Soft Lead Gathering Suggestions?

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Howdy all,

I can find Wheel weight sources, Not great ones but enough for my Smokeless loading, But I mostly shoot the Holy Black and need to find soft lead Scrap resources. Where are good places to look for soft lead, I have found very few stick on weights in the wheel weights. So where else to look?

Thanks,

Sam

[sundog]

Bathroom remodelers (old shower pans) and roofers (old flashing). Sail boat keels. Sheathing off old telephone trunk lines. Old xray room walls. Isotope containers. Redistribution and marketing at military bases (counter weights often for aircraft).

And what about the site sponsor, Rotometals,... other than actually having to PAY for it.

[Shiloh]

Stained glass manufacture or repair studio?? Nuclear medicine pharmaceutical supplies??
Plumbers supply?? Building sites??

No guarantee but may be worth a look see.

Shiloh

[canebreaker]

Plumbing suppy. 5 lb. block, 5 linked together. Price range: 5. to 10. for each block.
Scrap dealers: Look for lead roof flashing, lead pipe. They may let you pick through and get the lead wheel weights.

[fredj338]

Funny, about half the ww buckets I get out here are stick-ons. I probably have 250# still unsmelted. The stainglass shops or classes is a sleeper find. Most sell the tiny scraps to anyone interested & it's very clean & very soft.

[largom]

I buy my scrap lead at our local scrap metal yard for 20 cents per lb. I might get it cheaper by shopping around but with the price of fuel for my truck I would probably lose in the long run. One trip, pick up a couple hundred lb. and it's over with. Plus I only pick out what I want. I take the cleanest.

Larry

[RayinNH]

I just got 250# of flashing from a mason that pulled down a chimney for me...Ray

[deltaenterprizes]

The isotope containers are hard like WW metal.

[1874Sharps]

I just got back from the shooting range and a "mining the berm" expedition. A wide variety of lead bullets of different alloys are always found when mining the berm. I find if I segregate the various bullets I can come up soft lead (from the cores of jacketed pistol bullets) and harder alloy. This is not the easiest way to get lead, but it is free.

[Norseman]

I was so kind to empty the boxes from the bullet traps at my indoor airpistol and -rifle range. Got 150 lbs of lead to cast and swage to .313 HBWC for my .32 Walther GSP.

[johnny356ER]

The most soft lead I've ever found at once was on a construction site where an old sewer line was being dug out...every joint had a about a 100lb plumbers lead seal. I bought the backhoe operater lunch, and he would crush the ends of the cast pipe to free up the lead....ended up with close to 5000lbs of soft plumbers lead!!
good scrounging!
johnny

[kingstrider]

Don't forget your dentist. X-ray film packets contain a lead foil backer which dental offices have to keep and dispose of accordingly. Unfortunately many offices are switching to digital radiology so this source will also dry up in the future.

[clodhopper]

Air rifle pellets. Check around your area for a 4-H shooting sports program. Threre are quite a few around the country. Most those guys don't have time for casting.

[sqlbullet]

Isotope containers

The isotope containers are hard like WW metal.

Both of these guys are right. The real answer on isotope containers is "It depends".

If you get some isotope lead, consider it unknown until you melt down a sample and test it's hardness. If you don't have a hardness tester, just bang it against an ingot of know hardness and see if it deforms more, less of the same.

I have cataloged most of what I have dealt with for reference of those here who encounter it.

To the OP original question, you have received the right advice here. If you cut it 3:1 or 4:1 you will have to cast nearer 750° with a hot mold to get complete fill out since the tin will be low.

[Orygun]

Howdy all,

I can find Wheel weight sources, Not great ones but enough for my Smokeless loading, But I mostly shoot the Holy Black and need to find soft lead Scrap resources. Where are good places to look for soft lead, I have found very few stick on weights in the wheel weights. So where else to look?

Thanks,

Sam

Sam,
I probably have a lifetime supply of wheel weights and soft lead. The WW's are more precious to me for pistol boolits and I usually use the soft lead for casting sinkers of various sizes from 1/4 oz to 48 oz. (I know, a waste to some).

If you want to make a reasonable offer to trade some of my soft lead for WW's, shoot me a PM. It is old cable sheathing and will easily cut and stack in a flat rate box. It's not that I want to get rid of any, I just don't care what my sinkers are cast out of, and I would prefer to have more WW's in the stockpile. Would also prefer the WW's to be raw instead of ingotted as I am a bit picky on my smelting.

[Grant]

Stained glass places is a pretty good source for scrape lead. I have one that sells it to me for 30 cents a lb. . There are 2 types depending on the size of glass. Easy to tell a part. One is soft( pure lead) the other is very stiff and hard because it is reinforced with some kind of hard material resembling the old tin sheet metal siding of years past. Grant