Ok so I'm going to go look for lead for the first time...Advice?

[Stopsign32v]

So this weekend I plan to drive around asking for wheel weights at the local tire shops. No idea if I will get any or not but I'm going to ask. How do you guys go about asking and how do you know if you're getting ripped off or not? Should I take my own bucket and gloves? Give me the short and sweet for a first timer.

[remy3424]

Buckets and gloves. Hard to price, not sure on the content in SC, here in Iowa, there are less than 50% CC lead WWs by volume from my recent retrival from the local tire shop. No direct cost to me, I do buy my tires there, bring in any junk automotive I have or acquire and clean-up/sweep-up the entire area by their tire machines before I leave. I am sure they don't hold them for me, but no one else has been taking them for a few years now....I told myself that this past trip was my last one....I have been saying that for the past 3 trips though. Good luck, small shops will improve your odds.

[dbosman]

You always need to have buckets to spare. The time you don't, could easily require a fast trip to a bucket store. Gloves are handy or necessary. Cash is the other necessity.

[Drew P]

I gave up on it. Just buy it on here or rotometals. Shops here are not allowed to install lead weights so, most buckets are filled with only 20% lead or so, the rest is steel or zinc or ho knows what

[Hedly Lamarr]

I would take buckets, gloves, and maybe a scoop of some kind. I have paid as much as 50 cents/lb. for them (which I think is high). Some places may give them to you. One place I frequent charges $30 for a 5 gal. bucket, and they don't supply the bucket. I got a 5 gal. bucket at another place yesterday for $20, bucket included. It yielded 55 lb. of ww alloy after melting. You will get everything (zinc and iron clip-on weights, and stick-on weights of zinc, iron, and pure lead) in the bucket. I segregate the clip-on lead weights and the stick-on lead weights and throw away the rest. I do not mix the clip-on with the stick-on weights. Some folks do. A 5 gal. bucket will weigh over 100 lbs. easy. I just ask them nicely. I think many people use them for spinner baits, fishing weights, etc., but there still seems to be a good supply here in Alabama.

[roharmon]

Try to find places that service trucks.

[Whole Bunches]

See if there is a local gun or shooting forum to join. If yes, join, introduce yourself and post you are like looking for lead for casting...you never know...I’ve been given lead and Linotype and directed to a local source with hard and soft lead for sale at $1/pound in ingots. Bonus: have gotten dear friends from the local forum.

[country gent]

Check the recycling yards and scrap yards. plumbers and or roofers also may have lead but theirs is more than likely pure or close to it Boat yards may have some also.

[richhodg66]

You'll do better looking in the smaller shops rather than big chains like Firestone.

Watch for roof crews and building demos. Usually some lead at these.

Most productive and cheapest is mining a public pistol range. The one I'm a member of would let me and it would take 15 minutes or so with a sieve and an E-tool to scrounge up a five gallon bucket full. I'd go that route a long time before I wasted the time and effort driving around to tire places.

[jcren]

Take several buckets and put your name and phone number on em. Shops are more likely to sell you the weights if you bring a replacement bucket, and if you strike a mutually acceptable deal, they will know how to get ahold of you when it fills up again. I will usually ask what they want for them and if they won't throw out a number I offer $50. May or may not be a good deal depending on lead to zinc ratio, but gets your foot in the door to negotiate the next batch if they are zinc heavy. Price and zinc ratio varies by locality, offer price varies by how much you value your time to sort and melt it all down.

[Pete44mag]

Where I live I have two tire shops that not only save them they sort them for me also. Stop by every month or so a nd bring a large pizza a couple bottles of soda and a twenty dollar bill. The guys who change the tires really like to see me.

[Dusty Bannister]

If you are just starting out and have never sorted or melted down wheel weights in the past, I would not get too carried away and buy all the buckets offered. If you only get a half bucket that is a good start. Note the shop and then sort and melt down and decide if that is what you want to do or not. You may find it takes too much time and would rather spend the time doing something else. No harm in that either. With a little experience in sorting WW you will have a much better idea what is in the bucket based upon what you see. If you decide you would rather deal with scrap yards, please get educated so you will know what you are finding in the natural state. Know what isotope generators look like. Know what various forms of solder look like. Know what various type metal looks like. Be cautious buying home cast ingots because it might just be buying someone else's junk alloy and not usable for bullet casting. When starting out, you might need to just be a bit careful about how you spend your money. The price of education can be a bit painful to a person new to the hobby. Good luck and I hope you have a successful adventure this weekend. Remember, weekends are likely busy in a tire shop, and they are going to make more selling a set of tires than they make selling you WW. Thank them for their time.

[Gtek]

First thing I would do and done (many years ago) was get the word out with everyone you know. Slide in I am looking for lead if you know anyone who might have, hang a little sign at work. I have had people come up after a long time and steer me into some. Also what kind of lead are you after? Roofers are a good try if you shoot Holy Black, as stated before hit the small tire shops. No old shooting hills anywhere near to mine? Down here the corporate/chain stores turn in all for recycle internal, and usually poor yield in lead to steel and Zinc ratio past years and have given up on that route. Making a connection to someone on the inside can be a plus, at one to two bucks a pound equals a good haul of doughnuts/pizza/beer/etc.. It's all on you and lady luck!

[GregLaROCHE]

I use buckets designed for masonry work. They are a smaller than the common 5gal buckets, but the max I want to carry, with one on each side. They are much stronger too, with strong metal handles. I’ve had plastic handles give out on me before when transporting lead. They used to sell for a buck at Home Depot.

[Sasquatch-1]

If you have a commercial range near by check with them and see if they will sell you scrap from their bullet trap. If it's a berm style ask when would be a good time to mine it if they will let you.

Also, check the private clubs. You may have to join the club but, a pistol range at an old established club can make for easy mining. When I was mining the berm at the club I belong to, I was able to rake off a half of a 5 gallon bucket in about 20 minutes. I always dressed the berm afterward and never took more then a half bucket at a time mainly because that was all I wanted to lift.

If you go this route remember those jackets will be worth money as scrap and may cover any cost you incur.

[dverna]

All good ideas and advice from guys who have done it.

I tried it once. That says it all.

BTW, if you are new to this, you will need a separate set up to melt the stuff down and you should flux it well...very well. Do not try melting it in your casting pot....well...you could try and then you will not do it again.

[JoeJames]

Last year I checked at the local farmers tire shop where I get my truck tires. I asked and before I knew it the owner had one of his helpers dolly out a 5 gallon bucket of wheel weights. He was strong enough to lift it into the back of my truck. I drove back to my office with my truck listing on the passenger side. He was right proud to get rid of them. Still casting from that bucket. Probably about 80% lead coww's.

[MrWolf]

Take several buckets and put your name and phone number on em. Shops are more likely to sell you the weights if you bring a replacement bucket, and if you strike a mutually acceptable deal, they will know how to get ahold of you when it fills up again. I will usually ask what they want for them and if they won't throw out a number I offer $50. May or may not be a good deal depending on lead to zinc ratio, but gets your foot in the door to negotiate the next batch if they are zinc heavy. Price and zinc ratio varies by locality, offer price varies by how much you value your time to sort and melt it all down.

Personally I would not go much higher than $20. It is a lot of work, especially when the percentage of lead is low. Truck and bus lead is the best. Try finding those places and forget about the bigger outfits. Vast majority are under contracts and not worth the time unless you are desperate. Good luck.

[oley55]

I have a small tire shop which charges me $25 for a full 5 (plus a little) gal bucket which will generally get me 55 pounds of unprocessed WW. Lifting a full bucket is nigh impossible and very likely to fail. I always take 2-3 buckets, a flat shovel and a two wheeled hand cart. That way I can move the full bucket to an area where I can dump and redistribute the load to multiple buckets.

I am definitely on the lookout for home roofers, but I keep missing them. Single day tear-off and reroof is the norm around here. That and I'm not sure if I will be able to communicate an on-going deal with a Spanish speaking roofer.

[Grayone]

Rotometals.
After you go through the hassle of smelting Rotometals will seem like a bargain. I had pure and bought the anitmonial bar and mixed 5 pounds of it with 15 pounds of pure. It cast very good and I had good mold fillout from the get go.

[imashooter2]

So this weekend I plan to drive around asking for wheel weights at the local tire shops. No idea if I will get any or not but I'm going to ask. How do you guys go about asking and how do you know if you're getting ripped off or not? Should I take my own bucket and gloves? Give me the short and sweet for a first timer.

Forget donuts, pizza and beer. Take a young woman with a short skirt and low cut blouse. Your success rate will easily quadruple.

[Rizzo]

My neighbor is a roofer so I asked him about getting the lead he removes from roofs.
A few days later I found a pile of lead at my gate.
Then a few weeks later, another pile.

After a couple of more I told him "I'm good!"
It is mostly pure lead.
I cut out the solder joints before smelting, then smelt the solder joints into separate ingots.

Perhaps go to some roofing outfits and see how that works for you.
Good luck to you.

[Texas by God]

I have a small tire shop which charges me $25 for a full 5 (plus a little) gal bucket which will generally get me 55 pounds of unprocessed WW. Lifting a full bucket is nigh impossible and very likely to fail. I always take 2-3 buckets, a flat shovel and a two wheeled hand cart. That way I can move the full bucket to an area where I can dump and redistribute the load to multiple buckets.

I am definitely on the lookout for home roofers, but I keep missing them. Single day tear-off and reroof is the norm around here. That and I'm not sure if I will be able to communicate an on-going deal with a Spanish speaking roofer.Comercio Cerveza por El Plomo?
Try that.
Trade beer for lead?

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[Conditor22]

My neighbor is a roofer so I asked him about getting the lead he removes from roofs.
A few days later I found a pile of lead at my gate.
Then a few weeks later, another pile.

After a couple of more I told him "I'm good!"
It is mostly pure lead.
I cut out the solder joints before smelting, then smelt the solder joints into separate ingots.

Perhaps go to some roofing outfits and see how that works for you.
Good luck to you.

You can never have too much lead!!!!!

Lead is great trading stock, lead is easy to sell on forums where people cast boolits.

Get a bi-lingual friend to write down that you will pay cash or beer for lead [in Spanish and English], offer 2x what the scrap yards pay (I pay .50¢ a pound for pure), and hand it out to the roofing crews and leave cards at the roofing supply shops

https://i.imgur.com/d8S4MmD.jpg

I get a lot of pure from scrapers that get cast-iron pipes

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

and of course the holly grail is linotype/monotype from print stores
https://i.imgur.com/LMRxwAP.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/4DsOPrd.jpg

[Green Frog]

Where in S.C. are you, OP? I just drove down to Mount Pleasant from VA yesterday and would have happily brought you a “starter supply” gratis if you’re a newbie! Drop me a PM if you are in the Charleston area and I’ll see about bringing you some of my excess next time I come. I hate to see the new guys get frustrated with some of the hoops you have to jump through these days. I fear the days of cheap and abundant lead from old fashioned COWWs are about done. :(

Froggie

[richhodg66]

Rotometals.
After you go through the hassle of smelting Rotometals will seem like a bargain. I had pure and bought the anitmonial bar and mixed 5 pounds of it with 15 pounds of pure. It cast very good and I had good mold fillout from the get go.

If you're gonna pay that much for lead, you might just as well buy jacketed bullets. I don't find the process of rendering range scrap or wheel weights nearly enough of a problem to justify that cosyt.

You must either be rich or not shoot much and/or allergic to work.

[quilbilly]

Check the recycling yards and scrap yards. plumbers and or roofers also may have lead but theirs is more than likely pure or close to it Boat yards may have some also.
Pay special attention to any metal recycling outfits near hospitals. They will occasionally (maybe a couple times a year) have lead sheeting from X-ray room walls. That is the good stuff, nearly 100% pure, and melts clean often with no dross to be skimmed off. It doesn't absorb radiation either.

[Conditor22]

I built boolit traps for all my guns so I recycle everything I shoot. But, I cast for friends and don't get that lead back so the search goes on.

Sometimes you can find good deals on Craigslist or offer up

[Sasquatch-1]

I built boolit traps for all my guns so I recycle everything I shoot. But, I cast for friends and don't get that lead back so the search goes on.

Sometimes you can find good deals on Craigslist or offer up

I think it is time to tell the friends to start looking for lead to replace what they shoot. Might start casting less if they have to start looking for and footing the cost of lead.

[WRideout]

You'll do better looking in the smaller shops rather than big chains like Firestone.

Watch for roof crews and building demos. Usually some lead at these.

Most productive and cheapest is mining a public pistol range. The one I'm a member of would let me and it would take 15 minutes or so with a sieve and an E-tool to scrounge up a five gallon bucket full. I'd go that route a long time before I wasted the time and effort driving around to tire places.

Exactly what I do. Also, my tire dealer will give me a bucket of wheelweights for free, about once a year. It helps that I am a steady customer of his. I tell everyone I know that I mold my own bullets, and have received free chunks of lead every now and then. Be prepared to smelt down any scrap lead, but don't use your molding pot to do that; it will get coated with gunk. Rusty muffin tins are good molds for clean lead. There are members/vendors here that sell lead by the box for a reasonable price.

Wayne

[DDJ]

We have around here a grocery chain that's called Hy Vee a once a week they publish a for sale and wanted circular. I just put in a lead wanted ad in there and got all kinds of responses. I now have more lead than I'll probably will ever need. Tere's still plenty of lead out there. It doesn't have to ww as you can harden up pure lead. Good luck

[Froogal]

If you're gonna pay that much for lead, you might just as well buy jacketed bullets. I don't find the process of rendering range scrap or wheel weights nearly enough of a problem to justify that cosyt.

You must either be rich or not shoot much and/or allergic to work.

I will admit that I could buy ready made bullets for less, but I cannot buy bullets with the hardness that works best for me and my guns.

[Dusty Bannister]

I would say that by this time of day, the OP has had a chance to make the rounds and has the first day of a long term quest behind him. I hope he did not get "skunked" but he would not be the first or the last to have a day like that. It would be a positive factor if he does some up with some "treasure" to reward his efforts. Mostly, he will have a better idea what to expect the next time and will follow up on the ones that show promise. There are some good photos of lead "in the wild" so he will have a reasonable idea what he is looking for at the scrap yards and in out of the way places. This is be beginning of a life time hobby that has surprises and rewards and an occasional "aw shucks" when you end up buying something that is someone else's trash. That is when you turn junk into tractor or tiller weights or just a lead slab to hammer on.

So how did the first adventure go?

[Green Frog]

Well, OP... what's the report? Did you score or crap out? What is the state of wheel weight searching in the state of South Carolina?

Froggie

[fredj338]

For me it just isnt worth the gas & time to source ww at tire shops. If they sell to you, the buckets will be lucky to have 50% usable metal. If you go, yes gloves & buckets, they like to keep theirs & the ww can be filthy as well as sharp objects. They throw all kinds of stuff in those buckets. I wouldnt give more than 50c per & thats if you can sort for lead v steel or zinc. Otherwise buying ingots in the swap & sell is a far better bet even at $1.50 per # delivered.

[fredj338]

MY buddy is a super for a construction firm & did the same thing, asked one of his roofers what they do with lead shtg removed. After about 1200# worth, he stopped taking it.

[KCSO]

Check with local plumbers for sheet lead removed from houses and contractors. Also pass the word on to friends and you may be surprised. I had a lady who heard I was looking and called and told me her husband was a fisherman and did I want his fishing weight lead. 200 pounds of wheel weights.

[Cyrus]

My idea is that the wheel weights I accumulated about 9 years ago and the range scrap I continue to grab at my range every time i shoot will all be turned to ingots as time allows and that is my stash for when/if we can no longer buy cast boolits or even metal from a supplier. I pray that day never comes of course. I do look forward to the casting process some day but suspect I’ll wait until the kids are older and I have more free time. I went on a year-long journey almost a decade back hitting every tire shop I could and scored about 20 5-gallon buckets of wheel weights. I figure if I net 1500-2000 pounds from that I’d be pretty happy.

[slim1836]

As a civil engineering construction inspector for over 40 years most of my lead came from the side of the roads I worked on. The word spread to the workers I saved wheel weights and they would keep an eye out for me. Railroad crossings , intersections, and accident sights around guardrails usually had a few.

Many good suggestions already have been made, however, there are still many places left if you look.

Slim

[dverna]

Looks like we will not get a report from the OP. Wonder if he gave up, or got so much stuff he is busy sorting and smelting it? LOL

[Sailormilan2]

Searchtempest. Do a search for lead bars or lead ingots. I just fond a guy with 200# of scrap lead, in 1`# bars for $1. Really cheap, even if I do have to drive a little ways.

[lightman]

You have received a lot of good advice but the one that I like best is what I call "networking". Ask your friends, relatives and coworkers to look for lead. The more eyes the better.

[David2011]

Beware; some tire dealers seem to want more per pound for wheel weights and everything else in the bucket than you would pay for clean ingots. I had a tire shop offer me 1-1/2 buckets of miscellaneous tire weights and other garbage for only $180.00 a few years ago. Thanks, but "No thanks!"

[frkelly74]

So here in Saginaw, just up the road from Flint where the lead water pipe debacle is still playing out, The City is slowly taking out lead water service lines. Yesterday they were on the street where our alley comes out and had the road blocked , so I stopped. I spoke to the man down in the hole and noticed he was standing on a 4" long chunk of lead pipe. I blurted out , " hey that's lead, can I have it? " . He said " sure " . He also said that some services they remove the pipe and some they leave if it's not in the way of installing the new pipe. Anyway he ended up cutting about 7 feet of pipe out and gave it to me. My comment was " jackpot, Thank you". I had traded some other scrap for some lead pipe to the scrap yard before and was happy with that, free is absolutely better though. The range I go to does not seem to mind if you go and pick up the lead off the ground, picking is good right after a nice rain. Lead is available but you have to look and be prepared to grab it when it shows up.

A side note here on range scrap.... The jacket material is worth about $1.20 a pound here if you sort out the steel and most of the dirt. The scrap Yard here is family owned and quite easy to deal with.

[Stopsign32v]

The update for this thread is you guys discouraged me enough to give up on trying before trying. :holysheep

In all seriousness some of and most of the replies make it seem like at this point it isn't worth the effort. With my job schedule and family I couldn't even begin to imagine to have enough time to make a relationship with places to where they would hold me lead.

I was under the assumption that you could take a bucket, some cash, and my striking good looks and get some lead from tire shops. It seems as if I am roughly 30 years too late. You older guys honestly have no idea how lucky you were to live in earlier times.

[Hanzy4200]

I'm smelting range scrap as we speak. My local yard told me they are paying $.10 a lb for wheel weights. That means they will sell them for $.20. I plan to take a set of snips with me when I go to off load my bullet jackets this weekend.

Last year, I scored a pile of 50/50 solder drippings for $.50 a lb from them. I think I ended up with around 25 lbs of pure ingots. THAT was a score.

[blackthorn]

Don't give up! Take the excellent suggestions offered here and start looking but treat it as a possibly long-term project. A request for a friend to find/save lead for you might not pay off for a long time but nothing ventured, nothing gained. As an example: I gave a girl at work a hand full of .22 low velocity shorts so her boyfriend could deal with a pest problem in an urban setting. At some point I mentioned that I needed lead to cast bullets and one morning I arrived at my office to find a 50lb lead forklift weight in return for maybe 20, .22 shorts---SCORE!!!

[Froogal]

The update for this thread is you guys discouraged me enough to give up on trying before trying. :holysheep

In all seriousness some of and most of the replies make it seem like at this point it isn't worth the effort. With my job schedule and family I couldn't even begin to imagine to have enough time to make a relationship with places to where they would hold me lead.

I was under the assumption that you could take a bucket, some cash, and my striking good looks and get some lead from tire shops. It seems as if I am roughly 30 years too late. You older guys honestly have no idea how lucky you were to live in earlier times.

Don't feel like you are the only one. Just a few years ago I was also under the impression that I could just visit the local tire shop and pick up those used, lead wheel balance slugs. I was even prepared to offer some money. To make a long story short, I did end up with about 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket and it was free. About 1/4 of that bucket ended up being something I could actually use. The rest of it was non-lead weights. Some even made of plastic. Also ended up with stuff that should have been thrown in the trash, candy wrappers, cigarette butts, etc. Gave up on that idea.

[dverna]

The update for this thread is you guys discouraged me enough to give up on trying before trying. :holysheep

In all seriousness some of and most of the replies make it seem like at this point it isn't worth the effort. With my job schedule and family I couldn't even begin to imagine to have enough time to make a relationship with places to where they would hold me lead.

I was under the assumption that you could take a bucket, some cash, and my striking good looks and get some lead from tire shops. It seems as if I am roughly 30 years too late. You older guys honestly have no idea how lucky you were to live in earlier times.

We are all wired differently. Some people actually enjoy casting, lubing and sizing bullets!!! Not me. I just enjoy shooting.

I know a guy who loves to ice fish...in part because it gets him out of the house and away from "the nag".

I am not one of the guys who enjoys looking for wheel weights, sorting them and dealing with the mess. Lots of others love it. They are neither smarter or dumber than I, just different. If I could not afford to buy alloy, I would do the work.

When I win the lottery, I will never cast another bullet, and never reload another pistol round. Some guys will buy more molds and a Dillon 1050 in every caliber...go figure?

[slim1836]

I always considered scrounging lead for free as a challenge/hobby when I was working. Now retired along with the Covid situation, I don't get out much, however, it's still out there waiting to be found. I still pick up lead wherever I can, they add up, I've got about 50 lbs. just waiting to be rendered when the time is right. It cost nothing to collect lead, not much to render into ingots, and casting boolits if fun to me. The reward of hitting the kill zone or bullseye with something I found and cast is very rewarding.

Don't think of it as work, I am out there looking for a future boolit. I tell my wife that each ingot is worth at least a buck, they understand bucks. She also knows not to sell the ingots for scrap when I pass on, the value of my lead is worth more to other casters than to scrap yards.

Keep your eyes looking down and you will find them, just look in the parking lot of tire repair shops, particularly around their dumpsters and you will find.

Slim

[dondiego]

I have had the word out to all of my acquaintances over the last 40 years and lead has shown up in all forms and alloys. Sometimes I get a few pounds of old fishing weights, sometimes I get 5 pound ingots of pure plumbers lead, once I got a thousand pounds of lead pipe from my home town plumbing replacement project. I loaded that guy up a few boxes of .41 mags.!

[The Dar]

The update for this thread is you guys discouraged me enough to give up on trying before trying.

You will never know unless you ask, believe me it works. Please don't give up. Wheel weights are still out there, I have two tire shops that I get WW from on a regular basis.

[Sasquatch-1]

I just did a quick check online at prices for powder, primers and bullets. I did this for a very light load I load in my 44's which is 7 grn. of Unique with a 240 to 250 grn. bullet. At current prices I found listed (whether you can actually get these supplies at these prices or not is unknow)1 pound of Unique is $32.00, 1000 primers $75.00 and 1000 bullets $132.00. This did not include shipping. For the round I am talking about I can load 1000 rounds with the purchased bullets for about 25 cents a round. Casting my own drops it to about 11 cents a round.

Object of all this is don't get discourage. Finding lead and casting your own will save you over half the cost.

[lightman]

The update for this thread is you guys discouraged me enough to give up on trying before trying. :holysheep

In all seriousness some of and most of the replies make it seem like at this point it isn't worth the effort. With my job schedule and family I couldn't even begin to imagine to have enough time to make a relationship with places to where they would hold me lead.

I was under the assumption that you could take a bucket, some cash, and my striking good looks and get some lead from tire shops. It seems as if I am roughly 30 years too late. You older guys honestly have no idea how lucky you were to live in earlier times.

I would encourage you to not give up. Lead is still out there. Talk with the tire shop where you buy your tires or get your car serviced. Run by the scrap yard on Saturday morning and ask about lead.

It takes a while to get a "network" going but it will pay off.

[Photog]

If I buy 96-2-2 lead from GT Bullets at $2.50/lbs, it works out to $.05 per 125gr boolit and $,0625 for 168gr boolits. For that, my cost is still under .10 per round for 38 spl, or think of it as $8.99 per HUNDRED rounds. Not bad compared to factory ammo. Or I have bought lead on ebay at 1.50/lbs and I mix in a bit of superhard from rotometals, and cost per boolit goes down to .03 or .035 per boolit. Is the further reduction in cost worth the effort? For me, no. But if I had all the time and energy in the world, sure I would scrounge scrap lead and spend hours sorting, alloying and cleaning. Sure.

[Minerat]

Just picked up a bucket with about 65 lbs of lyman bars and cast bullets, a bar of pure lead and a counter weight 109 lbs paid $80~75¢/#

[Gtek]

Yes the glory days have seemingly passed, I still have a telescoping magnet in truck just in case. Found a big one two weeks ago, these days woo-hoo moment. Went and bought a lottery ticket, well, should have bought something else! Serious on the networking and posting a card at work or something. Just like a lot of things in life it blesses/smacks when least expected.

[lightman]

Try placing ads on the local swap shops and Craigs list wanting to buy lead. Buy a cheap or used bathroom scale to use and pay by weight. Keep some cash on hand.

[lightman]

Yes the glory days have seemingly passed, I still have a telescoping magnet in truck just in case. Found a big one two weeks ago, these days woo-hoo moment. Serious on the networking and posting a card at work or something.

Its gotten to be a game with me and a buddy, looking out of the window at intersections, Railroad crossing and exit ramps for weights. I keep a magnet on a stick just for this purpose. Over a years time we'll come close to filling up a 5 gallon bucket. And yeah, we are careful of the traffic!

[Forrest r]

At the end of the day this is a sweat equity game. There's no free lunch in finding lead, turning lead into ingots, casting & reloading.

You get out of it what you put into it. Sometimes people are better off buying their casting alloys and spending quality time learning how to cast a good bullet. Then learning how to reload that good bullet without destroying it.

[slim1836]

The fact that you can take a wheel weight found on the side of the road and turn that into a boolit which puts food on the table is very satisfying. The smile from hitting a bullseye grouping is equally rewarding. This knowledge doesn't happen overnight.

Slim

[farmbif]

like slim ive picked up 100's of pounds of wheel weights along the side of highways. when I traveled long distances on highways years ago instead of taking break at rest area, truck stop diner, ect. I would roam the edge of roadway at heavily traveled exits and exits with big truck stops. put on my green glow vest and go at it. you would be surprised how many there are just along the road ways. when brakes are jammed on at high speed--wheel weights fly off--ripe for the pickin

oh--also--when the cops/highway patrol stops to ask what your doing. it goes much better if you just tell them your collecting lead to make fishing weights and show them a handful.
it doesn't go well in some places if you tell them your making bullets

[carelesslove]

carelesslove, here !

Grayone - and others above - are speaking from valuable experience. To get started, it may be wise to buy essentially perfect bullet metal from ROTOMETALS and begin your casting "career".

Metal composition and cleanliness can dominate your initial success. To start the casting process with the biggest variable potentially out of control, can make casting miserable.

All you need is a little bit of copper, or zinc in your first pot and you will swear off casting forever. That is actually how I got a lot of good, lightly used casting equipment - very cheap.

Good luck and stick with it.

Thanks, carelesslove

[Markcl]

Check at your old time radiator repair shop. Their dip tank lead has tin in it so may need to be blended

[JoeJames]

In farm country like the Arkansas Delta look for farmer's tire shops that are out of town and down dirt roads. Avoid the shops in town that cater to fancy late model sedans with enviro friendly wheel weights made of plastic and steel.

[lightman]

In farm country like the Arkansas Delta look for farmer's tire shops that are out of town and down dirt roads. Avoid the shops in town that cater to fancy late model sedans with enviro friendly wheel weights made of plastic and steel.

I was at a place earlier in the Summer that sells used truck and tractor tires and wheels. You probably know the one! I ask about weights and was offered a bucket for $50. I passed as I'm not hurting but a quick look showed lots of truck weights and mostly lead.