Lead

[gjr902]

My wife brings me home 5gal buckets of wheel weight lead from work. Thanks to the mechanics in the shop of the dealership, and the State of Vermont for banning lead wheel weights. The state was afraid the wildlife would eat the lead off the side of the road and die of lead poisioning. Yeah I know :youcrazy:

Free lead is good enough for me. What do you all use for lead?

 

[Rifleman1776]

Scroung from wherever I can. It is getting harder. I'm going to have to go to a salvage yard to try to find some. I'm told the local yard just tosses all kinds together and sells that. Not good for me. I just want pure soft. Keep yer eyes and ears open for opportunties.

 

[ericb]

I put the word out amongst my friends at work, and was surprised how much lead showed up. 25lb blocks of X-ray lead, 5lb ingots from "when Grandad was a plumber", a whole lead shower pan base, etc. I easily collected around 300lbs in no time. I was amazed. But I don't take it for granted - figured that was a one time lucky thing....

Eric

 

[Idaho Ron]

Wheel weight is good for centerfire pistol bullets. I think some guys use it for PRB's. It is way to hard for me to make my Paper patched bullets. Ron

 

[Bill Hall]

I got a lifetime's supply of pure, virgin, xray lead from a former workplace. Long story, the boss was in the dark, but the foreman told me to get it out of there (glad I could help :thumbsup: ). I probably got over a ton. :grin:

Even with all that good lead, I still make an effort to recover as many balls as I can after shooting. I shoot into a soft dirt berm, so the balls end up about a foot deep into the side, easy diggin'. I usually recover 8 out of 10 balls. Waste not want not. Bill

 

[jtmattison]

Telephone cable lead sheath. Nice and soft. One of the advantages of being a phone guy. I had about 600 pounds but I'm down to about 500 now. That will last me the next 100 years or so.

:grin:

HD

 

[Stumpkiller]

I've used wheel weights. Smoothbores don't care but a cast ball is harder to load in a rifle. You might need to work out an accurate load with a different patch thickness.

I like roof sheathing and cable sheathing when I can get it. More often plumbers lead from old houses (I get it free from a friend that owns a recycyling center (aka: junk yard). Sadly that often has solder in with it.

One of the best sources I ever had was from a shortened sailboat keel.

I also have a metal detector and re-used a lot of my own lead from target practice.

 

[Grullaguy]

When the weather gets nice, I like to get up before dawn and cycle up in the hills to a shooting range which I am a member of.

I spend an hour or so picking up the spent bullets at the base of the berms and then ride home with my loot. It is about a 10 mile loop with a good climb up and a nice coast back home.

I sort the cast bullets from the jacketed. The lead from the jacketed bullets is near pure and shoots great in my bp guns. The spent jackets get sold to the junk yard and that pays for caps and powder. I sell my surplus ball and bullets as well.

I shoot pretty much for free which is great thing. :thumbsup:

 

[Charlie_X]

The pawn shop downtown sells quarter pound lead sinkers 4 for $1. I haven't started forming my own bullets yet but at least I'm getting stocked up.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Wheel weights are used by some for rifles. But I prefer to use them and any "hard "lead for my smoothbores. For my rifles I use as pure of a lead as I can get. Old lead pipe and flashing are good sources of nearly pure lead, just stay away from the seams which have tin mixed in. Also if you are lucky enough to find some lead sheets from Xray room walls it is the best I have found. I bought a couple of hundred lbs when they remodeled the local hospital. I would have gotten more but I was short of cash that day. I went back three days later and it was all gone! :idunno: :idunno:

 

[VTdeerhunter]

I put the word out to everyone who will talk to me (a pretty short list actually) but have had a pretty steady stream of scrounged lead pour in (pun intended :rotf: )..... got a good batch of roof flashing and lead pipe in recently, not the 100's of pounds that some of you are amassing...but lots and lots of shooting worth

 

[gjr902]

I look at things like lead, from the point of view of my worthy colleague, Mr. Vtdeerhunter. Who told me numerous times, while looking for the perfect this or proper that. "The folks from the 1600 and 1700's used whatever they had on hand or could scrounge up. They didnt have a Home Depot or Cabelas to go to "

So If lead tire weight come my way, I'll make do, just like the guys I'm trying to portray.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Free lead is good enough for me. What do you all use for lead?

I've used various sources, including wheel-weights. I usually sort the stick-on ones from the clip-on ones as I'm separating out junk - valve stems, non-lead weights, etc. The stick-on ones have consistently been quite soft, as has often been reported, and work fine in my rifles. But then, so do the clip-on ones in a smaller-ball/thicker-patch combination in my .50 (the only rifle that I have multiple diameter moulds for).

Regards,
Joel

 

[Fred_Dwyer]

Careful with the wheel weights. The new ones are zinc and if you get one zinc weight into the melt it will spoil the batch. I got a bucket from the tire shop and it was only about 10% lead weights.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Careful with the wheel weights. The new ones are zinc and if you get one zinc weight into the melt it will spoil the batch. I got a bucket from the tire shop and it was only about 10% lead weights.

This thread subject gets repeated almost weekly. Mebbe it should be a sticky.
Ennyhow, as I have said on others......my tire guy is an avid modern gun reloader. Of course, he has access to all the take off wheel weights from his shop. He tells me you do not know what material WWs are made from these days. They can be anything and type has nothing to do with material since there are so many manufactures. Some are even all steel. I won't use but prefer to continue the searching for pure soft lead.

 

[bob308]

find out what the local scrapyard is paying. put a sign in your yard "buying lead" also put a higher price then the yard price.

 

[mooman76]

Most of my soft lead is window lead scraps from a shop that did the stained glass windows. Unfortunately they closed but not before I got about 400#. Should do me for quite awhile. Xray lead from Drs and Dentist offices is soft too.

 

[Idaho Ron]

Xray lead from Dentist's is hard lead. It runs about 13 BHN. Pure is 5 bhn. Wall lead is about 8 BHN and works just fine for most ML applications. Ron

 

[dearths]

How do you separate the copper jacket from the lead core? I am thinking of a couple ways, but I have a feelin' they're both the hard way.

 

[smokeum54]

ive done it a few times by holding the base of the bullet with pliers and hold it in the melting pot. the lead melts and runs out. im sure there is an easier way but ive only done about a handfull.