Another casters stash in the scrap yard

[RogerDat]

Picked up about 75 lbs. of Lee ingots at a scrap yard. Pretty hard stuff based on how it rings and hitting it with a prick punch. Could just be really old age hardened WW lead which is fine with me. Good price and already smelted so not paying for zinc and clips.

Was also a few half ball shaped ingots that had spot on each end that looked like they were from a ladle spout. Or maybe a plumbers melter, I have heard those had sort of round bowls for the molten lead.

Always feel a little funny buying lead in a scrap bin that clearly came from a reloader. I always worry that it may have been stolen, or it could simply be a sad case of disposing of stuff no one wanted after someone passes away. Once the old fellow came in and told them he could not see well enough to safely reload anymore so he was selling it off. Well I will certainly put this batch to good use. Have told wife and kids they are to arrange to dispose of my stash here to other casters not at a scrap yard. Wife might listen, one of the kids will probably actually do it. Might be sort of nice to take a couple of coffee cans of linotype or foundry type into the scrap yard, make someone's day it would if they found that.

[tim338]

If it is from a former reloader I am sure he would be happy knowing all of his hard work was being put to use. Enjoy.

[JSnover]

Ya never know. Maybe the poor guy died and his kids didn't know what to do with it.
If the scrap yard in question accepts complete automobiles, they find literally everything inside those old cars.

[nagantguy]

You must have been there within a day of me, I only bought a bucket full of the lee ingots as I was after soft pure and tin......was from the place that rhymes with begals? About a year or so ago I got several milk jugs full of boolits from there, most 30 cal some larger some smaller, used some saved some melted the rest, I saved a few to give a nod of respect to whom ever made them and had is work end up in a scrape bin.

[Scooby]

Ya never know. Maybe the poor guy died and his kids didn't know what to do with it.
If the scrap yard in question accepts complete automobiles, they find literally everything inside those old cars.
I have a buddy who used to work at the local scrap yard he could never believe the stuff people would put in junk cars. He often found copper pipe and brass plumbing fittings. He said once there was a car that had lead and brass cases in it, you just never know. I tell my wife all the time if something happens to me take your time and sell stuff off and enjoy it. I never understood why guys would say "look honey I got this gun for XX it was a deal" and they really paid much more. I have found others' left over stashes before I never seem to get there for the so called good stuff I am usually the last to know. Someone will say so and so has some lead left from a relative so I will check it out only to find out that they sold stuff way too cheap and this was the stuff no one wanted. We can only hope that when it is our time to go our loved ones are not taken advantage of.

[lightman]

I have also ask my Wife and Sons to sell my stuff here. Both boys hunt but only one is a reloader and he does not cast yet. It kind of cool that you guys save a bullet out of respect for the guy that has gone before you. Thats a kind gesture.

[RogerDat]

You must have been there within a day of me, I only bought a bucket full of the lee ingots as I was after soft pure and tin......was from the place that rhymes with begals? About a year or so ago I got several milk jugs full of boolits from there, most 30 cal some larger some smaller, used some saved some melted the rest, I saved a few to give a nod of respect to whom ever made them and had is work end up in a scrape bin.

Wasn't local, I was out of town and decide to try some scrap yards. Pickings have been pretty slim around here of late. Not that much stuff gets brought to the yards over the winter. Only thing I found of late was at a thrift shop, a pewter tray, pitcher/pot with cream and sugar bowls it was over 5# but cost $20 so a little pricey but I decided to take it. Wife liked it and it won't see the pot after all. Sigh. I guess $20 is a cheap price for a happy wife.

[nagantguy]

Cool out of town scraping, and yes $20 dollars is cheap price for a happy wife and if she ever gets tired of the set, well............ and yes our local yard has been kind of weak lately but on Monday I think they had some goodies.....I had a load of scrap from a job site, I traded it's value for lead they do a little better on trade-off value , or they do for me anyhow I've been buying and selling there for a long long time.

[richhodg66]

If it is from a former reloader I am sure he would be happy knowing all of his hard work was being put to use. Enjoy.

Yep. Bought some very old, quality reloading tools at a gun show the other day, I fully plan to use them and hope the former owner is smiling down from somewhere when I do. I think about stuff like that, at least where things I'm passionate about are concerned.

[Ken in Iowa]

Yep. Bought some very old, quality reloading tools at a gun show the other day, I fully plan to use them and hope the former owner is smiling down from somewhere when I do. I think about stuff like that, at least where things I'm passionate about are concerned.
Same here. Actually, a lot of my guns, gear and supplies came used from retired or deceased shooters that I knew. I still remember my old friend and mentor Don and his wife. He made me some special deals for a special friend. Sniff.

[hickfu]

I would hope that if when Im gone and someone in my family sold my stash that another reloader would come along and buy it to continue making cast boolits. And if my family does sell, I will come back and haunt them!

[Horseman1]

I don't have enough lead to worry about. But if I did, I would recommend my surviving family do a universal background check on the buyer to make sure they will be casting bullets instead of some dubious activity! I don't want to contribute to unscrupulous debauchery like sinker making or wasteful recycling practices:).

[BigEyeBob]

I just today got 45 kilos of wheel weights ,took two 25litre buckets and a 10litre for the stick ons .
Sat down on a milk crate and sorted them into the buckets so I wasnt buying zinc and steel **** I didnt want and had to get rid of later.
total cost was 37AUD . It was bloody hot and I had to quit as I was over heating sitting in the full sun at midday .
They have a huge pallet , probably 600-700 kilos , I will return later and get some more.
The scrap man says he will take all my old brass cases , I reckon I have around 12kilos of old WWII 303 brass I stripped down to get the projectiles.
I didnt deprime as normal due to the twin flash holes j ust drop them into my big smelting pot , put a heavy steel lid on it and lit up the gas , left it until all the primers had popped.

[richhodg66]

I don't have enough lead to worry about. But if I did, I would recommend my surviving family do a universal background check on the buyer to make sure they will be casting bullets instead of some dubious activity! I don't want to contribute to unscrupulous debauchery like sinker making or wasteful recycling practices:).

I bought some lead from a very nice old gentleman a few years back who had told me he had used to cast sinkers but didn't anymore. Turned out he had been a printer of some sort and it was all type metal and some ingots of what I believe is babbit metal, I cringed when I thought how much of that ended up on the bottom of lakes and creeks.

I have a few sinker molds from when I was younger, I'll never use them again and don't want to sell them because someone else might use them. For crying out loud, find something else to weight down your bait with.

[RogerDat]

BigEyeBob you need to go to your profile and add a link to a metric conversion utility as your signature. :bigsmyl2:

For us folks who have to convert that 45 kilos to pounds it would be roughly a hundred pounds? The bucket size in liters is just one big ? as my brain tries to convert the 500 ml bottles that booze comes in to liters to gallons. Wait we buy soft drinks in 2 liter bottles so that would be.... oh I give up. It was hot and you got some WW's until it got too hot so your going back because there is lots more.

Good deal! At least I think it was but having no idea of what AUD is actually worth I'm just going to hope it was. :kidding:

[leeggen]

RodgerDat you might try an ask the scrap yard who it was and then see if the old guy would like to go to the range and shoot a few, bet he would go.
CD

[RogerDat]

Had the Lee ingots XRF gunned and it appears to be about like COWW's cut with plain. Just under 2% Sb and about .25 Sn. That would be about 1/2 of old WW lead which ran 4% and .5% Stuff is pretty age hardened but have not yet tried to get any hardness in terms of BHN.

The ladle bowl shaped eggs were a bit better. I'll no doubt put it to use, may well make some alloy ingots, or do some casting this weekend. Weather is going to be pretty mild.

I really don't mind having 75 lbs. of one alloy mix but I also don't mind getting the stuff to a mix I'll actually use. Rather have either basic ingredients like WW's, plain, or solder. Or hardball, or lyman #2 or 95/2.5/2.5 or /3/3 in short ready to use alloy. In any event I'll be thinking of the guy that made these ingots originally when I do whatever I do.

[GRid.1569]

Just hope that when the time comes, my wife doesn't sell my stuff based on the price she thinks I paid for them.... :bigsmyl2:

[atr]

I know when I go my kids won't have clue about what to do with all the ingots I've poured. In a perfect world I would give them all away on this site before I went.
atr

[4t5]

Cool out of town scraping, and yes $20 dollars is cheap price for a happy wife and if she ever gets tired of the set, well............ and yes our local yard has been kind of weak lately but on Monday I think they had some goodies.....I had a load of scrap from a job site, I traded it's value for lead they do a little better on trade-off value , or they do for me anyhow I've been buying and selling there for a long long time.

I collect range brass, and the stuff not worth keeping gets traded for lead at a nearby scrapdealer.

[Scorpius]

My scrap place gives a different price for brass shells vs brass. About .15 / pound and for WW steel and zinc mixed like .25 / pound. Their lead will cost you .50/ lb. looked to be scrap from pipes, flashing and stained glass

[RogerDat]

Just hope that when the time comes, my wife doesn't sell my stuff based on the price she thinks I paid for them.... :bigsmyl2:

A hope shared by many of us I'm sure. I have tried to stress with wife and kids that this stuff should be sold to other casters, not simply shipped off to a scrap yard for 20 cents a pound. I would hope I have the time to cast up a large quantity sufficient for my final years of shooting and be able to manage my own inventory reduction sale. If not I have told my family that they should post it here, place populated by people least likely to cheat a widow on lead, tin and casting stuff. One daughter and grandson have at least a clear idea that lead and alloys have different values and that a large purchase will discount from actual retail value but that pewter is not the same as the WW labeled lead. There are members here in Mich. that I have either done business with or who have a reputation earned as "straight shooters". Unlikely to cheat a widow and would put the stuff to good use.

I also told her that she might want to consider keeping the loading bench, at least a couple of the kids might use it over time. Or I guess if it looks like that is unlikely I can hope I have time to pump all the consumables into finished ammo to go with the guns.

[mold maker]

As we age, it's sad the number of us that have no sons or daughters with an interest in something we spent so much time and energy with. Our kids are being taught by the media, politics and the educational system, that our lifelong joy is evil and a public danger.
The recent bill passed in Cal is a prime example. Casters are filling nature with evil wildlife killing lead, so now all lead boolits are to be banned. Sure is a change of thinking from those that crossed a untamed continent to settle there.

[RugerFan]

Several years ago when living in GA I had about 75 lbs of lead that was contaminated with zinc or something and wouldn't cast a decent bullet no matter what I tried. I finally got fed up and sold those ingots to a local recycler/scrap yard. I hope another bullet caster didn't get a hold of that because he would have been disappointed.

[RogerDat]

As we age, it's sad the number of us that have no sons or daughters with an interest in something we spent so much time and energy with. Our kids are being taught by the media, politics and the educational system, that our lifelong joy is evil and a public danger.
The recent bill passed in Cal is a prime example. Casters are filling nature with evil wildlife killing lead, so now all lead boolits are to be banned. Sure is a change of thinking from those that crossed a untamed continent to settle there.

None of the kids think of it as evil or bad. They even have some interest, as do some of the older grandkids, but the kids have families to raise, jobs, duties at church, and chores to take care of, even homework for the one that went back to school. Our kids are adults so I have a bit more time to cast, and to reload. Don't mind providing them with some ammo and as I said the grand kids and kids will know something about it so they might use the bench. If they do then they might either purchase bullets and continue once the available supply of cast is gone. Or who knows cast some themselves. One daughter has loaded a few, and her son thinks it is neat.

[Bruntson]

A few years back, I cleaned out my mothers/fathers estate for my 4 other siblings. I got the job to dispose and sell their treasure of which I got 20% of the profits. After the 2nd day of hauling, sorting, selling and generally working our butts off, my wife and I figured out that it wasn't worth our efforts to get any where near the fair market value for the stuff. Our goal was just to get it sold. It took us 5 hard days to finally get done. Of course my brothers and sisters anxiously awaited their 20% split of the total without taking time off work or sheading a bead of sweat.
You should expect your kids to speedily dispose of your treasures in a similar way. Just a reality check.....

[RogerDat]

......
You should expect your kids to speedily dispose of your treasures in a similar way. Just a reality check.....

The thing is if they don't want it then it has no real value to them. I'm mostly thinking if something happens to me and my wife is left with my stuff. For some items we have an addendum to the will designating what child/grandchild gets an item - when a surviving spouse decides to get rid of it. Mostly applies to family stuff, such as grandmothers roll top or the china hutch. But also things like tools or guns. If one spouse dies it is up to them when items such as furniture etc. go to the heirs. My wife can keep my tools as long as she wants, I can keep the china hutch as long as I want. Only when the second spouse passes or decided to dispose of something does it go to an heir.

We both have children from previous marriages but our kids were fairly grown by the time we married so family stuff should go to the appropriate child but we are also fairly close with each others children and grandchildren so there is some cross over.

[Garyshome]

May have been a fisherman...ya never know.