Lead is still out there

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Still some lead and some WW out there, went to the tire store today to get the new tires I ordered installed, ask him about his used WW . . . .

He said he has a bullet caster that buys all he has. Cool I says, if ya don't mind me being nosey how much is he paying for them?

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$100 for every 5 gallon bucket. o_O :eek::rolleyes:

Did i mention . . . .

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462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Only once did I pay for wheel weights, and that was $15 for a 5-gallon bucket filled to the brim with stick-ons.
 

FrankCVA42

Active Member
Talk about plain old lead. Bought one of the Antonio Zoli muskets in mint shape some years back and needed some pure lead for casting round balls and minie bullets. Local scrap yard had a guy unloading a pickup full of roofing lead. So got 500 lbs and ought to last awhile. Except the musket is still unfired and the roofing lead is still piled in the garage. I take procrastinating to new levels. Still have buckets (4) full of truck wheel weights to be melted down. And two buckets full of bullets I mined from our old pistol range. At least it isn't going anywhere. Frank
 

jordanka16

Active Member
The best scores I get around here are roofing lead from roofers or demos. Wheel weights seem to be a thing of the past. I cast the pure lead into ingots and mix what I need. I buy old 60/40 solder to make blackpowder cartridge bullets, and I have some pewter to make harder stuff.
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
Ben mining range scrap. Have quite a bit back.
Purchased at the scrap yard about 100 lb of plumbing pipe and about 50 lb of roof lead a few lbs at a time for a buck a pound.

Put a few feelers out there so...
Had a demolition outfit give me a lead shield from an x ray machine.
Have gotten a bunch of miscellaneous lead from here and there.

Bought from the thrift store some pewter, also reclaimed a bunch of old silver solder so I have a pretty good mix of tin at the moment.
May just go ahead and buy some Roto Lino Type, or Super Hard, just to have for an additive if I need it.

Basically put all current my misc lead , scrap bullets and range scrap into 9 batches of ingot then mixed those 9 batches equally,giving me a consistent base alloy to build off of. Now have about 400 lb of this consistent middle of the road alloy. However it does not form nice sharp edges right off.:(Need to add about about a percent of tin, or really crank the heat, till the bullets almost frosting after 4 casts to work well.
So.....
Planning on turning all my roofing lead, stick on wheel weight and xray sheet into 30-1 this weekend. So I can use that for BP balls, and mix it with the range scrap alloy to fill out my wad cutters, and such.
Made a small batch up and when I mix it 50-50 with my range scrap alloy it casts beautifully, at a lower temp, and is consitanly making bullets that come in at the right weight and size, and are 10 HB air cooled. Have not tried to quench yet.

The COWW I have just melted all of it together for consistency and kept it Pure COWW. Till you guys show me what to do with it later on.
 
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L Ross

Well-Known Member
At my shoot last weekend, one of the younger shooters, (31), told me he and his Dad cleaned out a shed on their farm very recently and found 35 five gallon buckets of WW from the 1970's. Grandpa used to cast and his Dad does too, but, mostly for vintage BP firearms. They were going to make the WW into cannon balls because they are too hard for muzzle loaders and the odd ball 19th century original guns they prefer. For example his Dad sent me an e-mail this morning where he is shooting a Rogers and Spencer cap and ball with some type of early conversion cylinder using 45 cal heeled bullets and black powder.
I told him I will trade soft lead for Old WW any day he wants to and I sent about 250 lbs of flashing home with him when he left.
 

Bliksem

Active Member
Helping people has it's rewards. I assisted an elderly gentleman some time ago changing out a flat tire. In our conversation I mentioned that I cast and reload. A few days later he called me and asked if I was interested in "a few pieces of lead", free for the taking. In his barn I found 18 of what appears to be isotope containers. The ingots in the pic are just under 5# each and I still have 10 more containers to go.
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Bliksem

Active Member
Last two buckets I got where mostly all STICK ON OR ZINK & some IRON FE.

CW

I gave up on WW's a few years ago as the availability and yield is just no longer there. Coupled with the delusional fear of metallic lead driven by politicians the current and new cast converts have decreasing choices for acquiring suitable alloy. I'll leave out the rest of what I wanted to say as this is not a political forum...
 

jordanka16

Active Member
I gave up on WW's a few years ago as the availability and yield is just no longer there. Coupled with the delusional fear of metallic lead driven by politicians the current and new cast converts have decreasing choices for acquiring suitable alloy. I'll leave out the rest of what I wanted to say as this is not a political forum...

It gets more and more difficult, I never can seem to find enough. Occasionally I'll get lucky on craigslist but usually it's people who want $1.50 a lb for their mystery ingots.
 

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
I have bought more then a few times.

Come to the conclusion its prt and parcel tommy hardness issues. (No idea whats really in "lino". Or 100% WW" People lie....;(

CW
 

Mitty38

Well-Known Member
One of the things I saw posted as in practice by a couple different sellers, that I get a chuckle out of after coming here and getting educated.
Thing is they actually think the are doing the buyer a favor and making a better product.
Is they will water quench ingot thinking they are improving the Quality of the lead. Then take a hardness test of the outside of the ingot. Then they post it as the actual hardness of the lead. Wonder how many of their customers are swearing by 15 HB for superior accuracy and none leading that are actually shooting 10 HB???? :rofl:
 
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