Do You Have a Lifetime Supply?

[MGySgt]

Shootin em into a bucket and then digging all that out? I guess if I paid for lead I'd feel the same way.

It is less work than if you are smelting down WW and then blending in Tin/Lino/pure. - You just dump it on a screen and the boolits/bullets fall through - salvage your rubber and through the lead into your smelting pot - flux and make ingots. No more buckets of Clips!!!!!

[DeanWinchester]

Meh, I suppose.
The tire shop I work in uses a wood stove for heat. I have a super heavy steel pot that I melt weights in. Using a steel hook I just set it in the coals and in a minute or two, I pull it back out. I have a metal pail for scrap metal that the scum and clips go into. Then I pour the lead into a large bar mold I have. About once a month I'll dig out the turkey fryer and spend e afternoon fluxing and casting them into smaller ingots. It's not worth my time to do it in small amounts so I wait until I have a few hundred pounds or so.

I get to do this at work so it's not like it's a chore. The wood stove is like having a free heat source and all the smoke and stink gets carried out the chimney. No smell!!!


I've thought many times about building a bullet trap like the one in the stickies section. But I figure I have more lead now than I will use in this lifetime with more coming all the time. Why bother.

[Beesdad]

1000 lbs. on hand. Need to find more WW. Should last 3 to 4 years.

[MGySgt]

Meh, I suppose.
I've thought many times about building a bullet trap like the one in the stickies section. But I figure I have more lead now than I will use in this lifetime with more coming all the time. Why bother.

Why bother - Zinc and Steel WW's is why.

[DeanWinchester]

The zinc and steel must not be as prevalent in TN.
Oh I see it. I've probably got 300lbs of zinc cast into clean ingots. .....but I see just about as much lead I as I ever have and I mount and balance tires all day, six days a week.

The thing that I'm seeing is a change in stick on weights. I have plenty of COWWs but I'm finding it difficult to get soft clip ons. I mean, I still get more than enough to feed my need but there's been a BIG shift to ferrous stick on weights as of late.

[MGySgt]

It may not have reached TN yet, but CA and a few other states have outlawed the lead based COWW. The last buckets of WW I did (about 6 months ago) had about 25-30 percent of Zinc WW.

[alamogunr]

In my area of TN each bucket of WW has a lot of steel and less zinc. If I felt I needed more lead, I would go after as many buckets as I could get and just sort out the zinc and steel. Since I think I have enough to last, I'm not going to the trouble of getting any more and sorting. Sorting is as dirty a job as I've done lately.

[Stampede]

Yep, since this week I have live time supply of lead.

Last week I had a meeting with some antique gun collectors. Most of us complained about the increase of lead prices and that it was harder to get your hands on it. One of the guys who was there also said he had a metal recycling company, just about a 30 min drive from my home.

He invited us and today we (myself and a good friend of mine) drove to him, not expecting that much of it. Man we were totally wrong, the guy had over 60 metric tons of lead! He sold it to us for 65 Euro cents (USD = 86 cents) per kilogram. We could pick the best and finest lead we could find, man we were like kids in a candy store. The only limit was the weight carrying capacity of our cars…....

No more worries about finding lead and that for a super price, so many hours of bullet casting with my son is coming up.

PJ
Stampede

[Trapperscott]

Yep, since this week I have live time supply of lead.

Last week I had a meeting with some antique gun collectors. Most of us complained about the increase of lead prices and that it was harder to get your hands on it. One of the guys who was there also said he had a metal recycling company, just about a 30 min drive from my home.

He invited us and today we (myself and a good friend of mine) drove to him, not expecting that much of it. Man we were totally wrong, the guy had over 60 metric tons of lead! He sold it to us for 65 Euro cents (USD = 86 cents) per kilogram. We could pick the best and finest lead we could find, man we were like kids in a candy store. The only limit was the weight carrying capacity of our cars…....

No more worries about finding lead and that for a super price, so many hours of bullet casting with my son is coming up.

PJ
Stampede

Now that just might be a lifetime supply for me. LOL. Thats a good find for sure.

Scott

[lmfd20]

I was looking through to find my answer to the poll. After seeing the above post, I don't think I will ever have a lifetime supply.

[Nanook]

It's hard to say. I'm 61, and just came across a find of 1000# of pure lead bricks. I split them with my shooting friend, so 500# apiece. That's a lot of lead, since I have monotype on hand, along with some other odds and ends.

It's close, I guess. Depends on how much shooting I do once I retire.

I'm always looking for more, though. LOL

[detox]

I have about 210 lbs of various types. 50 lbs of linotype, 75 lbs of wheel weight, 75 lbs of 20/1 and 10/1 lead tin, 10 lbs of pure tin. Yes I have enough because i also shoot jacketed boolits.

[1616s16]

i must have what i need. i just keep recycling it.

[stiffdogg06]

I have 6lbs. I wonder how long that'll last me.... ***.

[hickfu]

I have a little over 800lbs so, NO! I really have to stop selling my boolits as soon as they are cast!! I wont have any left for me...


Doc

[sw282]

l have working out of town since Feb of last year so far collecting around 4000 pounds. My back tells me l have enough

[groundsclown]

Yep, since this week I have live time supply of lead.


PJ
Stampede

You win LOL

[Stampede]

I still feel lucky to find this source of lead. Now I even have renewed my casting set up in my basement. I do cast about 800 to 1200 bullets a week and selling them to others at the gun range. Plus I use them for my self, since this huge amount of lead I shoot about twice as much....

[TenTea]

Do you have a lifetime supply of lead?

Depends how many days until I succumb to the ravages of love and time.

[bslim]

In June of 2012 I had a little over 4000 lbs. Since then I have poured and sold over 100,000 CAS bullets to cover all of my equipment costs / needs for casting and sizing. Right now I'm over 10,000 lbs. and I fully intend to quit scrounging for any more lead. At 64 yrs. of age, I now think I have enough.