Very full 5g bucket-$100?

[skytex]

I got offered a very full bucket of ww for $100. The ones on top are rusted and tink on the floor. Think it's worth the risk?

[bumpo628]

If it's all the way to the top, it should weigh about 150 lbs. You would have to get 50 lbs of steel or zinc in there to break even with the going rates. Save the zinc and sell it in the S&S section for cannonballs.

I'd get it.

[selmerfan]

Maybe where you're at, but I wouldn't touch it for $100. I can get overflowing 3 gallon pails for $10/pail. But if you're short on WW and can't find anymore, he has you in a seller's market.

[skytex]

I can go get a full 5gal for $75 from another shop with mostly lead.

[skytex]

Selmer, if you can get that you'd better stockpile it. You must be living in the land of milk and honey.

[Stick_man]

I have one source that I can get overflowing 5-gal buckets of WW for $20 and occasional refreshments. I can't get them there very often, but at least one bucket every couple months. They are probably hitting 5-10% Zn, Fe, and misc garbage in there.

For $100, you might be able to pick up sorted lead at a scrap yard in the same quantity or more, depending on where you live and what the general sentiment is about lead.

Good luck, and happy casting! :cbpour:

[bumpo628]

Scrap yards around here won't even sell you lead.
All my lead comes in medium flat rate boxes. :violin:

[idahoron]

I would not touch a 5 gal for 100. My last 5 gal bucket was MOSTLY zinc and ****. Some of the zinc melted in and turned the whole thing into fish weights. Ron

[Bula]

$100 bucks buys a lot of clean ingots on the sale boards here.

[9.3X62AL]

$100 bucks buys a lot of clean ingots on the sale boards here.

These days, I lean in that direction also--or toward Rotometals. Never thought I would feel that way, but the time & effort invested in The Lead Hunt vs. net yield has been upside-down for the last couple years. Fuggetaboutit.

[clintsfolly]

I and others have sold WW ingots foe $1.00 delivered. A better buy IMHO. Clint

[*Paladin*]

I'd order from one of the sellers here before I'd pay that much for what will end up as 100 or so lbs after sorting and smelting...

[Jailer]

No way I'd even consider that price for a 5 gallon bucket, especially when you still have to put your time and propane into it making ingots.

[10 ga]

Dittos "" for Bula

[Ole]

I would not pay $100 for a bucket of WW's.

It's at least a couple hours of work to sort them and put them into ingots.

I *might* if I was short or out and needed the lead.

[a.squibload]

Heck no, you're looking at $1/lb MAYBE, plus your time and propane,
better to get clean ingots from the sellers here mailed to you for that rate.

[selmerfan]

Selmer, if you can get that you'd better stockpile it. You must be living in the land of milk and honey.

Nope, just Minnesota. I discovered a month ago that one of my council members is the local Firestone store manager. You can guess my next question. :) It's a first-come first-served basis on the WWs, but only one other guy frequents the place. I stopped in and picked up three over-flowing plus one pretty full 3 gallon pails for $30, they keep it in the "miscellaneous cash" envelope in his desk. Guessing it goes for pizza and donuts once in a while for the crew. I need to have some things checked out on my Suburban plus a tire rotation on Monday, I'll hopefully walk out with some more. :) It's been a couple months since I was in there and they do a lot of business.

[jsizemore]

I hope I never have to pay $100 for a full bucket. I balk at $.30/lb.

[d garfield]

That's an awful price, you can buy lead on ebey cheaper than that.

[RP]

If the scrape yard is paying that much for a bucket of WWs that may be a good price. If not walk away.

[ktw]

If that's the going rate, I'd be willing to start selling off my stash of WW rather than adding to it.

-ktw

[Jal5]

You'd be better off buying lead ingots smelted by people on this site for $1 per lb shipped than pay that rate for WW that you still have to sort and melt.

Joe

[Stick_man]

I went in to a Big O store a couple days ago asking if they had any weights I could get from them. The guy said he had a bucket full he'd sell me. When he said it would be $100, I just about fell over. I told him I had been paying $15-20 for a full 5-gal bucket and that $100 was more than I was willing to pay. He said the scrap prices of all the different metals was just going through the roof lately and that is what he could get for them at the scrapyard. I didn't say it outloud, but was thinking "Yeah, good luck with that, buddy". I went to another Big-O that I go to every couple months and got a 3-gal bucket full for $10. It had about 20% (by weight) Zn and Fe in it. I'll check back in a couple weeks with the first store and see if he has gotten any more realistic in his pricing.

[Flip]

$100 for a bucket of uncleaned WW, it's not worth it in my mind. The most I've paid is 40 cents per pound of WW and I thought that was expensive.

[Bulltipper]

My source here in SW orygun is $35 per 5 gal bucket, I buy my tires from him and return the buckets. I get about 40% WW, 40% stick on weights (pure lead) and the other 20% zinc and FE. I have stockpiled nearly a ton...

[bumpo628]

I can go get a full 5gal for $75 from another shop with mostly lead.

I didn't realize that you could get it for less somewhere else. I would buy the $75 bucket and tell the other guy to drop his price or you'll pass. WW prices are very regional, so that's why there is a wide spread of quoted prices in this thread.

Buying ingots from sellers on this website is a nice way to get lead in the future. They do all the dirty work for you and you have no scrap.

[O C]

Now I admit to being new/ignorant about this bollit casting thing. I found a bucket of WW (75lbs, or so) that I promptly cast into ingots, then cast some boolits. It was a most enjoyable time seeing the results of scavenging, reading, doing, and eventually shooting. But after lurking on this site and seeing how much lead some of you have on hand, I have to ask "how much is enough?"
My calculations show that if you cast 200gr bollits, you get 35 per lb, thats 70,000 per ton! I won't shoot that much in 2 more lifetimes. Either I don't shoot near enough (and I don't), or there's something to do other than cast bollits with that much lead. 'Fess up guys, what the heck are you doing? Is it legal, immoral, kinky, stupid, fun, or what!!! By the way I DID have fun casting. ( And by the way being new and all I started typing "boolit" instead of " bullet", just to fit in, and got an "E" mail from Spell Check that asked if I was a product of public education. What's with that?

[unclebill]

Now I admit to being new/ignorant about this bollit casting thing. I found a bucket of WW (75lbs, or so) that I promptly cast into ingots, then cast some boolits. It was a most enjoyable time seeing the results of scavenging, reading, doing, and eventually shooting. But after lurking on this site and seeing how much lead some of you have on hand, I have to ask "how much is enough?"
My calculations show that if you cast 200gr bollits, you get 35 per lb, thats 70,000 per ton! I won't shoot that much in 2 more lifetimes. Either I don't shoot near enough (and I don't), or there's something to do other than cast bollits with that much lead. 'Fess up guys, what the heck are you doing? Is it legal, immoral, kinky, stupid, fun, or what!!! By the way I DID have fun casting. ( And by the way being new and all I started typing "boolit" instead of " bullet", just to fit in, and got an "E" mail from Spell Check that asked if I was a product of public education. What's with that?

if thats the case.
i need about a 2 tons.
then i'll die with a few boolits left over.

[Hastings]

I have to ask "how much is enough?"
My calculations show that if you cast 200gr bollits, you get 35 per lb, thats 70,000 per ton! I won't shoot that much in 2 more lifetimes. Either I don't shoot near enough (and I don't)

That's right, you don't :razz:

My wife and I can go through more than 2,000 230 grain .45 ACP rounds a month on average between us, just by shooting 250 or so rounds each, every week at the range. The more serious IPSC and IDPA folks I know easily shoot double, triple, even quadruple that amount. Add it up, and you'll find that a ton of lead isn't exactly a lifetime supply for us addicts. In fact, some of us get seriously worried if we're getting down to only a ton of ingots stored in the garage!

[fredj338]

I'd order from one of the sellers here before I'd pay that much for what will end up as 100 or so lbs after sorting and smelting...

Agree, you have no idea what is in that 100#+ bucket. IT's why I stopped paying much more than $20/100#. I was getting as much as 40% non lead. Cheaper to buy from one of the guys here.

[waksupi]

In the good ol' days, I was shooting around 16,000 rounds per year. That sure melts down a lead supply!