Need lead

[Wendyj]

Anywhere on this forum to search for lead ingots being sold. Need 50 lbs. ww or range lead.

[Unclenick]

I used the advanced search and entered lead ingots for sale and this post was the second one up. It's a year and a half old, but you can PM the member and ask if it's still available.

[armoredman]

castboolits.gunloads.com usually has someone selling ingot lead.

[Scorch]

https://www.amazon.com/Ingots-Reload...ords=lee+ingot

[USSR]

https://www.amazon.com/Ingots-Reload...ords=lee+ingot

That $3 a pound! I buy wheel weights for $.40 a pound and pure lead for $.80 a pound. Smelting it down and pouring it into ingots ain't that hard.

Don

[thallub]

A good source of inexpensive pure lead is roofers. Roofers remove and replace the lead roof stacks.

Melting and casting lead into ingots is easy.

[USSR]

Yep, lead roofing and lead pipe are both excellent sources of pure lead, and one or the other can often be found at your local scrap yard.

Don

[MarkGlazer]

ebay

[Chainsaw.]

#50?! You got big plans Wendy? I stumble upon it here and there and have aquired some through the years. My biggest haul was a sail boat keel. It alone would have set some folks up for life. Keep your eyes peeled.

[drobs]

Check on your local craigslist.

[reddog81]

Originally Posted by Chainsaw.

#50?! You got big plans Wendy?

50 lbs is 5 trips to the range for me. That'd almost last me 2 months

[Don Fischer]

I scrounged wheel weight's for years. Probably have over 800# laying around in ingot's, last me the rest of my life. Got a couple rolls of pure lead out of the walls of an x-ray room years ago and found some lino type metal to mix it with so as not to be to soft. These days here in Oregon, lead wheel weight's are a thing of the past. But roof lead is still around though. Only problem is getting something to mix in it to make it harder. There might be a good supply of wheel weight's on farm's and ranch's around the country. Seem's that when rancher's and farmer's get a new car they park the old one's in a scrap yard on their property. Might be a good place to look!

[Wendyj]

I have gone through 60 lbs in the last month. I am down to 40 lbs and was trying to keep my supply up. I am getting ready to cast some big old 405 grain bullets and a bunch of 44 and 45 colt. The people over at cast boolits are having a hard time in this heat dealing with melting right now. I cast about 8-900 45 colt bullets last weekend starting around 5:30 in the morning. It was hot by time I finished. Good thing I can lube size in the cool of the house.

[reddog81]

405 grain bullets....! You need to start shooting some .38 Specials. Your lead will last a lot longer that way... Just kidding. If shooting rounds that big the only economical way to do it is to cast and reload your own.

Like others have mentioned it might be worth it to try your local scrap yards, tire shops, and online sources like craigslist and armslist. I tried calling all the local scrap yards a couple years ago with no luck. They don't sell to individuals off the street. Craigslist and armslist have been my best sources.

[Bimus]

I have found out that when at a yard or estate sale when they are cleaning out the guy stuff .
It's good to ask them about any lead they may have . even a coffee can could be 35 pounds. and they have no idea what they are going to do with it.

[Wendyj]

I need to search more. I went to about 8 tire stores a few months back and one gave me a 5 gallon bucket full. Time I pulled out zinc steel and valve stems I wound up with about 1 lb of lead. Lot of work for no more than I got. Lead wheel weight hard to find here. I’ll try the craigslist local adds. Roto Metals too rich for me. I thought it might be a last resort.

[Wag]

Lately, I've been getting lead products from the local scrap yard. They have the same problem with wheel weights, though. Too much zinc. Last time, I bought a bucket of wheel weights, I ended up with the same issue you had. Not even worth the time to sort through it all. The scrap guy did tell me I could sit there in his yard and cull out the zinc but still not worth it.

They have a lot of raw lead sheeting, though, so if you're willing to alloy up with tin and antimony, you can get some really good deals. One day, I found a bucket of old bullets someone had cast but they were in bad shape and had to be melted down. Some decent lead, though.

Good luck to you.

--Wag--

[Scorch]

That $3 a pound!

You don't do math real good, do ya.
55/25 = $2.20/lb shipped

$1/lb for 15 + $12 for shipping = $1.80/lb. Not a huge difference, and she said she needed it ASAP.

[drobs]

Look for dive belt weights.

Atlanta $2lb:

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/f...607385591.html

Dive belt weights $1.66lb :

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/s...632193006.html

[USSR]

Quote:
That $3 a pound!

You don't do math real good, do ya.
55/25 = $2.20/lb shipped

The link I looked at said 25# for nearly $75 shipped (73.99 to be exact). Any way you look at it, that's $3 per pound.

Don

[Unclenick]

Don't forget the local ranges have a lot of it in their backstop dirt. Ask if they'll let you excavate a little when the range is closed as long as you put the dirt back. They might if you'll volunteer to put any target trash you find into a trash bag.

Also, don't forget to look down. I've picked up a lot of them off parking lots and at curbs, where some bounced their tire against it an lost one. My dad used to collect them while bicycling for exercise.

[J.G. Terry]

Backstops salvaged lead: Of late we have been salvaging lead from the pistol range at our club. Checked with another range scrap shooter on what is happening. There are a large number of store bought cast bullets in the mix. Testing the best we can it turns out, coming out of ground, this range scrape is nearly as hard as Lyman #2. That's fine if you want Lyman #2. For some applications that on the hard side. Local scrap yards are becoming more reluctant to sell to individuals. I'm studying on going to salvage lead shot from Roto Metals. This does not answer needs for the less hard alloys.

[Unclenick]

Correct. And it's not just because of cast bullets. Few swaged bullets, like. 22 rimfire bullets, are pure lead. A couple of percent antimony is common. Some swaged bullets have as much as 4%, and don't forget shot with antimony and arsenic for water-drop hardening. Even the lead in jacketed bullet cores normally has some antimony. To get pure lead, you would have to select out patched round balls to melt down.

[Grey_Lion]

I'm just waiting for Wendy to come clean and post pics of cast 20mm rounds or maybe a trebuchette count-weight of epic proportions.......

[rc]

I was doing some salvage on a neighbors property being sold by the children after many years of leasing the land for farming. I found some bunker hill lead ingots and a huge 10 inch plug of lead my elderly neighbor who passed away in about 92 must have used for something or other. I found an old roof vent in the grass. Flashing was pure lead. If you shoot at a commercial range you are out of luck but if you have access to property that you shoot at regularly, recycling the range scrap after many years back into lead bullets is not very difficult. Just make sure you mix in some tin solder to harden the mix. Recycling lead is time consuming and does generate some slag that is toxic so be careful to dispose of it safely. Lead was also common in the joints of cast iron drain pipes. If you find some, look at the joints. I haven't cast in years, but I plan to for my 454 and 327. 32 bullets are particularly hard to find and the 300 grain gas checked bullets for the 45 get pretty expensive. Plain jane 38s are fairly cheap and much less hassle to buy locally. rc