WW prices up in SoCal...again

[Typecaster]

I just got back from a local scrapyard with a load of misc. cases. For a change I looked at the "today's prices" board. The scrapyard will now PAY 20 cents/lb. for WWs. Last time I bought any they would pay 8 cents...and usually resell them for 30-35 cents. I didn't have the heart to ask what the resale rate is now.

[Blammer]

well, with the state wide lead ban, they ought to start getting cheaper as no one is gonna be able to use them.

[KCSO]

Yeah 22's and muzzleloaders too now, by edict!

[imashooter2]

Wait and see. They are going to find a way to make that prohibition apply on target ranges, at competitions, everywhere.

[Linstrum]

A friend runs the one big scrap yard for Otero County, New Mexico, and he checked wheel weight prices for me last week. They are going for 75 cents per pound in El Paso, Texas.

That is $1500 per ton, folks!

Now that's SCARY!

I grabbed a ton or so of them two years ago and I wish I'd had the foresight to get more since those probabaly were the last ones I'll get for free. Fortunately I dig my practice rounds out of the dirt bank and re-melt 'em back down. Actually, I've been doing that ever since I started shooting. Looks like I'm going to keep on doing that, too.

I'm looking into lead alternatives for shooting as the supply of metals changes. During WW2 and then shortly afterward and then again during the major materials shortages that also accompanied our military involvement in Korea from 1950 to about 1954, a particular zinc-based die cast alloy was used with great success by the few handloaders who stayed active back then. The use of zinc became necessitated by the lead shortage that was the result of lead being diverted to the war effort to make automotive batteries and bullet cores. I wish I knew what the alloy composition was that was used, although it wouldn't be hard to find out by simply looking up in an older Machinery's Handbook the old SAE-designated diecast alloys with melting points of around 650°F to 750°F and then eliminating the ones that contain cadmium since that metal is insidiously deadly besides being expensive.

Get lead while you still can, it looks like the days of cheap lead are over. That in turn will put pressure on zinc and I'd suggest stockpiling that, too. Quite a few years ago I already stockpiled around fifty pounds of pre-1982 cents as raw material for making gas checks.

[Nueces]

I called a major scrap yard in Austin, Texas a few months ago to check on prices. Sit down...

WW was 1.50/pound and linotype was 3.50/pound, "when they could get it."

I may begin a retirement career runnin' the stuff up from Mexico.

Mark

[hammerhead357]

Nueces, I just bought 150 lbs of pure lead from a local scrap yard for 40 cents per lb. and WW were the same price. I went this route after one of the local tire shops wanted way to much for a 5 gal. bucket full.

I too have thought about going to Mexico for lead but I don't know how easy it would be to get back across with it and I damned sure won't cross at Laredo....Wes

[floodgate]

Linstrum:

This has been discussed several times over the past couple of years here on "CastBoolits". Search "zinc", Kirksite" ec., here on the Board; there will be references to many "Rifleman", "Handloaders Digest" and other articles on zinc alloy bullets, going back at least into the late 1930s. ("Kirksite" was the preferred zinc-based alloy.) And I'm sure you know that you have to "keep kosher" in your moulds, pots, dippers, etc. Bad as a trace of zinc is in your lead-based alloys, ANY trace of lead will "poison" zinc alloys; bullets will crumble to a pile of crystals after a few days or weeks, presumably due to lead-inspired intergranular corrosion.

I'm currently setting up to experiment with the non-toxic bismuth/tin (5 - 8% tin seems preferred) alloys currently offered in some "lead-free" shotshells. I'll post results, if and when. Bi is in the same price league as Sn ($12 - $15/lb. for certified 99.9% purity from Rotometals, Inc.), so the "project" also involves making up "crumb rubber" traps to retrieve the metal.

Doug

[Duckiller]

SCUBA divers and fishermen can still use lead in sizeable quantities. At least for now we can still use it at ranges, FORMAL RANGES.