I voted don't know. 2k lbs can dwindle down if you don't continue the search..,.
No, What I Have Won't Last
Yes, I Have Enough to Make It to the Other Side
I Just Don't Know
I Hoard for the Sake of Hoarding Itself
I voted don't know. 2k lbs can dwindle down if you don't continue the search..,.
High Hook
I don't know?
Approx 100lbs WW lead
Just under 250lbs pure
I'll keep hoarding as long as I can. Soon I'll be making my own "black powder" too.
If I were only casting for my 45's then I would say Yes I have enough. However I am now using my 2500lb. stash to feed a littleton shotmaker. I'm sure I would run out of primers long before I run out of lead. Making my stash last is one reason I modified my LEE 230gr TC molds to 200gr.!
Elk Country
Hell no, you can never have enough supply
Yes, I am sure I do have enough .
"Enough," is relative to how long ya gonna live. I have had several Aunts and Uncles, on both sides, to live well past 100. I'm only 70 now, so I might need more than you.
At any rate, I'm still scrounging. My son will have to deal with whatever is left. ;>)
enough to last 5 years or so of moderate to conservative shooting. The good news is each year the stash gets larger as I have been able to collect more than i shoot.
Nice score this weekend! Stopped at 2 tire places while out of town for a hockey tournament. Picked up 6 full 5gal buckets between the 2 places. Cost me $240, not sure actual weight as the places wanted to sell by the bucket instead of per lb but they were pretty dang heavy! First place wanted $30/bucket and second place wanted $50/bucket. One full bucket was all truck clipons too! I had them all in the trunk of my toyota corolla for a while, thought I was going to do a wheelie! Luckily I found another hockey family that had a truck along to haul 4 of the buckets home for me...
Last edited by dRok; 02-04-2013 at 11:25 AM.
Hmmm ... from memory (since it has been stashed away for a while) there is likely 1K in various types of lead (lino, bar solder, WW, soft lead ingots, scrap lead, alloyed ingots that ready to cast, etc.) plus about 15,000 misc pistol and rifle bullets already cast that just need lubing and sizing for use ... so I guess we're good for a few years, but I'll never pass up a chance to get more lead of any kind!
I may have passed my "Best Before" date, but I haven't reached my "Expiry" date!
How much is enough. I have a 1/2 ton of ww ingots, 1/2 ton ww unsorted, 800# almost pure lead and picked up 300 pounds almost pure and pure in original ingots last week. I am about out of solder and need a cheap source of tin. Find myself looking for salvagable sources but then I hoard steel, aluminum, wood, or almost anything else I can make something else out of. As I age, I find great satisfaction in making something out of something someone else discarded.
Got about 1500 lb out there right now, so I hope that's not a lifetime supply.
David
Sometimes life taps you on the shoulder and reminds you it's a one way street. Jim Morris
I'm not sure but think I need more. 200 pounds of ingots and 4 of the 5 gallon buckets full of assorted wheel weights. I got lucky and only paid $50 for all 4 buckets...I figure it should smelt down to about 400 pounds. I have not shot much since moving to Denver so it could last a long time.
Just getting set up for smelting and collecting Boolit molds for the Marlins. I found a new turkey fryer to dedicate to smelting last month for $25. Found 3 Cast iron pots a few months ago at Goodwill on 1/2 price Saturday for $10 and a cast iron "corn ear" muffin tin for $3.
Just waiting for deals is great fun.
Ken TN
NRA Handgun Instructor and Endowment Member
IHMSA, SASS, NRA Field Pistol
Before moving almost seven years ago I had tens of thousands of cast and various stages of sized and lubed 38s,9s and 45s in several weights/styles . These were left over from my small ammo business of years past. During my move some low life broke into my shop / storage building and stole all my bullets,primers and powder. The primers and powder was the real stach money wise.
Purchased a 9mm about a monthe ago and have been buying boolits of all things.
I believe I have a life time supply...........but I'm 70 so my needs may be different than most.
With today's primer and powder situation ..... oh yea , I've got a life time supply ......
Now as for tomorrow ......
2000 LBS of alloy and cast bullets. That converts to about 80,000 .38, 9mm, .40 amd .45 bullets. No where near a LT supply.
3000 LBS of shot - 48,000 shells - no - not nearly enough shot either.
I catch what I shoot and as you can see the bullets are whole minus the ones who find each other on the inside! Buckets are full of recycled shredded rubber. Two bullet catcher setups with new materials run $25. Stopped factory 9mm Federal 115 FMJ, reloaded Missouri Bullet 124 GR RN @ 1000 fps, Factory .45 Federal 230 FMJ and Missouri Bullet 200 GR RNFP @ 850 FPS. With no pass through. I am still in the Military and have to move every couple years so this keeps me from stockpiling components. I just bought 52#'s of pure lead, got another 15#'s free and now looking for Pewter so I can up the hardness.
Whew! I hope things never get so bad I have to catch what I shoot. What a PITA!
I just smelted 3 fi gallon buckets of semi truck weights. The smallest was 4 ounces and the largest was twelve!!! Lemme tell you, them ten and twelve ounce weights add up FAST!!
I don't really see how it is a PITA. Once the alloy is made and cast, if you catch it you melt it and you know your alloy is good. No tinkering, no math, you make your batch once and that is it. No more endless search for lead and other alloys. One time payment and you recycle it. It is no more of a PITA to catch your brass and reuse that for reloading, I see it as the same beast. I'll re-use my lead and spend my pennies on other stuff.
Shootin em into a bucket and then digging all that out? I guess if I paid for lead I'd feel the same way.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |