Let the hunt begin!!!

[Patrick L]

Well its that time of year. I'm a school teacher by trade, and I spend a great deal of my summer vacation on the great lead hunt. As I wander around doing things with the kids, or on my part time job, I search out new out of the way tire shops and service shops and attempt to score. I generally end up with 7-8 five gallon buckets all told, which after sorting may get me about one or two buckets of good lead. Bring it on!

[wrench]

LOL Patrick, I'm a teacher on summer break as well. I am always on the hunt for lead when I'm out and about, I never score as much as you do, though!

[nagantguy]

If you both would care to on your break there are to scrape yards within bike distance of my humble home. All the lead you want fromnddad soft to ww to junk often already cast into blocks and labeled for right around a dollar a pound. Spend 200 bucks or so get what you want and spend more time casting and with the kids or casting with the kids.

[bannor]

depending on age/responsibility, kids might not belong around casting. lead is a SKIN absorbing toxin. Gloves must be worn just to handle lead.

[waksupi]

depending on age/responsibility, kids might not belong around casting. lead is a SKIN absorbing toxin. Gloves must be worn just to handle lead.

Or you could just wash your hands, like the rest of us.

[Buck Neck It]

That is what ruined me, casting lead as a kid. I was instantly hooked.

[nagantguy]

Wash after use/ exposer and don't eat or smoke while casting / handling and have good ventilation and you should be alright. Read a book bout a mountain man named Mr. Grimmes he kept his extra lead round balls in his mouth while hunting/ fighting. Guess no one told him lead was bad.

[2ndAmendmentNut]

Wash after use/ exposer and don't eat or smoke while casting / handling and have good ventilation and you should be alright. Read a book bout a mountain man named Mr. Grimmes he kept his extra lead round balls in his mouth while hunting/ fighting. Guess no one told him lead was bad.

As long as he wasn't in the state of California he would be safe.

[William Yanda]

Patrick
I envy you your time to hunt. As a playground installer, summer is my busy time. Let me encourage you to expand your search to include pewter. Lately I have found pewter much more easily than lead. It is easily melted in a small saucepan on a hotplate and ingotized in small muffin tins. At the flea market this past weekend I acquired 2 platters for $2 and 2 platters and a candlestick for another $2. It all adds up. I stick to items marked pewter. German or Dutch pewter may be marked Zinn.
One of the platters exhibited the "tin shriek" as I rolled it to fit the saucepan. I have found sugar/creamers to weigh 3-4 ounces, mugs run 8-12 ounces, candlesticks from 6- 10 ounces, vases from 4-12 ounces, bowls from 10-12 ounces up and platters up to 3 pounds.

[Patrick L]

Ok, its on! Scored a five gallon bucket, 3/4 full at one of my regular places. Last bucket I got from these guys I noticed some Lebatt's caps mixed in. So I showed up with that instead of my usual donuts. To say I made him smile would be an understatement!

[Patrick L]

Its going pretty well so far. I've pretty much just hit all my regulars up to now. I'm going to start the real "hunt" soon. I'm also keeping a log sheet this summer, so I can report on the total haul and how much usable lead I net.

[fredj338]

If you both would care to on your break there are to scrape yards within bike distance of my humble home. All the lead you want fromnddad soft to ww to junk often already cast into blocks and labeled for right around a dollar a pound. Spend 200 bucks or so get what you want and spend more time casting and with the kids or casting with the kids.
Seriously. You can spend a lot of time & gas $$ looking for "free" lead. The only place I get it for free are a couple of private ranges I go to. I am there anyway, just picking it up off the ground while & wait to shoot can yield 3-4# a trip, X 12, enough for 1000-1500 45acp at the end of the year. 99% usable alloy & truly free too.

[RogerDat]

Just like kids with baseball cards, we all want to find that really great score but when it comes right down to it the searching and wheeling and dealing is half the fun. Who knows what they have at this flea market or garage sale? Could be great! Or wonder what they have had come in at the scrap yard?

Lets face it 30 lbs of dental x-ray foil is not the score of the century but I did enjoy discovering it, finding out what sort of alloy it is, how it melts, and then the pretty ingots it makes.

It's not the destination it's the journey, or as every hunter of fisherman knows it's not all about what you get sometimes it's just about being out there in the hunt.

[WILCO]

I'm all done hunting for lead. It was fun while it lasted. Now I'm at the point where I'll save time and money by purchasing known alloys.

[RogerDat]

I'm all done hunting for lead. It was fun while it lasted. Now I'm at the point where I'll save time and money by purchasing known alloys.

I can see the point to that approach, in another thread you posted in there was that fellow that was purchasing some Lino every other payday. Good strategy.

I would have a lot less lead if I had to purchase it all at commercial prices and most (but not all) of what I get is known. WW's are known alloy if not precisely at least pretty close. The scrap yard will gun stuff for me so I know what I'm buying there which is a great help. Bar solder or Babbitt is either marked with ratio or grade. People on the forum are pretty good at helping you get an idea of what you have if it has markings of some sort. I do have some stuff that is just a guess, rolls of solder with the painted label rusted off, I'm guessing it probably averages 30% tin but won't know until I get a big enough supply that I melt it down and get the scrap yard to gun the ingot.

I find it fun learning about what some if this scrap was originally. The myriad uses lead has had is interesting. Sounds like you have been there and done that. Now you have moved on to a more efficient approach that provides more precision. I may do the same thing you are doing now at some point but having a nice big pile first has a certain appeal. And I'm cheap, I mean thrifty. :-) scrounging lets me get in touch with my inner Scotsman.

[Patrick L]

Everyone has their own opinions about this, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but no one can tell anyone else what is right. I tend to agree with RogerDat. The hunt is half the fun. If you think your time is better spent on other approaches, more power to you. Very little of what I do regarding this hobby makes sense in strictly dollars and cents. More power to me!

[Patrick L]

Well, I said at the beginning of this I would keep track of how I did this summer and report.

I just wasn't that into it this summer. I hit up my regular spots, but didn't really aggressively seek out new scores. I guess I have enough accumulated that I don't feel the sense of urgency I did even a year ago. I'll still scrounge, for sure, just more leisurely.

Anyhow, after you add up all the half pails and quarter pails etc, I ended up with just shy of four full 5 gallon pails. That netted my just about 4 gallons of good lead. Today I went to the scrapper and got $16 for the steel and $18 for the zinc wheelweights. Not too bad, bought breakfast at the diner afterwards.

[CountryBoy19]

Today I went to the scrapper and got $16 for the steel and $18 for the zinc wheelweights.

Is ShadyGrady not trading lead for zinc pound-for-pound anymore? I have a half a flat-rate box full for him. Around my neck of the woods it's hard to accumulate the zinc weight (90+% are lead still) in a large enough quantity to justify sending to him.

I guess I could always just melt them down and use as sacrificial anodes for something...

[62chevy]

Is ShadyGrady not trading lead for zinc pound-for-pound anymore? I have a half a flat-rate box full for him. Around my neck of the woods it's hard to accumulate the zinc weight (90+% are lead still) in a large enough quantity to justify sending to him.

I guess I could always just melt them down and use as sacrificial anodes for something...

Last I hear he will trade for other things just not lead. PM him and see what he has to offer.