Help Deciding Between Lead Sources?

[TehHappyGunner]

Seriously wanting to get into cast boolits. Been reading what feels like for ages and could use some more seasoned opinions to help steer me in my search for lead. (And if you've cast even just a few times, you're more seasoned than I.)

Background: I live about as inland as you can get in the US, am not in a state that bans lead WW's or boolits or much anything else for that matter. Once I get out of my little city, there's not much civilization for a few hours any direction. Not retired, with middle class income. Would be casting mostly for the enjoyment of doing it and to reduce my reload cost for plinking. Primarily 9mm/45 ACP but if I can figure it out, to get some cheap rifle boolits for more affordable range time on .30-06, then all the better.

Here's what I've been able to find so far...

Range scrap - $0.50/lb. 30 yard indoor. Mixed with jackets, almost entirely handgun, seen little rimfire there.

Recycler - $0.79/lb. Wheel weights from buckets or pick thru a pile of everything else mixed together.

Aaaaand. That's it. Haven't found any tire shops wanting to sell to me yet. There's only one outdoor range and they've said I can't pick the berms. No radiological pharmacies. There's one off-road pseudo-range on public land, but it's the wooded get-drunk-n-shoot-your-beer-cans type place with no RSOs and I don't feel terribly safe going to the berm there. Not seeing anything on Craigslist. Everybody else seems to be shooting at random spots on public land. I'll keep looking, but for now that pretty much leaves only online buys.

Am I wasting my time if I source locally at these prices? Seems shipped ingots are about $1.25/lb on here. $1.25-$2.00/lb on eBay. $1.58 for reclaimed ballast, $1.74 for reclaimed ballast on RotoMetals, etc. I'm an avid DIYer and would probably find the process enjoyable, but it seems like it'd take a while just to break even on a pot, ingot mold, ladle, etc. while paying for the propane.

[lwknight]

What is to decide? You take all you can get. First the cheaper stuff. Then the rest.
All good clean seriousness, 80 cents a pound is not bad for scrapyard junk even though you do have a goodly amount of waste. Problem with wheel weights is that so much is zinc so be very careful selecting your scrap.

Best deal yet is if you can resell the copper jackets to pay for the scrap. Range scrap yields a lot of good lead but usually a lot of copper weight too.

Then you can buy tin and antimony from rotometals to make your alloy to specs.

I don't trust evil bay at all unless I know the seller. If you can get alloy from a reputable seller for $2.00 per pound, you are on par. Some folks are lucky enough to get the cheap stuff but not all of us.

[brewer12345]

Seems like the scrap yard would be good if you can get them to haggle or sneak some solder (tin content is very valuable) in with the lead you buy. Otherwise, order ingots from one of the vendors here. I have chosen to skip smelting lead and go with ingots. Buying from vendors here I can still keep my lead costs down enough that my 38 boolits run me less than 3 cents each. Will the savings pay the mortgage? Nope, but they are enough to justify buying casting equipment and my time spent having fun playing with molten metal.

[DerekP Houston]

I've had no issues using range scrap, if you are willing to render it down more power to you. Personally i'd go with the scrapyard and wheel weights, they were much easier melting into ingots for me vs range scrap.

I buy my range scrap off the forum here around $1 per lb, nice clean and ready to go.

[jeepyj]

First off wecome. I think you'll enjoy your stay. Range scrap will give you around 80% of the total weight after melting and cleaning and a perfectly good alloy for the pistols you mentioned. Approxamently a 10.5 BHN. If you just get the lead WW's that will yeald about the same after the clips are melted It will be about a 12.5 BHN. My experance with misc scrap mixed from one of my local scrap yards will come out around 10 BHN unless there is a large amount of roof flashing then it would less. I use all three methods of gathering scrap and use the Powder Coat method with no problems for several different calibers. Thats my .02. & feel free to ask any questions.
Good luck

[MyFlatline]

I like you have never been able to buy WW's in my area, scrap yard lead was running .75 to $1.00 per pound. No guarantees on the mixture. There are some here that sell clean lead ingots for a very good price. A friend ordered some from The Captain and had it dropped shipped to me for me to cast some for him. I was impressed with the quality. If I ever run low, I will go that route next time.

[D Crockett]

Tehhappygunner go to the main page of the forum go down till you see vendor sales open that page and I think the Captain is down near the bottom of the list talk to the captain via pm and she will get you all the lead you want D Crockett

[William Yanda]

I have made ingots from wheel weights, dental x-ray lead and range scrap. I have purchased from venders here and ebay. If you can force yourself to forgo melting, fluxing and making your own ingots, check here for vender-sponsors. I can recommend the Captain.

[BNE]

Welcome to the addiction. I recommend you just buy ~50 pounds at first. Any of the above sources will work. BUT the next step is to be constantly vigilant. It sounds like you have read and have good info. A lot new folks do not do that, so good for you. When I say constantly vigilant, I mean let your friends know you are looking. Make friends of the guy at the scrap yard. Over time, a steady source will pop up. The start up is hard. Be patient. Get help from the good folks on this forum. Enjoy.

[lightman]

Welcome to the hobby and to the site! The prices you are quoting are not bad. The range scrap could possible make good bullets as is. Melt and cast a few bullets and see what you get. The scrap prices, although a little high could get you some good alloy. If you get established as a regular customer the pricing could improve as could the selection. Just saying! The vendors on this site also offer a fair product for a fair price.

Start networking now. Tell your friends, family and co-workers that you are interested in lead and have them start looking. Always be vigilant, the stuff turns up everywhere and in unexpected places. Place an ad in the local paper or on the local swap shop. Ask at your local tire shop or talk to your local mechanic shop or wrecking yard. Try to get aquatinted with your local telephone guy, local plumber, local roofer, or even the local scrapper guy. Maybe a small local print shop. Its out there!

As a beginner, look at your cost of a smelting set-up as an investment. Yeah, it will take a little while to get ahead, but you should. A cheap dutch oven, a cheap turkey fryer, a few cheap kitchen spoons and a few muffin tins will put you in business. You can also buy smelting pots and ladles on here for reasonable prices. You can stay there or graduate to bigger and better stuff if you want.

[Walter Laich]

I buy from this site and use vendors when I do.

Reason? it's already been smelted and cleaned, ready to go. I know I pay a little more but it's worth it to me

YMMV

[marek313]

I started with couple free WW buckets but unless its free i would never mess with WW again. I dig out some range scrap myself but again I wouldnt pay for it. I buy everything I need at my scrap yard at $0.85/lb. Price wasnt that appealing to me until I realized that for that price I'm buying "anything in the lead bin" which includes solder, 50/50 tin bars, lino pigs and even some babbitt pieces. They also sometimes have those nice clean 25lb bricks of pure lead to mix it all with. Its a one stop shop for me so I swing by every few weeks and dig out my treasures. I also find tons of Lee, Saeco and RCBS ingots so I always pick those up too. Most are WW but some are harball or lino so its good stuff either way.
To sum it up i scavenge free lead from my dentist and range scrap I dig out but if I'm buying everything else at scrap yard. Take your time and dig in there. You'll be surprised what you'll find sometimes. One day I got over 100lbs of clean pure lead bricks. Another I found 2 lino pigs close to 50lb and I always find some sort of tin in there too.

[RCE1]

When I was buying a lot of lead, I had a guy I knew who was in the hardware business. He had a lot of scraps of roof flashing and sold it to shooters. It was very soft and easy to deal with because it was a lot of smaller pieces. I don't know if lead flashing is still in use as this was a few years back, but it's the best I've found (except for the 300lbs of linotype stashed under my friends workbench. I found it when I was cleaning out his workshop after he passed)

[trapper9260]

For me I would not get WW because of the zinc that is too much in it. I go to the salvage yard and get soft lead and go from there .Just need to watch for the zinc that some times get mix in it. but not much.For me WW have too much waste in it then that of soft lead. If the WW where given to me I would take it. other then that I would just stick with the soft lead. and I get my alloy to mix at Roto. Range lead you will do good also like stated.

[upnorthwis]

Building contractors are sometimes tearing down old houses with lead flashing. I put a donation in their coffee fund. The last time I got a 200 lb. roll for $20.00

[pjames32]

Welcome to the addiction and the forum! I'd buy some lead from a vendor on here, then look for sources. If you get wheel weights you will need to sort out zinc and iron. A box of donuts at the tire shop to introduce yourself usually helps. I have a tire shop where I leave buckets with my name and phone number written on them. When they call the mgr gets a 12 pack of his favorite beer. Salvage yards are great if they will sell to you and let you rummage the bin to look for the good stuff as has been mentioned here. Good luck!

[merlin101]

Pre fluxed/poured ingots from one of the vender here would be a great way to get started, (BTW welcome!). If you decide that you like casting then start acquiring a pot ingot molds and lead. Put the word out your looking for lead, you never know who will come up with some. Check back with the junk yard, around here "lead is lead" and they toss rolls/bar of solder in with lead pipe ectra.

[triggerhappy243]

Seriously wanting to get into cast boolits. Been reading what feels like for ages and could use some more seasoned opinions to help steer me in my search for lead. (And if you've cast even just a few times, you're more seasoned than I.)

Background: I live about as inland as you can get in the US, am not in a state that bans lead WW's or boolits or much anything else for that matter. Once I get out of my little city, there's not much civilization for a few hours any direction. Not retired, with middle class income. Would be casting mostly for the enjoyment of doing it and to reduce my reload cost for plinking. Primarily 9mm/45 ACP but if I can figure it out, to get some cheap rifle boolits for more affordable range time on .30-06, then all the better.

Here's what I've been able to find so far...

Range scrap - $0.50/lb. 30 yard indoor. Mixed with jackets, almost entirely handgun, seen little rimfire there.

Recycler - $0.79/lb. Wheel weights from buckets or pick thru a pile of everything else mixed together.

Aaaaand. That's it. Haven't found any tire shops wanting to sell to me yet. There's only one outdoor range and they've said I can't pick the berms. No radiological pharmacies. There's one off-road pseudo-range on public land, but it's the wooded get-drunk-n-shoot-your-beer-cans type place with no RSOs and I don't feel terribly safe going to the berm there. Not seeing anything on Craigslist. Everybody else seems to be shooting at random spots on public land. I'll keep looking, but for now that pretty much leaves only online buys.

Am I wasting my time if I source locally at these prices? Seems shipped ingots are about $1.25/lb on here. $1.25-$2.00/lb on eBay. $1.58 for reclaimed ballast, $1.74 for reclaimed ballast on RotoMetals, etc. I'm an avid DIYer and would probably find the process enjoyable, but it seems like it'd take a while just to break even on a pot, ingot mold, ladle, etc. while paying for the propane.

50 cents a pound is not bad for indoor range scrap. if the range uses a steel snail as a bullet catch, there will be no rubber or sand. and if they do not allow reloaded ammo, then there is little (very little)possibility for Zinc contamination.

[TehHappyGunner]

Thanks all for the great info. I keep coming back and reading it all again periodically throughout the day to try to give it the best chance to soak in. Greatly appreciated. What a great community!


50 cents a pound is not bad for indoor range scrap. if the range uses a steel snail as a bullet catch, there will be no rubber or sand. and if they do not allow reloaded ammo, then there is little (very little)possibility for Zinc contamination.

They do allow reloads, except in their rental guns, with the understanding that if you blow up their ballistic glass lane partitions that they're going to bill you the $4000 per pane to replace. That may scare some away from the prospect... unsure... I try to not peek at others' ammo.

Honestly can't say I know what type of trap it is. Only the provided cardboard backers are allowed so shouldn't be any homasote in there.

[GhostHawk]

No decision, buy both.

Smelt each down separate then mix together roughly half and half with 1 or 2 % added tin. You are good to go.

A good cast iron dutch oven and a propane fish fryer will do the smelting easy enough.

Get yourself all the clip on wheel weights you can while you can.

[ikarus1]

Best thing is find a nice source of lead ingots from here...wish I had known that before i sifted the buckets of trash Ive found over the past few years. By the time you factor in cost of propane, etc then our vendors start looking like bargains compared to rotometals etc.

[mfraser264]

Welcome and as a suggestion, prime the network. Tell every family member, family and work friend that you are always looking for lead. For the non lead person, I would also suggest telling them what types of leads are out there, roof flashing, lead pipes, used wheel weights and so on. My network has easily produced over a 1,000 over the years. Not something you can plan on for delivery but never know when a phone call will give you a tip or a box just shows up on your front steps. Another source might be the local collector of anything metal or that has wheels all piled up in the back 40 acres. About 18 month ago my network provided me with a phone number that ended up with about 600 pounds of wheel weights and another 30 pounds of solder and such for $30.00. They were happy to to have moved the 4 deteriorating plastic buckets.

[lightman]

Networking! Yup, put the word out. The more eyes that are looking the better!

[2011redrider]

Lookup "Bushwack" here, when he has any lead processed its 60#/69 bucks. Bought 3-4 boxes from him in the last year and it comes in muffin ingots from WW or stick on weights. Comes to 1.15 lb shipped. Or RMRbullets sells bullet cores they claim are 12 BHN for about 1.50 lb shipped, depending on how much you buy.

I got permission to mine a berm at a local PD range, it has a lot of dirt in it but only costs the labor. Most is JHP's so there is alot of copper scrap which I will sell for 1.30 lb. 4 trips of 5-6 buckets of scrap and have 6 buckets of scrap rt now to sort with a magnet before turning in. it will pay for the turkey fryer, dutch oven and propane costs.

[Smoke4320]

I say get it anywhere and anyway you can afford. Store some away and work it as you can. Buy some from some vendors here.
It will not go bad in YOUR garage or storage

[Crash_Corrigan]

I wonder if I could get permission to mine the berm at my local PD's range. They use 9 MM's, .40 S&W's and .45 ACP's and as I was a LEO for 24 years it might get me some traction..........It might be worth the effort, time and gas.

My stash is dwindling down some. I moved last year and it was quite a chore to move my stash. Piled up it is 2 feet high, four feet wide and two feet deep. It is all in ingot form and has little air between the ingots. I also have another 600 lbs in 10 packages that I got from members of this forum for reasonable prices.

I just want enuf to satisfy me needs and not to leave too much for my heirs to dispose of. It's tough to guess when that dirt nap is coming but at 76 I hafta think ahead.

[lightman]

The LE Community is a Brotherhood that usually sticks together. I would bet that you can get permission to mine that range. And yeah, moving a stash is a pain but most of us are more worried about running out than we are for whoever has to deal with what we have left over!

[fredj338]

Dial up some local plumbers & contractor, roofing guys mostly. A lot of old buildings are still running lead shower pans, lead pipes, lead roof flashing, all useful for bullet casting. Older dentist offices have lead foils saved from x-ray machines. Even if they converted to digital, they are likely to have the foils, mine did, about 40# worth. Check out stained glass manuf or classes. The came is almost pure lead. Any old print shops still around the area? A great source for lino. Farm/warehouse euip places may have ballast lead. Boat shops may have keel & diving lead. Check the local radiator shops for drippings, mostly tin. Scrap is where you can find or scrounge it.

[Plate plinker]

YES YES AND YES BUY BUY BUY. Just get started and it will all come together eventually. I would start with ingot first to get the hang of casting with good alloy. After you get the knack of casting venture into smelting and all that as well.

[Grmps]

I agree with many of the others. Get some clean processed COWW (clip-on wheel weights) or range scrap from a vendor here.
This will give you the best material to learn with. Then explore your options with the scrap yard, range scrap and ??
See if the scrap yard has any linotype.
My 2 ¢'s worth

[RogerDat]

I'm another vote for buy from the vendors here. Solid people to do business with, competitive market, and you can get whatever alloy of lead you could want. Removes one variable from the process and honestly a lot of the country can't beat the cost of WW ingots here buying the WW's and smelting them down themselves.

Meanwhile do the scrap yard, dig through the bin. Learn to identify the different forms that lead will take. What do these different alloys look like? Solder bar worth $5 a pound that you buy at scrap lead price, or printers lead worth $2 a pound also bought as scrap lead. Lead pipe which is soft lead, or x-ray wall liner that is almost pure lead. You might have to dig but that is where you can get some good deals, when you find the nuggets amongst the debris and buy it for debris prices.

Bring a box of donuts to the scrap yard, Thursday is good if people are short of cash since Friday is payday, or Saturday because the food truck doesn't come through. Heck if they let you dig through the bin or help you haul out a nice chunk show up next Saturday with a $5 pizza to say thanks.

If they let you set up a folding chair and sort WW's you just need a diagonal cutter or dike to test for zinc vs. lead. Nip the side of the WW's with the wire cutter and if it's lead it will clearly dent in or take a cut into the metal. Zinc is way too hard to make an impression. I find using a tray with sides sitting on my lap works really well. Scoop of weights sitting in my lap on the tray, pick nip, toss in good or bad bucket. Little wasted motion. Refill tray with another scoop, repeat. Can do about half of a 5 gallon bucket in a little over an hour. If you find a scrap yard that will give you that privilege be very nice to them. You can stack up 3/4 full buckets 3 or 4 high at home, when you get time and inclination start smelting.

Plumbers, remodelers, any old house under construction. Friends, neighbors, boat yard (keels) thrift stores or garage sales for pewter (tin) if you can get it around $3 a pound. Just remember lead was the plastic of its day, used in many ways. Lots of different forms. From covering wires to body work before Bondo. Babbitt from back when people melted and poured own bearings. If you see Babbitt grab it! Great stuff. You never know what will show up in the scrap yard as "lead".