Source for cheap lead

I've been reduced to picking up spent bullets from the gun club berms to streach my cast bullet lead supply.It's a pain in the a$$ to melt down but so far I've recovered 31 lyman ingots, that I mix 50-50 with wheel weights,for plinking .38 and .45 and .44 loads.A heavy coating of tumble lube and they work well,with very little or no leading.hdbiker

I picked up some pure lead wrap around duck decoy weights off the clearance rack at Academy, last week.
I've picked up printer's type sets, wheel weights, lead flashing and downspouts, and vinyl coated lead boat anchors from the scrapyard in the past.
The lead anchor should make a boatload of round balls for the cap 'n ball revolver.

Thats a good Idea,I was just checking out my lead supply the other day and I would like to get more.I have about 10 lbs left,and thats not much for me.I shoot slugs alot out of my bp shot guns and pistols and they're anywhere from 225 to 350 grains so I tend to use alot of lead.The good thing is that I recycle probably 75% of it when target shooting.d to use wheel weights alot,but thats phasing out these days.I'll definately check into that for sure,thanks for the tip.

I have been entertaining the notion of building a bullet trap for personal use at the range, it would deflect the projectile(s) down into a collection bin for reuse

Jaymo, you can't have a boat anchor made out of lead! What if it sinks to the bottom, and migratory waterfowl eat it???

Scott, they'd drown.
I did the good, hippie/commie-wuss thing. I made sure it'll never be used as a boat anchor again.

I have been entertaining the notion of building a bullet trap for personal use at the range, it would deflect the projectile(s) down into a collection bin for reuse

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That's on my project list too. Im gonna start digging at my recycler's steel plate pile and gather what I need, then back to the torch and welder. Something with a slanted steel back, and swinging steel targets inside....I think.

free lead

Got given 165# of lead pipe pieces, large diameter stuff. I put on a mask and ran it through a table saw to get it down to pieces that will fit in my pot. I had the carbide blade set just a little low then folded and broke it.No dust but stuck on lead chips to clean out of the saw.

kbbailey said:

That's on my project list too. Im gonna start digging at my recycler's steel plate pile and gather what I need, then back to the torch and welder. Something with a slanted steel back, and swinging steel targets inside....I think.

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I use a stack of old tires filled with sand, it's a little harder to dig out the bullets but I built it for my modern hunting rifles.

Do you really need 3/8 steel to catch pure lead bullets? My Remington NMA won't even penetrate an aluminium frying pan with 24 grains of powder.

Do you really need 3/8 steel to catch pure lead bullets? My Remington NMA won't even penetrate an aluminium frying pan with 24 grains of powder.

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I'll bet if you shot that pan a few thousand times, there wouldn't be much left.

Do you really need 3/8 steel to catch pure lead bullets? My Remington NMA won't even penetrate an aluminium frying pan with 24 grains of powder

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..Yea, I was disappointed when I compared my .357snub penetration vs my beloved '58. I was shooting a thin walled steel pressure tank. the .357s whizzed completely through....the .44 roundball just dented.

As far as the thickness of the deflection plate, I intend to collect .357, .30-30, .45colt, etc so I want to try to find a pretty thick plate.

25cschaefer said:

I'll bet if you shot that pan a few thousand times, there wouldn't be much left.

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It mostly resembles an apple core now so you're perfectly right.

The "printers type" (linotype) will be far too hard for anything except high speed gaschecked rifle bullets.

I bought some plumber's lead at Ferguson Enterprises in 5 lb pigs. It's soft enough to scratch it with my fingernail, so I'm assuming it's pure or nearly pure.

Not all of their stores have it in stock, they move them around from store to store. The price isn't fixed, either, at first it was going to be $2.25/lb, but he found another store that had it for $1.90/lb, so I ordered 20 lbs worth.

around here window sash counterweights were often ten pound lead bars. In addition, there is still some lead pipe being removed from old houses.

Hurricanes often wash boats here downstream and over a hydro dam at safe harbor. My daughter's boyfriend found an old wrecked sail boat below a river dam last fall. The hull was smashed to bits when it hit the rocks at the end of the spillway, but the keel had 200 lbs of lead. (He used a chain saw to cut it into manageable bits.) (He was pulling outboards out of the water by the truck load and got a very tidy sum from the scrap dealer for them.)

I overheard him wishing for another hurricane this summer.

Good pricing info guys.

I just saw this picture today, the main ingedients are a fire extinguiser and a piece of U-beam.


That would be good for revolvers I think

Yeah! Avoid lead for an anchor!
Go Green with an inflatable anchor made of recycled plastic!
The same company sells inflatable sandbags. Much easier to use, and none of that backbreaking work!
I think they sell these items on late night TV ... heh.

I made a deal with a walmart service manager several years ago to buy the lead wheel weights. I had to get the 5 gallon bucket when it was half full. He didn't want any full buckets sitting around. I paid him 10 bucks for each half bucket. Thats about 50lbs of lead.

I also got all the old lead pipe from my dads house when he replumbed it. I also saw some sheet lead in the back of someones truck in the walmart parking lot. I asked what he was going to do with it? He said "take it to the scrap yard". I offered him $20 for it. When got it home I cut it up into smaller peices and weighed it. I got 230lbs of lead for $20.

Now I have about 1400lbs of lead. Some is dead soft and some is harder wheel weight lead. If you try you can find lead.

And yes ask the roofers for the old lead boots. They normally just throw them away at the dump with the shingles. They are dead soft and make excellent BP bullets.

Also you can use wheel weights for your MZ bullets. Just don't flux the pot. Let it get very hot and the antimony and arsenic will float to the top and can be skimmed off. Then you have pure lead.

There is a formula for determining if you have pure lead. You measure and weigh you round ball and do some simple math. I don't have the formula in front of me right now. I am really surprised its not in the Dixie catalog in the Information section. I bet somebody here knows it.

zimmerstutzen said:

around here window sash counterweights were often ten pound lead bars. In addition, there is still some lead pipe being removed from old houses.

Hurricanes often wash boats here downstream and over a hydro dam at safe harbor. My daughter's boyfriend found an old wrecked sail boat below a river dam last fall. The hull was smashed to bits when it hit the rocks at the end of the spillway, but the keel had 200 lbs of lead. (He used a chain saw to cut it into manageable bits.) (He was pulling outboards out of the water by the truck load and got a very tidy sum from the scrap dealer for them.)

I overheard him wishing for another hurricane this summer.

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Someone brought over a boat keel last summer. Close to 200 pounds. Very hard to move, but some of the purest lead Ive ever seen. Over a couple minutes I watched it go from very light baby blue to almost black. I didn't cut it - just melted it from one end. It was so soft - (How soft was it?) It was so soft, I could just look at it really hard and it would scratch.

You guys are lucky.
Around here the recyclers have no lead.
The plumbing supply guys don't sell it anymore either.

My only source is digging up backstop bullets.