want a guy with a shovel destroying it in a weekend.

Indoor ranges, on the other hand, have an armor plate backstop. Bullets splatter on it and roll down into a trough at the bottom. This trough needs to be cleaned regularly resulting in buckets of lead/jacket/trash that need to be disposed of. Historically, scrap yards don't pay squat for mixed scrap like that. It also takes time for the owners to carry the scrap to a yard. A guy that will pick it up and make it go away is often welcomed...

[sargenv]

Strange.. at our action range, we have the berms serviced about once every 2-3 years.. we have a company come in and mine the berm, and then put new sand on the surface.. I think we are getting to the point where this might be needed.. still I don't have an issue gathering stuff on the surface.. I'd be happy to pay for a few barrels of sorted out bullets.. it would save me the time digging.. I think the last time they mined our 5 action berms, they yielded something like 50 - 55 gallon barrels of lead (and misc junk). Besides the competitors shooting, we also have several metro area PD's rent our ranges.. so the berms at my club get a pretty good deposit going.

[b money]

Its nice to see everyone being creative. Because I really didnt know where to turn, to find lead.

also my club has an indoor range that is only for .22, .17 etc does anyone think that is worth looking into or is it not worth the effort?

[stainless1911]

.22s can be a little hard to melt.

[stainless1911]

My bullet trap is a 5 gallon metal can. I pick up 4 or 5 pounds + what I shoot into it every time I go up there and fill it.

[zxcvbob]

also my club has an indoor range that is only for .22, .17 etc does anyone think that is worth looking into or is it not worth the effort?Yes. I got about 50 pounds of really nice lead that way in November -- took a small metal bucket with me and scooped up some lead out of the pit at the end of the night over a couple of visits. But it's very dusty and nasty; be a good idea to wear a respirator when you're handling the stuff. The lead ingots are soft, but they have the shiny and sparkly look of hard lead and they don't tarnish. I don't know what the alloy is. It casts pretty good even without adding any tin.

[lwknight]

The Missouri Bullet Co. selling 2-6-92 alloy fot $1.89 per pound is not a bad deal.
My cost to make up the same alloy is $1.59 and for $0.30 per pound , I would not be willing to match their price.

Even at $2.00 per pound for alloy , you can cast 100 of the 158 grain boolits for $4.00 or 4 cents each. Which is still cheaper by far than buying commercially cast bullets and you get to make your own specifications.

[imashooter2]

Its nice to see everyone being creative. Because I really didnt know where to turn, to find lead.

also my club has an indoor range that is only for .22, .17 etc does anyone think that is worth looking into or is it not worth the effort?

Unless you have a lifetime and a half supply out in the shed, of course it's worth it. Asking is free.

[imashooter2]

Strange.. at our action range, we have the berms serviced about once every 2-3 years.. we have a company come in and mine the berm, and then put new sand on the surface.. I think we are getting to the point where this might be needed.. still I don't have an issue gathering stuff on the surface.. I'd be happy to pay for a few barrels of sorted out bullets.. it would save me the time digging.. I think the last time they mined our 5 action berms, they yielded something like 50 - 55 gallon barrels of lead (and misc junk). Besides the competitors shooting, we also have several metro area PD's rent our ranges.. so the berms at my club get a pretty good deposit going.

I've been a member of a suburban Philadelphia club since the 60's. We have over 1,500 members with range permits and that number has been pretty constant since I was a small boy. We finally rebuilt the pistol berms last year after 75 years of operation. They have never (to my knowledge anyway) skimmed the trap and skeet fields. The tonnage available there boggles the mind...

[mongo]

This is bad. I just began casting a few months ago. The last bunch of WW I had got locally was about half zinc and steel. The indoor range I shoot at has a steel back stop. I guess I will be getting lead from there. WW seemed a lot easier as the bullet trap looks to be clumps of lead and chunks of jackets.

[imashooter2]

This is bad. I just began casting a few months ago. The last bunch of WW I had got locally was about half zinc and steel. The indoor range I shoot at has a steel back stop. I guess I will be getting lead from there. WW seemed a lot easier as the bullet trap looks to be clumps of lead and chunks of jackets.


WW are easier. The problem is getting them. Here's a post on smelting range scrap:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showpost.php?p=457126&postcount=2

[b money]

Ok this is kinda off topic, but since a lot of you guys are already melting range scrap down, how does it compare in hardness to WW's?

[lwknight]

What I get is very soft. 90 percent is from jackected bullet cores.

[zxcvbob]

Lead from the outdoor pistol range is hard, but not as hard as WW's. Lead from the indoor range is soft, but it's shiny and crystalline looking like hard lead.

[imashooter2]

Ok this is kinda off topic, but since a lot of you guys are already melting range scrap down, how does it compare in hardness to WW's?

I've been shooting nothing but range scrap from a couple of different indoor ranges for a long time now. My scrap measures 12 - 14bhn air cooled and 20-24bhn water dropped. This is based on samples pulled from many different buckets collected over a better than 5 year span. I do take some steps to homogenize my take. I pour 2 buckets at a time into a wheelbarrow and load the pot from it. I smelt in 500 or so pound sessions and I jumble the ingots before piling them away. But still, the conventional wisdom of range scrap being almost pure soft lead doesn't match my experience at all.

[b money]

man, this (new to me) concept of melting range scrap has me all excited now, only thing is it winter and the berms are covered in a lot of white stuff[smilie=b:

[Lead Miner]

All you have to do is keep my name handy. I operate a company that reclaimes lead from trap ranges and also pistol and rifle berms. Just got done doing the Lubbock Police Acadomy in Lubbock Texas. Yeilded over 10,000 lbs of bullets currently being melted down into 1 lb lead bars. Nice soft lead plus the brass that is left over is now worth $1.65 a pound and the brass is more than that. Terry

[lwknight]

Terry , what percentage of the range scrap is copper jackets.
I'm getting about 20% or so copper.

[captain-03]

Been hoarding WWs for several years now and have a respectful stash on hand ... I shoot at an outdoor range about 1 mile from the house and it is always my goal to bring home more range lead than I leave there!! Has worked pretty well over the years!!

[b money]

Been hoarding WWs for several years now and have a respectful stash on hand ... I shoot at an outdoor range about 1 mile from the house and it is always my goal to bring home more range lead than I leave there!! Has worked pretty well over the years!!

haha sounds like a pretty good plan. I just wish there were more ranges close to me.

[Jal5]

I like that ... try to bring home more lead than you shoot on any day!

Joe

[jeremy_p]

I have a buddy who works construction and he gives me lead wall board from x-ray and operating rooms, I have about 250ish pounds and have more coming.

Jeremy

[Trapaddict]

Magnum Lead Shot is always a good reliable source of clean base metals for your alloy. A lot of people are not aware that shot is a whole lot cheaper if you buy it from the right people. If you know somebody that shoots Trap, Skeet or Sporting clays competitively, ask them when the next 'Big" shoot is and where it is going to be held. Here in MI, stores like Gander Mountain and Cabelas get in the neighborhood of $45 a bag for shot. I can last shot we bought for the members of our gun club was $28.50 a bag. That was before the last price hike. The Michigan Trapshooting Association home grounds in MAson, MI holds several big shoots annually and there are a few dealers there selling Powders, Primers, Wads and Shot at prices you will NEVER see in a store.

Jeff

[fredj338]

The Missouri Bullet Co. selling 2-6-92 alloy fot $1.89 per pound is not a bad deal.
My cost to make up the same alloy is $1.59 and for $0.30 per pound , I would not be willing to match their price.

Even at $2.00 per pound for alloy , you can cast 100 of the 158 grain boolits for $4.00 or 4 cents each. Which is still cheaper by far than buying commercially cast bullets and you get to make your own specifications.
Not to nit pick, but that is actually about 4.6c each or $46/K. Add another $1/K for lube & propane. Delivered to my door in bulk, $63/K. A savings yes, but for the three hrs it takes me to make them, is that really worth $16 savings for plinking bullets? I have always cast my specialty bullets, ones I can't buy, but for plinkers, if I could not get the metal cheap or free, I'll buy.
Other sources for lead; plumbing & roofing lead, ask a contractor, sail boat keels, balast of any kind, stain glass shops or classes, medical in the for mof x-ray or radialogy.