Cant find lead

[comershooter]

Hello I am new to casting and reloading me and my dad decided to start as something to do together and finding lead is extremely hard the only lead I can find is 85 cents a pound and the tire shops all give theres to the same guy who has always got it and I am not sure where else to try because 85 cents a pound wont save any money.

[lwknight]

Welcome to the madness comershooter.
I don't see how 85 cents per pound lead does not save money.
You pay an average of $3.00 per pound for commercially cast bullets and around $4.00 or more per pound for cheap jacketed bullets.

Most of us cast because its fun and gratifying to roll yer own and end up with something better than can be bought.

Most of my lead costs me around $0.75 and by the time I get the tin and antimony figured in I'm up to about $1.30 per pound. Its still cheaper than buying them and I never have to be on a backorder list. I can get exactly the alloy that I want and never have to worry about the supplier drying up.

[nes4ever69]

ive paid 90 cents a pound for ignots on ebay. when i lived in colorado, no free lead anywere and no tire places willing to sell.

i did score 200# of ignots off craigslist for $80.

you have to keep looking, but beware of some sellers on ebay.

[Jailer]

Man I'm just getting into this as well but it's posts like these that make me want to stock up on as much as I can get my hands on.

I've got about 140lbs of smelted ingots that I have a total of $10 invested in and that was one days worth of scrounging. Do keep in mind that I stopped and asked at about 10 different places to get that and only one was willing to give them away and one willing to sell at $10/5 gallon bucket.

Guess which place I'm going to buy my new tires from. ;)

[imashooter2]

If there are any indoor ranges in the area, offer to buy their scrap. Check around for isotope containers at radioactive pharmacies too.

[comershooter]

If there are any indoor ranges in the area, offer to buy their scrap. Check around for isotope containers at radioactive pharmacies too.
I never thought about ranges do you think I could get brass from ranges to.

[mongo]

I have gotten a couple of buckets of ww for 20 bucks a piece, That dried up as some of the local fishermen have been buying up everything around here. They get a couple bucks per sinker. I have been getting lead from the backstop of an indoor range. Those guys just sell it to any scrapper that will pick it up. You can take as much as you want for free. They are glad to get rid of it. Might be a good idea to look for a indoor range.

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Never hurts to ask, Worst they can do is say no.

Sam :D

[imashooter2]

I never thought about ranges do you think I could get brass from ranges to.

As MC Sam says, asking is free...

[Armorer]

Never hurts to ask, Worst they can do is say no.


Yep, thats pretty much what they say around here. It's like pulling teeth trying to find cheap and or free lead in these parts anymore.:cbpour:

But on a positive note, I found a feller locally that will sell me lino for a buck a pound, and he apparantly has more than I could afford. I intend to get a nice pile of it sometime this week.

[zomby woof]

If there are any indoor ranges in the area, offer to buy their scrap.

Our indoor range goes through tons of scrap a year. We clean up the range about once a month through the busy fall/winter season. The guy who takes care of the scrap uses the money for our junior league shooters. He takes the lead in when he fills a 55 gallon drum . I got a 110 lb pail Sunday. I left six on the floor.

[shotman]

If you are casting BOOLITS muddy sam has some very go stuff is hard and cast well for BOOLITS its not for a shotmaker so be ware of that I got some to try a mix and see if it will work in shotmaker mixed
ITs VERY clean

[Murphy]

comershooter,

Have you tried some of the local salvage yards? I did a search for your area and saw several scrap metal places mentioned. Hopefully it isn't the scrap yard that is asking the 85 cents a pound.

Here is one I found in Live Oak if you feel like giving them a call.
Wallace Scrap Metals
(386) 364-6507

Don't give up too quickly, you never know when or where you may hit pay dirt.

Murphy

[Ridgerunner665]

I just recently decided to start casting too...

I've bought 350 lbs of lead off Ebay (carefully picked who I bought it from though)...it came out to about $1 per pound. I've also scrounged, begged and worked for lead....I wanted to get the lead before I got into casting....what good is all that casting equipment without lead?

I have all the lead I will ever need and then some (about 2 tons of WW lead, 40 lbs. of stick on WW's, 25 lbs of sheet lead (isotope lead), 60 lbs. of RotoMetals hardball alloy, and some strips of linotype.

Back to buying lead...

$350

350 lbs. of lead = 5,250 boolits (figured at 15 per pound)

I can buy these same boolits for $28 per 50 shipped, that = 625 boolits for $350

I paid $1 per pound for lead, and still saved a small fortune....


I'm an OTR truck driver...had a drive tire leaking today, while I was getting it fixed I asked what they did with their old WW's. He said they keep a few to reuse but usually throw them away....after I told him why I asked, he told me to get what I wanted out of the bucket over there...but that I couldn't have them all. I grabbed twelve 8 oz. weights and called it good...

A few of these go a long ways...8 oz. WW
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc137/Ridgerunner665/1011101916a.jpg

[walltube]

Welcome to CastBoolits. Please be warned: you can checkout, but you can never leave.

I suggest you go to "Vendor-Sponsor", there you will find sources of lead available to get Ya'll up and shooting cast boolits.

There is an advantage to buying clean, prepared quality lead in ingot form from here in that as you continue your search for ww, etc. you may get to pouring projectiles without undue delay. For example, I have several 5 gal. buckets of ww but would rather use the ingots from Sam than slave over a propane fired cauldron of ww. I ain't lazy, just being efficient...:)

Y.T.
Wt.

[jsizemore]

My first 55 gallon drum of ww was $.25/lb and weighed 1600 lbs. If you want a break in price, expect to buy a bunch and bring cash. I now have some tire shops that I pay $.20/lb and I bring a clean bucket and scales to weigh.

The price of lead goes up and down. Don't give up when you just got started.

[jmsj]

cornershooter,
Welcome to the site.
The guys bring up both sides of the lead gathering argument. Chasing after lead can be hardwork and frustrating. You have to be willing to have people tell you NO. When I first started seemed like a handfull of wheelweights from any site was all I could get. After developing a rapport w/ 2 shops, I've got a steady supply. Not huge hauls like some guys are fortunate enough to have but a little more than me and my family shoots. I have also found other sources like shooting ranges (a small private pistol and a shotgun range that no one else would bother with), a company that builds X-ray shielding(I pay the what the scrappers are paying), carpenters, roofers, plumbers and contractors. I am also lucky enough to have a 25 yd. range behind my house, so I can mine up the lead that we shoot. So scrounging for lead and smelting is time and labor consuming.
If time is an issue and you can afford to buy your lead, you would still be better off financially than buying store bought bullets. I gather up all the free/low cost lead I can because this is the only way we can afford to shoot the volume we do.
There are some people here that sell lead, I've read that the people that have bought from them are satisfied.
So don't get discouraged, where there is a will there is a way. I can't tell you how satisfying it is shooting w/ bullets that you cast yourself. Good luck,jmsj

[RP]

At one time I was getting all my lead for FREE thats right FREE now days I get some for free a bucket here and there. But I have been buying mine from one tire shop I go by he calls the scrapeyard and gets a price and thats what I pay him a lb. So I call the scape yard first and make sure lead is not up that day lol then I stop by. Sad thing is I went by today after a guy that works there told me there were 3 buckets full some guy beat me to it told them he was casting fishing weights. There was a box full there and I stop by this week and tell him I want to keep getting lead from him and to hold it for me maybe that will work. If that dont work I get my boss to ask him since he uses one of our lots to change tire on big trucks on hate to pull that string but sometimes you got to.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I scrounge for WWs
they are rarely Free...usually about 25¢ per pound.
THEN, once you figure Gasoline and your time finding some.
the Propane and your time Smelting them.
it surely costs at least $1 per pound.

Many here sell Ingots for $1 per pound shipped.
I have bought from 2 sources here.
Check for feedback, so you get a vendor that isn't selling
Zinc contaminated Alloy and who packages it well to survive the shipment.
Good Luck
Jon

[fredj338]

Yep, the good old days of free lead have pretty much gone the way of cheap gas. Cheap lead ww are also getting more scarce as they get replaced by non lead ww in the next couple years. So 85c/# will sound cheap going forward. Even at $1.25/# + lube & elec/propane, you save about 1/2 the cost of buying commercial & you get to make exactly what you want. Much more than that, I would buy commercial for my plinking bullets.

[comershooter]

If there are any indoor ranges in the area, offer to buy their scrap. Check around for isotope containers at radioactive pharmacies too.

How would I locate a pharmacy like that

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Check with the Nuclear Medicine department at your local hospital.

Sam :D

[zxcvbob]

My best source of scrap lead is under the metal pistol targets at the outdoor range. I always take a gallon ziplock bag and a trowel in my range bag. If I'm the only one at the range (happens a few times per summer) I fill up the bag. It only takes a couple of minutes to get about 15# of really good lead.

[imashooter2]

How would I locate a pharmacy like that

Ask at the local hospital. The Nuclear Medicine department probably has a director and his office would know.

[AaronJ]

I just called my local scrap yard wand he said 55 cent a lb for all i can take. I know where im going tomorrow [smilie=w:

[Tazman1602]

Man I'm just getting into this as well but it's posts like these that make me want to stock up on as much as I can get my hands on.

I've got about 140lbs of smelted ingots that I have a total of $10 invested in and that was one days worth of scrounging. Do keep in mind that I stopped and asked at about 10 different places to get that and only one was willing to give them away and one willing to sell at $10/5 gallon bucket.

Guess which place I'm going to buy my new tires from. ;)

That's a REALLY good deal on WW's man. Just my opinion as I'd pay that all day long...............oh wait! That IS what I pay my local tire shops.........<GRIN>

Art

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I got a batch of Isotope ingots from Muddy Creek Sam. Worked great. Yes, I had to buy them but it was clean. No smelting costs, just the up front price of the ingots. There are others on this site that also sell lead. Not a bad deal at all. IMO
Any wheel weights I can find, I save for the future.

[comershooter]

Hello thanks for all the help I talked to the local Nuclear Pharmacist and she said she will sell me small amounts at $0.15 if she talks to her supervisor to make sure you don't need a license to buy lead.

[madsenshooter]

A license to buy lead! Good goog-la moog-la, don't give them any ideas! Things are bad enough as is. Supposed to be free, and in a way we are, as long as we have the money for a license to do whatever. Disgusting if you ask me. OK. I wanna go fishing. License for the car, license to drive the car, license for the boat, license for the motor, license for the trailer and a fishing license. I have a higher that normal genetic need for protein, in my opinion, that's covered under an inalienable right, my right to life! They can take their licenses and put them someplace dark! OK, I'm done. That's a good buy! Search around here, you'll find some other info on the stuff.

[WILCO]

I never thought about ranges do you think I could get brass from ranges too?

Yep. Most clubs have brass trash buckets. Join a gun club and scrounge for lead/brass.

[Papa Jack]

Hello I am new to casting and reloading me and my dad decided to start as something to do together and finding lead is extremely hard the only lead I can find is 85 cents a pound and the tire shops all give theres to the same guy who has always got it and I am not sure where else to try because 85 cents a pound wont save any money.

Our local Police Dept. has an under ground range, I had an EX-brother in law who was a cop and he got me a big bucket of the slugs from the bullet traps.
Of coarse then they passed a city ordinance that prohibits discharging a fire arm inside the city limits !! So the gun smiths can't test fire either...
My point is, if you feel brave, make friends with a cop, find out where they shoot, see if you can get the slugs. I cast with em and for plinking boolits they work fine...
You just have to get out and look around, find and talk to old folks, lots of old guys have little piles of lead, copper, brass, see if they want to sell it or give it away for the asking. Especially if they were once into hunting or fishing, they'd like to help a guy out.
I once got a 5 gallon plastic gas can, with a corner cut out, half full of old lead scraps from an old guy. It had everything in there you could imagine, fishing weights, lead plumbers solder, diving weights, wine bottle seals, battery cable ends, I melted it all down into ingots and shoot it up....
Find where people shoot, if it's a dirt bank , dig em out. I have found several old stumps in the woods, I sat there for a couple hours digging out big lead balls and mini's from black powder shooters as well as pistol boolits .
Find where people shoot and pick up the fired brass, it's FREE, take it, clean it up and trade what you don't use for LEAD to another shooter... After a snow melts off, many times you can find lead laying on top the ground from people shooting in the snow. Especially after Xmas, lots of people take new guns out to try em in the foul weather.
Good luck..... "Papa Jack"

[fatelk]

I wish I had an ounce of lead for every thread about how it's getting harder to find lead.:)

It's only going to get worse, I think, especially if you don't have a lot of spare time and connections. I have completely given up asking at tire shops. I just don't have the time for it, for one thing. Actually I can't justify casting or shooting at all right now.

I did pick up half a ton of lino this past summer, thanks to another member here. I'll hang onto it as long as I can, but may end up selling it if things get too tight. There are other things that will go before my lead does. Lead's getting awful hard to find nowadays, you know.

[home in oz]

Ask where you get an oil change or where you buy tires.