When is Enough Enough?

[DiverJay]

Over time, I have accumulated five 5-gallon buckets of lead ingots. I think I finally have enough. (Said no bullet caster ever)

[Mitch]

lol this is a realy great question.But the only one who knows it you. I am sure that i have enough lead to shoot for my lifetime.there are other things that come to mind.How many grand kids will want to shoot and maybe cast one day.Will i want to make some bullets and sell them for a few extra$.i ahvre onbly been casting for about 10 years or less than the price of lead tin and antimony have went up quite a bit in that time.So is lead a good investment.last but not least i love hunting down lead.so my answer is i need more lol.good luck lead hunting

[DiverJay]

The funny thing is, I have enough jacketed and plated bullets on hand for my lifetime. I probably would not have gotten into bullet casting if not for a friend who, years ago, had a restraining order put on him so he had to get rid of all his reloading stuff. In the process, he gave me a box with a bunch of molds, a Lee casting pot, and an old RCBS lubesizer. That box sat idle for a good 15 years before I took it out and finally started playing with it. And you know what? It's actually really fun. I really do enjoy it. Several times, I've offered to give everything back to my buddy but he always insists I keep it. Guess I'll be leaving all the jacketed stuff to my kids.

[David2011]

I just moved 2200-2300 pounds of raw COWW, Linotype, Monotype, babbit, SOWW and ingots almost 700 miles. At 65 that may be enough to get me to the end of my competitive shooting.

[Rcmaveric]

I just conned my wife into getting 400lbs of wheel weights while i am over sees. My neighbor moved it for me onto the back porch.... poor sucker.... i go through about 200 lbs a year. I havent found pewter or type metals or bearing. I would love to get my hands on some bearing metals. Still trying to get the indoor ranges to sell me their lead for cheap. I never have enough. I think if i had some caches like i see on Facebook i wouldnt stress and worry to much. But i dont. When i left i had maybe 300lbs totals. 200 in range scraps, 80 in wheel weights and 20 of pure. When you look at it isnt that much and I find it stress full. I dont have any tin or pewter and those prices are sky high at the moment. Even raw tin and antimony and new bearing metals are jaw droppingly expensive.

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[Crash_Corrigan]

I have about 1500 lbs of ingots in the bed of my Nissan Frontier PU. They decrease my MPG about 1 mpg and lengthen my stopping with the weight but they also smooth out the ride on my truck and make it a joy to ride in. This pile of ingots have been following me around since '95 when I glommed onto many buckets of radiator shop droppings and short pieces of solder. That stuff was very high in tin content and molded like a dream but the boolits were light in weight. I also have about 400 lbs of range scrap that I have yet to smelt.

[JBinMN]

At over a half ton of mixed alloys & pure, along with using about 5-6 traps to catch what goes down range, I think I am about done with accumulating.

Funny I say that though, I just bought 23 more pounds of Xray room strippings about 4 hours ago, even though I have about 400 lbs yet to smelt into ingots & was drooling over the rest of the stack I saw( I did not have enough $$ or it would have gone home with me..), that was prolly about 500 pounds more...

It IS an addiction, IMO...

G'Luck to those who feel the same way!
:)

[Tom W.]

I just conned my wife into getting 400lbs of wheel weights while i am over sees. My neighbor moved it for me onto the back porch.... poor sucker.... i go through about 200 lbs a year. I havent found pewter or type metals or bearing. I would love to get my hands on some bearing metals. Still trying to get the indoor ranges to sell me their lead for cheap. I never have enough. I think if i had some caches like i see on Facebook i wouldnt stress and worry to much. But i dont. When i left i had maybe 300lbs totals. 200 in range scraps, 80 in wheel weights and 20 of pure. When you look at it isnt that much and I find it stress full. I dont have any tin or pewter and those prices are sky high at the moment. Even raw tin and antimony and new bearing metals are jaw droppingly expensive.

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If you can locate a sawmill check and see who they get their nickel Babbitt from. That stuff is 96 or more % tin. One ingot may last you a long time. I used to get it from the supplier when I worked at the sawmill. I even made boolits from straight nickel Babbitt. They were very hard and a bit on the light side. I even got 60 lb. pure lead ingots from Sanders Lead in Troy , Alabama. It was hard to melt into usable sizes, and I learned to save my Babbitt to mix with the lead.

[Land Owner]

DiverJay - it is "enough" when you KNOW you are not getting any younger and the quantity of "stuff" you have accumulated will outlast your needs. Then, it becomes a personal decision to stop hording. Some cannot find the OFF switch and need to be reminded that you cannot take it with you when you leave this place.

[NyFirefighter357]

I've never cast a usable bullet or shot a cast boolit but I've read the handwriting on the walls here in NY. They don't want people to be able to have ammo or guns for that matter. They want background checks on ammo sales, registries of ammo purchases and keep introducing bills that would limit ammo sales to 20 bullets every 3 months. This is the reason I joined this forum, to learn about casting my own. We have very little use for lead here and it all gets scrapped, but in this area most of the houses weren't built with lead except the shower pans. WW are mostly steel or zinc. I lucked into an estate of an old plumber and was able to get NOS lead traps, pipe solder and ingots, about 1,200lbs. Not realizing how much it really weighed I offered $145 for it all. In total I have probably 1,500lbs & less than $300 into it all as I do find the occasional lead bend, solder, plumbing ingot or old water line for free. I also hit up my B-I-L who is a plumber for some. Last fall I found a CL ad selling a used one time 10lb dipping pot, new can of casting sand & what was billed as 20lb pewter for $25 it turned out to be an art project the guy did for a plumbing supply display & he refused to use lead so they gave him 95/5 solder. I've purchased certified Lino & antimony and a few 5lb rolls of solder at $1lb. I don't actively hunt for lead or alloy but if I come by some for cheap or free I don't pass it up as it's not easy to get/find here. I have met some great people here and have also traded lead/alloy for bullets. (Thanks Mitch) Lead should only go up in price over time as it will be harder to find & laws will limit sales. You can't even buy a lead sinker in stores here. Cast lead bank sinkers sell for $0.25-$0.30 an oz in this area. I could sell my stash for scrap and double my money. (I would never!) It will eventually all be converted to bullets as my plan is to make sure there is enough components to supply every gun with 1K or more rounds after I'm gone, plus what I will shoot before then.
BTW- If you guys hear of a house sinking in Ohio it's because Mitch (Bob) has accumulated all the lead in his basement! He's eyeing a 2,200 lb ingot right now!
Most of my stash:

https://i.imgur.com/TIyecKh.jpg


Bob's 1 ton+ ingot he's eyeing:

https://i.imgur.com/I3rXboA.jpg

[Rcmaveric]

I dont know what makes me jealous. The fact you have a basement or such a lead wealth. Lol

Cant have basements in Florida.

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[NyFirefighter357]

I dont know what makes me jealous. The fact you have a basement or such a lead wealth. Lol

Cant have basements in Florida.

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You could but you'd be swimming in it. If you got it dry and filled it with lead you'd sink the house for sure! lol

[45workhorse]

They can make a swimming pool and keep water IN it, but they can't make a basement and keep water OUT!:kidding:

[Eddie Southgate]

Never enough , never too late to get some more for the stash .

[lightman]

I'm well beyond having "enough" but I still enjoy a good score. The thrill of the chase, or something like that! Me and a buddy probably picked up 50 weights of various sizes off of street corners last week while just knocking around.

[dbosman]

I make sure to label tin and antimony alloys so my heirs won't sell it as lead scrap and lose out.

[Hossfly]

You don’t have enough unless it cracks the slab in your shop area.

[Walks]

Never.

[Drm50]

It is addictive. I've got two 105mm ammo cases full of ingots of common lead. Pipe, flashing and sheeting. I have 7 drywall buckets of common lead to be smelted into ingots. When I get that done no more common lead. I have commercial ingots to big to handle with a spud bar. I would sell them but the effort and fuel to get them to the junk yard aren't worth it.

[OS OK]

When I built my lead recycling backstop, I sorta felt better about how much lead I had collected by then and that it'd last my lifetime too.

https://i.imgur.com/52UmFN7.jpg

Then a friend calls a couple weeks ago and ask if I was still casting...if so he had a bunch of lead I can have. Assorted chilled shot & fish weights. I couldn't get over there fast enough...I got the 'hoarding sickness'.

https://i.imgur.com/GyrcoCj.jpg

I made ingots from 433 pounds of it and gave a friend who is new into shotgun reloading 200 pounds...

https://i.imgur.com/5dYyNox.jpg

"You can never have enough...heheee!"

[Drm50]

I have two buddies that are treasure finder nuts. One goes to UK every year to detect. UK govt gets first crack at anything found so he don't get to keep much. Anyway they do the local lakes when they are drawn down for winter. They bring me coffee cans full of sinkers and jigs they find. I got to much of that kind of metal laying around. I'm not as anal as some with my bullet metal but I like uniformity and you can't have that melting random scrap. I'm shooting all either revolver target loads or LV rifle 25/20 through 45/70 so I never have to go beyond a 50:50 lead/ WW alloy, with a 20:1 tin added.

[Drm50]

That chilled shot is worth more than scrap. I would be trading it at shows not melting it. Especially since it looks you ain't hurting for lead.

[woodbutcher]

:veryconfu When is enough,enough?When the building you have it stored in begins to tilt towards the lead pile:shock:.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[eck0313]

“He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough . . .”

Very old Chinese saying

[jdfoxinc]

Like ammo never enough.

[anothernewb]

I called it good when I took the last 5 years of shooting and averaged against my stockpile. and realized I had a little over 100 years of lead supply. at this point I have enough to shoot, sell some, and still leave plenty for a hand me down if any of the grandkids ever pick up the addiction.

[John Boy]

I believe I'm in the Enough Range:
*1710 lbs in 6 lb ingots sorted by alloys
* Over 14,000 cast lead bullets - naked and lubed

[bowfin]

Here was a poll on Cast Boolits a few years back: Do You Have a Lifetime Supply? (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?156406-Do-You-Have-a-Lifetime-Supply)

I believe I have enough for myself and my son. I still collect it and have share it with those having trouble finding it. Around here, once lead goes into the junkyards, it never comes back out to the public. Somebody, somewhere will use what I have gathered and be grateful...I hope.

[hollywood63]

I believe I'm in the Enough Range:
*1710 lbs in 6 lb ingots sorted by alloys
* Over 14,000 cast lead bullets - naked and lubed

:razz::razz::razz::razz::razz::razz::razz:

[Taterhead]

I'm not nearly enough. 3.5 years in. Just getting started. Added 110 pounds last week. Range scrap alloy. I have a few years on hand. Nothing close to a lifetime or posterity supply.

[ThomR]

I have a little over 300 pounds of unprocessed wheel weights and range scrap.
I need to get a bigger cast iron pot and a better propane stove so I can get this stuff turned into ingots.

[kevin c]

I've never cast a usable bullet or shot a cast boolit but I've read the handwriting on the walls here in NY. They don't want people to be able to have ammo or guns for that matter. They want background checks on ammo sales, registries of ammo purchases and keep introducing bills that would limit ammo sales to 20 bullets every 3 months. This is the reason I joined this forum, to learn about casting my own...

I think just about every caster out my way (California) hears you loud and clear, NYfirefighter. It's not just that casting and loading your own saves money and allows you customized ammunition; it's also the independence it affords.

[fredj338]

I am 63, probably have about 5gal worth as well plus a few 60# boxes of lino. Enough, depends on how much you shoot? I currently run about 9-10K rds a year. I don't even have time to cast that many bullets. (5) 5gal buckets would be about 700#, about 33,000 9mm/147, only 25,000 45/200. So about 3-4y worth? No, that is not enough unless I get hit by a bus in the coming months.;)

[fredj338]

I think just about every caster out my way (California) hears you loud and clear, NYfirefighter. It's not just that casting and loading your own saves money and allows you customized ammunition; it's also the independence it affords.

THis is even more true in California now with the new ammo laws. I wont play the stupid game. Background check to buy ammo is just the irritation. They now track how much you buy. Soon there will be a per round ammo tax & limitations on how much you may buy. I will have none of that & just make all my own practice & competition ammo. I have enough self defense ammo to last me another 10y minimum. By then I will have left this **** hole. At some point they will figure out we reload & come after us with licensing & no more internet buying, but I am probably stocked up enough to not care.

[truckerdave397]

I move mine around with a fork truck. At 67 I have enough. BUT, I still look for deals!

[Teemu]

Never...particularly if you live in EU area...[smilie=b:

[Barut]

Never...particularly if you live in EU area...[smilie=b:

Soon in the EU area, all that lead will be unfortunately worthless.


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[gwpercle]

When the wife , both kids , the dog and the cat have all moved out of the house because they can't get inside ... every horizontal place is stacked with lead from floor to ceiling . The garage is so full that the lawn mower and the car are parked outside ... and the TV film crew has you scheduled to shoot an episode , or three , of the TV show "Hoarders"... Then you might have enough !!!
Gary

[ThomR]

I told one of my friends a couple days ago that ten thousand pounds might be enough.

[lightman]

I told one of my friends a couple days ago that ten thousand pounds might be enough.

Nah, its hard to quit looking! Once you melt down a bunch of greasy, nasty, corroded scrap and get a nice pile of good shiney ingots its hard to ever quit!

[NyFirefighter357]

I got 68lbs of sinkers & 7lb of solder as well as a bunch of fishing tackle & some tools for free this week. At that price I'll never stop.

https://i.imgur.com/zF24BHvl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qdk1Thrl.jpg

[Digger]

You don’t have enough unless it cracks the slab in your shop area.

I will vouch for that !!...true.

[Rcmaveric]

I go through about 200+ pounds of lead a year. I have about 900 lbs. So i am good for a few years but need to keep up the scrounging if i want enough to last me a lifetime. I am on 33. I will probably make it to about 86, so i need about 10600 lbs.... i dont have any tin or pewter on hand so i need to collect about 106 pounds of that. Need about 50lbs of zinc.... then i will have enough to last my lifetime but i could always use more for bartering.

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[ThomR]

I picked up another 55 pounds of range scrap today.
I'm going to try to make it to the public range once a week from now on to reclaim lead.
I also need to get a better sifter so I can process it faster.

[Winger Ed.]

I have sinned.

When Lead first hit $1 a pound, and it was still trickling into the shop for free--
I sold approx. a fourth of what I had accumulated.
But, on the bright side, I did get a new Marlin, a Charter Arms Bulldog, and LOTS of powder and primers with the proceeds .

[brewer12345]

Got several hundred pounds, maybe as much as 1000. I am shooting a lot more since a range opened up within 10 minutes of me. Also took up muzzleloaders, so need the soft stuff. So as I cast I try to buy so that I have a roughly stable stock. Trying to maintain enough of an inventory so as not to have to worry about supply. I'd guess that primers are the choke point for me.

[Teemu]

Soon in the EU area, all that lead will be unfortunately worthless.


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It depends which EU country we are talking about...Been checking that few central europe countries dosen't give a rats !"#"! what EU keeps telling what to do. But not Finland. Our country has to be first to obey any ridiculous laws etc. Well need to see what happens. I take a loan and buy couple tons of lead so it last longer than i live..

[Barut]

It depends which EU country we are talking about...Been checking that few central europe countries dosen't give a rats !"#"! what EU keeps telling what to do. But not Finland. Our country has to be first to obey any ridiculous laws etc. Well need to see what happens. I take a loan and buy couple tons of lead so it last longer than i live..

Be carefull. EU wants to ban home casting as well as ALL usage of lead, even on the ranges! All that lead may become worthless.

https://firearms-united.com/eu-ammo-ban-impacts/

It is better to fight it and stop it, like we stopped semi-auto ban in 2017. I'm sure they will still get something, like no lead when hunting, but that is what they are counting on. Incrementalism.


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[Slugster]

When is enough, enough? Simple answer: Never!

[Teemu]

Be carefull. EU wants to ban home casting as well as ALL usage of lead, even on the ranges! All that lead may become worthless.

https://firearms-united.com/eu-ammo-ban-impacts/

It is better to fight it and stop it, like we stopped semi-auto ban in 2017. I'm sure they will still get something, like no lead when hunting, but that is what they are counting on. Incrementalism.


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So no more olympic shooting with airguns? How about .22 rifles and pistols. I can't believe that goes through how it is presented. In Finland is already banned use of lead on shotgun birdshots near waters. This is one mystery law presented by EU it isn't fact that law is going trough. How they gonna supervice who is shooting and what on range? Every country still can decide if law is come into effect. Like many other law presented by EU.

[JM7.7x58]

This is my first year casting boolits. I’ve been a working with metal for thirty years, and I’ve done a lot of things, welding, brazing, machining, casting silver and gold, blacksmithing. I’ve been reading about reloading and casting for just as long. Life had always got in the way, or other hobbies. I finally jumped in with both feet this past winter. I know that I missed out on the golden age of free lead, here on the west coast. I worked at a service station and was an auto parts driver when I was 18, those wheel weights were free back then.

Well I have done an ingot and scrap inventory and a primer usage count for this last year. I have gone through about 1500 rounds so far and expect to finish out the year somewhere around 2000.
My current stash of 200 plus pounds should last me about four or five years. That is not enough.

I have bought a lot of tooling this year. I have a self imposed monthly reloading spending limit and most of that has gone towards tooling. I hope to start spending more on lead and less on tooling.

Strangely, pewter is my most abundant item percentage wise. I have enough tin to alloy 1500 pounds of wheel weights at 2%. I’ve got about thirty pounds of it, half in 3 once muffin coins, and half still unsmelted. I haven’t kept a record but I expect my cost per pound is in the 4 to 5 dollar a pound range for all of it. Sometimes I spend too much, sometimes I get a great deal, it averages out. Also I enjoy hunting around thrift stores.

Wheel weights were banned here over a decade ago. That’s the problem here in Washington. To get that alloy I need to spend about $1.30 per pound shipped. What I find a lot of is fishing weight lead. For the most part pretty soft stuff, some recycled wheel weights, but a lot of pure also. The fishing lead ends up being about 9 BHN. I’ve had to buy Linotype to sweeten my fishing lead.

JM

[BD]

I'm thinking maybe my grandkids could make that judgement, some day.

[shaggybull]

How about 3800lbs one chunk, then found semi brake drum turned into lead pot 3/4 full of lead for $20.

[sw282]

When I built my lead recycling backstop, I sorta felt better about how much lead I had collected by then and that it'd last my lifetime too.

https://i.imgur.com/52UmFN7.jpg

Then a friend calls a couple weeks ago and ask if I was still casting...if so he had a bunch of lead I can have. Assorted chilled shot & fish weights. I couldn't get over there fast enough...I got the 'hoarding sickness'.

https://i.imgur.com/GyrcoCj.jpg

I made ingots from 433 pounds of it and gave a friend who is new into shotgun reloading 200 pounds...

https://i.imgur.com/5dYyNox.jpg

"You can never have enough...heheee!"

OS OK..Lead in bagged SHOT form is worth app $3 a pound :-).. lngot form maybe a Buck a pound:-(

[Retumbo]

Besides the 600lb-ish ingots in my shed I have a full 55 gallon drum behind the shed

[Tripplebeards]

I had two truck loads of COWW new in box wheel weights I received for free a few years back. My truck was squatting to the ground and my 10 ply tires looked like they were bulging like they were low on air with each load. I also received a 40’ plus square of pure lead floor sheeting at the time. It took me over a month working 7 hour plus days, 7 days a week to smelt it all into ignots. I figured I have to have way over a ton, closer to two now. I have a couple pales of COWW laying around that will probably not get smelted any time soon. I keep getting them for free so I might just start selling or trading them as I’ll never use all the ignots I have already smelted in my lifetime.

[kevin c]

Sharing the wealth is good karma. I may do the same, though I have to pay for what I get.

[Smoke4320]

If i die with some i had enough

[Geezer in NH]

Never.
Yep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kevin c]

If i die with some i had enough

I respectfully disagree. It wouldn't have been enough for me if I pass on with a reserve still left if I had to cut back on my shooting to keep that reserve.

[2A-Jay]

I read the amounts y'all been posting and get a little jealous. My source for lead dried up when my uncle passed away a few months ago. He was a Competition Canon shooter (he had a 10lb Parret Gun and (civil war Field Artillary replica) and cast his own projectiles. I got 300 pounds of clean lead from him, the rest of his ton of lead went with the canon when the estate was settled. I haven't cast a lot (about 50lbs) I have at least 250 left. I do check out yard sales/garage sales for lead though (fishing sinkers and once a bunch of oxidized cast bullets followed me home for free)