Where is the best place to get lead

[rkwrichard]

Since this is my first post I guess I will ask the rookie question. Where is the best place to get good certified lead. I have not casted in years and about to start casting again.

For the past 10 years I have shot bullets that others cast but now because on a new sharps rifle I need to start casting again.

Thanks,

Richard

[snuffy]

First, welcome to the board, you won't get "bored" here!


get good certified lead.

That right there leaves you OUT of most scrap lead finds. Why do you want certified lead? Most of us here deal with whatever we can find, then work out an alloy that works.

Midway USA has certified lead on their website. It's extremely expensive, especially having it shipped any distance.

http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe/browse?TabID=2&Categoryid=8662&categorystring=685***

[NVcurmudgeon]

I take "certified lead" to mean pure materials. Midway, Taracorp, The Antimony Man, and probably others sell metals of known composition.

[Texasflyboy]

The best place to get certified lead is from a foundry.

Most large metropolitan cities will have a small foundry somewhere to supply lead to the business that deal in it (Railroads, Hospitals, industrial applications,etc...)

I'm amazed where I find lead sometimes. For all its purported danger, seems to be everywhere.

[testhop]

Since this is my first post I guess I will ask the rookie question. Where is the best place to get good certified lead. I have not casted in years and about to start casting again.

For the past 10 years I have shot bullets that others cast but now because on a new sharps rifle I need to start casting again.

Thanks,

Richard
RICHARD
DONT BE SO TIED UP ON PURE ANDCERTFIED LEAD JUST GET SOME LEAD RANGE LEAD IS WHAT YOU PICK UP AT THE RANGE IF PICK UP IS ALLOWED
IN G.A.YOU WILL FIND A LOT OF PLACES FOR LEAD JUST PUT THE WORD OUTGO TO SCRAP YARDS TIRE INSTALLERS PLUMBERS YOU DONT NEED PURE LEAD FOR A SHARPS
SO JUST RELAX AND ENJOY


TESTHOP

[rkwrichard]

Thanks for the information. Yes I guess I am too concerned about getting certified lead or alloy. I guess my best bet would be to get a hardness tester and work with whatever I can find cheap.

Thanks,

Richard

[454PB]

Testhop, with all due respect.....typing in capital letters is considered shouting.

[jawjaboy]

Here ya go Richard:

http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe/browse?TabID=2&Categoryid=8662&categorystring=685***

But some of these, a dab of lino and tin, would be a lot more funner...and way cheaper. But that's jes me!

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g194/jawjaboy/IM000196.jpg

[kellyj00]

Jawjaboy: nice collection!

everyone: I would like to point out that lead is being considered more and more dangerous by folks who don't know better. I recently called up tire shops around my area looking for weights, I got responses of "we've got something set up with corporate" or "can't do it, we reuse them", but the most surprising was Wal-Mart. I called up two walmarts in rural Kansas and got replies of "sorry, those are under lock and key and are disposed of by special authority"

I then called the walmart in the poorest section of wichita and got a woman who sounded angry, so I pulled this out of my hat "Is Steve available please?" there's always a steve, everywhere in Kansas. another lady picks up the phone a minute later and says "steve quit like a long time ago, what do you need him for?" I say He used to sell me the old wheel weights, I know, it's a lie, and I figured it's not hurting anyone and what's gonna happen, he gets fired? anyhow, she says "let me find you someone who can help" and I'm thinking this may work out. of course, I felt bad about defaming poor old faceless steve.

got some young fella on the line, I tell him about the arrangement I had with 'steve' (remember, it's a lie didn't even know there was a steve) and the kid says "uh, I don't know what you had worked out with him, but we just can't do it, they're EPA controlled!" so I know this kid is full of BS, EPA controlled? I guess maybe the epa told them don't just throw them out to pasture but I can't imagine them saying don't give away or sell lead, or they wouldn't have wheel weights in the first place.

so, I'm frustrated and starting to think, well i'm already lying may as well completely sell my soul for this lead. "well, who disposes of them?" 'well, I do... a fella comes by every now and again and I give them to him, he works for corporate" so I ask "why don't you just meet me near your shop with a bunch of weights after hours and I'll give you $20?"
"Can't do it."

I wouldn't have done it anyhow, I'm not going to risk getting a kid fired just so I can shoot cheaper. I think it's important to share how flippin hard it is to get wheel weights from folks here. I even asked a tire shop if they could sell me new wheel weights, the fella said "no, they aren't for sale." I even offered 60cents per pound... still said "no"

[rkwrichard]

:drinks: I think I have a case of wheel weight envy. :mrgreen:

[felix]

Any pure metal for boolits is a waste of a good resource, even without any regard for price. Now, if the metal is destined for some foreign country, then by all means take delivery for a real local cause later. Shooting junk is the name of the game here. Makes one feel good to take trash and make pretty boolits for insertion into their possibly final casket (mother earth). ... felix

[jawjaboy]

:drinks: I think I have a case of wheel weight envy. :mrgreen:

Now we don't want you a feelin' like that! ;) I started my little quest for the ever elusive ww late last year. Drove hundreds of miles(honestly), $$ on fuel, came up dry over and over again. Got discouraged, quit for a spell. But it kept gnawing at me. I resumed a couple of months later with a new attitude and approach. Bingo, score. Then it was like gangbusters until I reached my one ton goal about 4-5 months later. These days I just stay with one shop, my cleanest(ww) and biggest supplier(6 to 12 ouncers). FWIW, your little mom 'n pop shops are most often your best shot for ww's.

BTW...I've never had any store/shop that I approached mention anything about the EPA or environmental regulations.

[black44hawk]

anymore you can almost forget about asking corporate garages for scrap lead. They either have a "recycling" program with the battery factories or they have to "safely dispose" of the stuff. I have been frustrated so many times with this sort of runaround that I simply looked up the number of the nearest scrap yard. I go and spend 15 dollars for six months worth of lead. Not free but not bad either. By the way Screw the EPA. Where in the 18 ennumerated powers is THAT ever mentioned?

[kellyj00]

black44hawk: I agree with the EPA comment. The EPA told my folks when I was a kid that it was unsafe to bathe let alone drink our well water and that we had to stop immediately because of a leather tannery that dumped chemicals into the aquifer back in the 50's. Ok, it had been there for decades and now it's a problem? they closed down the elementary school and bussed us all to the 70% Mexican school because the school district thought it was cheaper to bus us than to put a reverse osmosis system on the entire school. My folks had to hook up to the city's water or the house would have been given a lien by the EPA and deemed unsaleable.

A few months ago they closed down my town because of a chemical fire. We all stood 2 blocks from the fire between 3pm and 11am the next morning because the EPA said it wasn't safe to go to my home 6 blocks from the fire, but I could stand 2 blocks away and wait. I didn't see an epa guy in the parking lot where we were all standing taking any kind of readings. I went through a pack of smokes that night, worried about my dog that they said "was more than likely dead already because of the fallout" they opened the town back up at 11am, and everything was fine. they claimed that the fallout would 'eat the paint' off of a car, but there were no such problems that I heard about, all the trees were still alive. We can make our own decisions, in my opinion...just give us a warning, like the surgeon general does on a pack of smokes. if the EPA had it their way they would still sell cigarettes, but we'd have government sponsored fellas going around and ripping the cigarettes right out of people's mouths and telling them "no, that is bad for you. bad boy, bad." then slapping us on the wrist. Thank you for such blessings as the EPA, without them I wouldn't be able to make decisions that affect my health adversely.

I guess now they've got their hands in the lead wheel weights, which actually kinda makes sense now that I'm thinking about it. If they can take you out of your home because of a flood, I'd imagine they can cross Pb off the periodic table if they want to as well.

[LeadThrower]

I've gotten some lead from an indoor range... clarification is a bit messy, since there's a lot of copper jacketing, but its going well. My question is this:
Have any of you used range lead, and is there any inherent difficulty in using it that I should prepare for prior to sitting down to cast?

Thanks!