Where to find lead for cheap?

[icor1031]

It will be quite some time before I start casting, and I'd like to start collecting lead real cheap before then, if possible.

Where are the best places to find Cheap lead?
(i.e. I've heard before that you can get lead objects at rummage sales? How do you know if it's lead?)

[mktacop]

If you read down through the posts of this section of the forum, you will discover all sorts of places to find lead discussed. Happy reading!

[btroj]

And define cheap? These days I am hard pressed to pass on anything under 60 cents a pound.
I need to bite the bullet, so to speak, and spend some bucks on starting a stash. Lead isn't gonna get much cheaper in the future.
My feeling is this, get all you can while you can. Hoard, hoard, hoard.

[ErikO]

Around here it seems that tire places are selling their weights for $.50+ a lb. I've got 10-15 lbs so far, I know I'll need a lot more, I plan on living another 50 years. ;)

[letsmeltlead2693]

Cheap is not having to pay $1.25 a pound from a racing store and find out you got zinc. Cheap is going to a salvage yard and spending 2 hours just to get 23lbs of WW by pulling them off of cars for free.

[cf_coder]

Cheap is going to the local range and mining the berm for bullets... I have a around 160 pounds of such "range scrap" and it'll work just fine for .45 and .38. I will go 50/50 wheel weights/range scrap for higher velocity loads.

[dbarnhart]

Cheap is going to the local range and mining the berm for bullets

And to me 'cheap' is paying someone else a buck a pound to do all that work plus smelting it down into ingots and shipping it to me. Here's my reasoning:

A thousand .45acp 230gr FMJ will cost me $130 shipped to my door.

At a dollar a pound for lead, a thousand of my own cast boolits cost $33.

[cf_coder]

And to me 'cheap' is paying someone else a buck a pound to do all that work plus smelting it down into ingots and shipping it to me. Here's my reasoning:

A thousand .45acp 230gr FMJ will cost me $130 shipped to my door.

At a dollar a pound for lead, a thousand of my own cast boolits cost $33.
Fair enough... For me though, I'm already at the range shooting anyway. So travel time and gas money is moot. I'll pay a couple bucks for the propane and get my thousand for 2-3 bucks. Plus, I'll make that back by selling the copper jackets at the scrap yard.

Your 1000 230 grain boolits @ $33 per is right around 33 pounds of lead. I smelt two to three times that from a single trip to the range.

Just saying, if you are there shooting anyway, why not pick some up while you are there. Even on ranges where they do not allow berm mining, I'll have the kids out there "checking the targets" which means "picking up range lead". I'll walk out with 10-20 pounds just picking it up off the ground. It's Free Like Beer I'm tellin' ya... :)

Cheers!

[ErikO]

Cheap is not having to pay $1.25 a pound from a racing store and find out you got zinc. Cheap is going to a salvage yard and spending 2 hours just to get 23lbs of WW by pulling them off of cars for free.

Ouch, zinc is trading at just under $.50 a pound...

I do agree on the salvage yard, even if I paid $1 to get ~15 lbs myself. ;)

[dRok]

Ive been picking up WW's for .30c / lb or less. Ive been collecting them for maybe a month now and have well over 1000'lbs. Im going to keep collecting when Im out and about for a while, I figure when I have 1ton of melted ingots i should be pretty set for a while. I also got 90lbs of drippings from a radiator place that is about 60% tin for $40 and ended up with a little over 60lbs of ingots from that. Im getting another 500lbs of solder drippings from this guy for .50/lb this weekend.

[ErikO]

I've got a few pounds of old 'lead free' pewter wargaming miniatures that I plan on using for 'hardening' some alloy if needed. Got to love it when one hobby dovetails into another. ;)

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

just start asking around.

you never know who might have some stashed that would
just as soon get rid of it...or trade for something they really want.

If your in a rural area or small town, you'd be amazed at
who all is recycling/scrapping metals as a hobby/part time job.
In my small town (Pop. 5000) I have found 4 different
guys that ocassionally take on a project of cleaning and
hauling metals from a farm site, industrial site, or commercial site for the
price they receive from the metals recycler/buyer.
They may not give you lead for free, but maybe they'll sell
to you for the "buy" price of a recycler, instead of the recycler's sell price.
OR trade !!!
Jon

[jethunter]

Ive been picking up WW's for .30c / lb or less. Ive been collecting them for maybe a month now and have well over 1000'lbs. Im going to keep collecting when Im out and about for a while, I figure when I have 1ton of melted ingots i should be pretty set for a while. I also got 90lbs of drippings from a radiator place that is about 60% tin for $40 and ended up with a little over 60lbs of ingots from that. Im getting another 500lbs of solder drippings from this guy for .50/lb this weekend.

I find the ww i got over the last year have averaged about 25% zinc and other impurities. I paid $0.50/lb for ww but when I figure in gas, impurities, and smelting, then my true cost is closer to $1/lb.

[letsmeltlead2693]

When I get WW, they are all lead because I pull them off the cars myself at the salvage yard or I find the weights laying on the side of the road. I have never had to pay for lead WW because I can find them easily.

[AndyC]

I also got 90lbs of drippings from a radiator place that is about 60% tin for $40 and ended up with a little over 60lbs of ingots from that. Im getting another 500lbs of solder drippings from this guy for .50/lb this weekend.
Now that's awesomeness right there - well done :)

[skimmerhead]

in some places lead is easy to come by. depends on where you are and who you know. the trick is to look, check out any tire service store, iv'e found the smaller mom and pop tire stores the best place to get ww's because they usually have them stacked in a corner somewhere as opposed to the large chain stores that allways say we can't give or sell any, it's against company policy. i have collected over a ton of ww's this way and never had to pay for any of them, they gave them to me. i wanted some lino, so i got the phone book out and started calling all the print shops i could. i called one they had just given a ton of lino type to a scrap collector the week before, i kept on looking, ansewers were we don't use the old type machines anymore. then i hit paydirt, i called this one place and spoke to the owner and his responce was i have a back room full of that stuff. if you take it i'll give it to you free. everytime i go somewhere i allways have empty 5 gallon buckets with my name and phone number on it. many times i stop at a place and they say i don't have any now but leave a bucket and we'll fill it for you. you have to look! go to the scrap yard, ask if there is some. it's a lotta time and trouble and work but sometimes it pays off. ask friends, ask strangers, the worst they can say is no.

skimmerhead :cbpour:

[icor1031]

Thanks, gentlemen.

[Slochill]

Try asking the guys in the shop instead of the one behind the desk. They are more willing to just let it go so they don't have to lug it around. I go to afew shops that charge $20 for a 5gal bucket. That's a good deal!

[RU shooter]

If you know anyone in the construction trade tell them to keep an eye out on the job site my neighbor fond me a a couple hundred lb of old lead pipe from a few different job sites , Also Craigs list can be your friend ,found alot of lead wool a guy had just a few miles from my door. Just got to put out feelers and tell everyone you know to keep an eye out for you

[GL49]

Just paid 35 cents a pound for WW's today, but since I know the owner of the tire shop, he throws his lead in one bucket, zinc and steel in another. It's great when you see every one of the weights melt, with NO sorting. They may cost a bit more, but I don't lose any time having to inspect every weight, though I still look for floaters. His store is 5 blocks from my house, and he will call when he has a bucket ready, all I had to do was ask him to keep 'em separate and I was willing to pay a little more per pound. He wins, I win.

[fredj338]

With lead ww going bye, bye, that is the $1000 question isn't it. There will always be range scrap, reliable & cheap as well as a certainty for alloy content.

[40Super]

I got 10 of these 20lb WW slabs from and retired ATV puller for$150 . Plus my locol indoor range, I picked up a 5 gal pail for $30, it weighed 120lbs and is mostly cast bullets.He has 3 more now again so I'll get some more :bigsmyl2:

[fredj338]

Yep, range scrap will be with us for along time.