Shooting Gold?

[Idaho Ron]

Well not really, but almost. I called midway for a price on soft lead. $94.00 for 30 pounds. With that and delivery is right at $125.00 for 30 pounds. I can't believe how fast the price has gone up. My bullets are going to cost at least .25 per shot just for the lead.
I have about 400 pounds maybe more but most of it is not soft lead. A lot of it is reclaimed lead shot, and it is pretty hard, and something that is real HARD! Right now my rifle likes the soft lead paper patched bullets, but I am thinking I am going to have to wean her from them, and try something harder because that is what I have.
I know a guy that has about 500 or 600 pounds of lead. He said a lot of it is Wheel weight. I told him I don't need the hard stuff, and he is not sure what all he has. I think he is going to let me poke around and try some to see how hard it is. He gave my son a bar a while back and I could scratch it with my finger nail.
I am going to talk to him soon to see what we can do. I am getting dental lead but it is getting hard to get because they are switching to digital. Plus it takes about 6 months worth of dental lead to weight a pound.
Where are you guys getting soft lead? Also how much is it costing?
Ron

 

[playfarmers]

I get it for free from a plumber friend. It is mostly roof flashings for around the sewer vents.

 

[Bob Gular]

Ron,
In this neck of the woods I get a lot of my lead from metal salvage yards. It comes in the form of old lead pipe, shower pans, and salvaged x-ray lab walls. It needs to be melted and fluxed but the cost is about a buck a pound. These dealers have also been known to trade for copper, brass, and aluminum scrap. When you buy lead from Midway and others you are about step four in the profit/mark-up structure, hence the ridiculous price.

 

[gmww]

Like Bob said I go to the metal recycle yards. About .30 a pound last time I went 2 years ago. I'm sure it's quite a bit more now.

 

[Tumblernotch]

You'd better hurry up. The word is out that the guvment is not allowing recyclers to sell lead anymore. At least the ones around here have quit.

 

[Stumpkiller]

A friend of mine has a scrap yard and he brings me two 5 gallon pails of sewer pipe lead/gaskets every so often. Won't accept $ so I give him six packs of Sam Adams. This stuff is pretty nasty, oakum, tar and what all else melted in but when fluxed & rough cast into ingots is near pure lead.

 

[kevthebassman]

I bought 65 pounds of stained glass lead from a shop for $6.50. It's pretty nasty to look at, but when the lead melts it leaves all the dirt and crapola floating and is pretty easy to flux. It scratches with a fingernail and casts pretty good, don't know how it shoots yet.

 

[Thunderchild]

I have gotten lead from scrap yards for .40 cents a pound. The scrap yard lead is 1/8 inch lead backer for sheet rock salvaged from x-ray rooms. The lead is dirty and it has to be cleaned (a very Smokey smelly process).

You can get lead from on line auctions. I typically pay 1.30 a pound delivered. It is a bit pricy but I do not have to deal with cleaning the lead. Make sure you ask the seller where he got his lead. Some of the people selling are selling wheel weight lead. This is not good for casting bullets. My last order was for 50 pounds and I received the order with in couple of days. The lead was very soft.