Dillion Precision Lead - Good find?

[Cranium]

I went to a scrap metal yard today looking for an aluminum I-beam and came across some 20 lb boxes of Dillion Precision Lead.

It was $2 / lb and I bought a box to try out. They have a few hundred pounds worth of these boxes as well as another few hundred pounds of bullets that have been cast with it in plastic jars. Apparently, there was a father & son that did a lot of casting/shooting together and the father died. The son was no longer interested in casting so sold all the lead.

I threw out there that if I liked the lead, I may just come back and make an offer on all of it. He was very open to this.

So the question is, what would be a good price per pound on this? I was thinking to offer $1.25 but be willing to go up to $1.50.

The alloy is 92% lead, 6% antimony, 2% tin. This should be about 15 BHN but I haven't checked it yet.

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/9420/dillonprecisionlead.jpg

[lylejb]

2/6/92 is also called "hardball" alloy, and rotometals has it for $2.59 / lb.

Since this is basically new, known alloy I think your doing ok at $2 /lb. You won't find anyplace else lower than that, retail.

The cheepskate in me says try to talk him down, the lower the better, of course. Anything you can get off his price is icing on the cake.

[Doby45]

Looks like the sticker says it is $2.00 a box. I would offer that. ;)

[Cranium]

I can make that alloy for exactly $2/lb with the range lead I have and some tin and SuperHard. The alloy I am casting with now is 2/2/96 and costs me $1.66/lb. So I certainly wouldn't want to pay more than I do now for what I cast with. But if it's worth that much, I guess I'll have to pass on buying any more unless I can talk him down quite a bit.

[Cranium]

Looks like the sticker says it is $2.00 a box. I would offer that. ;)

hahaha....I tried that when I first saw it....didn't work. I was ready to load up my car with every bit of it!

[gray wolf]

Being the type of person that seems to over think everything ( me )
I would say it depends on

How much free cash you have ? ( are you comfortable spending that much money ? )
How much time you have ? ( some folks don't have the time to smelt there own )
What are you shooting ? Do you need an alloy with that specific make up ?
and so on.

[Defcon-One]

I'd offer him $1.50 per lb. and buy it all! Or at least all that I could afford!

You can mix it 25 lbs. of the Hardball (2/6/92) to 50 lbs. of Stick-On Wheel Weights (Pure Lead), then toss in 1.9 lbs. of 50/50 solder and you'll get 77 pounds of your 2/2/96 at a much better price than $1.66 per lb. Depending on how much he has, you might be set for life.

It sounds worth it to me. Besides, what is he gonna do with it? It is scrap to him. I bet he only paid $0.50 per pound for it, if that.

[Cherokee]

It's worth it @ $2 lb, try 1.25, then 1.50 and buy as much as you can. A known alloy is great for mixing down to your desired alloy.

[Cranium]

Being the type of person that seems to over think everything ( me )
I would say it depends on

How much free cash you have ? ( are you comfortable spending that much money ? )
How much time you have ? ( some folks don't have the time to smelt there own )
What are you shooting ? Do you need an alloy with that specific make up ?
and so on.

Good questions.

Cash would not be an issue for just 200-300 pounds. If he showed me a backroom with a ton of it, yeah, it would quickly become an issue. :)

Time isn't an issue. If I start shooting solely with cast lead, I have to upgrade my Lyman to a Star lube/sizer to get back much more of my time.

I'm only shooting 9mm right now and trying to keep the lead out of the barrel and send it all down range. Started with range lead (too soft), tried quenched and unquenched Lyman #2 with no luck. Now I'm working with my latest batch of 2/2/96. I will be buying and reloading for a 45 by years end which will make the whole leading issue easier to defeat from what I've read.

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I'm going to go back and make an offer. :)

[Huntducks]

The price of lead is dropping along with all metal.

[Cranium]

The price of lead is dropping along with all metal.

I like that statement but you have to back it up with more substance for me to give it any merit. :)

[fecmech]

I like that statement but you have to back it up with more substance for me to give it any merit. :)

There you go! http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical_large.html#60days

[man.electric]

There you go! http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical_large.html#60days

Lead is set to bottom out soon. The warehouse levels of lead are have steadily climbed for the past 30 months while the price had not caught up(or down in this instance). In the next two months a guy could anticipate a huge lead price correction. At least I am holding off on buying copper for the same reason. I felt that industrial metals would drop about three months ago, but the metals markets in this economy are more unpredictable then ever.

[Cranium]

There you go! http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/lead_historical_large.html#60days

That is good information. Thanks!

I'll have to use that with the surplus metal guy to help my case on getting the lead cheaper. :D