Ok- here's the deal-e-o:
1.
Rotometals is
the go to
online source for casting alloy. You can get a wide assortment of alloys from pure lead to antimonal lead. You can also get pure tin there too. I wait for major holiday sales. I usually get 10-12% off their typical price. S&H is free (at least when you order enough and I've ordered enough that the USPS guy hates me). Based on what you're currently paying, you should be able to cut your expense by half, if not more. Be patient and wait for the sales. Hit that site at every sale and get just enough for the free S&H. After a few years, you'll have half a ton of lead- at least that's how it turned out for me.
Do consider how you will store this. Initially I kept it on my reloading bench shelves. My bench is sturdy. One day, I noticed how the 2x4 frame had developed a bow. I then bought a US made steel shelf that could support 1000# per shelf. I'm using two of the four shelves now just for lead. However, I have to place 3/8" ply on each shelf to spread the load or else there'll still be depressions where the lead sits. Unless you're stacking it on a concrete floor, you won't be stacking it high. Get it right the first time, moving lead sucks. My wife and I welcomed our firstborn home 7 months ago. I went through every ingot and piece of scrap lead and either bagged them in ziplock bags or old coffee cans lest my little one decided he wanted to see what that grey block tastes like.
2. Wheel weights. Forget the tire stores, except for maybe some odd independents. Zinc WWs have taken over and it's not likely that you'll ever see enough lead WWs to make a trip to your tire store worth while. I've tried at least a dozen places. Surprisingly, most of the guys gave me puzzled looks. I guess some people don't know that you can melt lead and cast it into bullets. Or else they were wondering what decade I thought I was in. I've been invited to search a number of 5 gallon buckets and they're mostly zinc. Many still have these stick-on lead weights but they're so small and there's so much garbage to sort that I didn't find it was worth my time. And I believe some tire shops are contracted to only sell/give their WWs to recyclers.
However, wheel weights aren't out of the question. I've purchased a large amount via eBay on a couple of occasions- mostly to see if it was a viable option. Pricing was good but not anywhere near as good as the old timers who tell stories of going into tire shops and leaving with hundreds of pounds of wheel weights for two bits. Another more viable option is going to a scrap yard. Before you do, compile a list of scrap yards in a radius which you're willing to travel and then call them up. Ask if they sell scrap lead to make trot line sinkers. Many scrap yards around me don't sell to the public. However, one does and it's located on the way to my parents, so whenever I go home to visit I make it a point to swing by there. They can negotiate on price too. The last time I went, I asked for all of their scrap lead. They had 110#. Apparently, I'm not the only guy buying lead since this is a huge scrap yard. The girl behind the register asked how many pounds and the guy with the metal analyzer gun told her and she says blah, blah, blah, "...forty cents a pound", and I exclaimed, "Forty cents?! Last time I was here it was twenty-five cents". And they let me have it for a quarter a pound. Truth is, I'm usually so thrilled to find it I never actually really figured out what I was paying. I knew it was way cheaper than Rotometals pricing but never bothered doing the math. And I don't know where that quick reply about "the last time I was here it was twenty-five cents..." came from either. I don't feel like I've ever been a good negotiator. If they stuck to their guns, I would've paid the forty cents per pound.
3. Range scrap. I belong to a gun club. The hours we're allowed to shoot are between 9a-9p. I asked the club officers for permission to pick up scrap lead on the berms between 730a-9a. As long as I didn't do any digging it was fine. I can't speak for other clubs, but there's some avid shooters at the one I belong to. I like to collect from the range that is used for the black powder silhouette matches. Big fat lead boolits. Go after a rain. The dirt is washed away from a lot of the bullets and they're very easy to see. The last time I did it I kept tabs and I collected 10 pounds of lead bullets in 20 minutes. Bring an empty coffee can
The only thing I cannot find a cheap source of is tin. I think pewter is supposed to be high in tin content but there's apparently some stuff out there that's being passed off as pewter that isn't the traditional composition. Doesn't matter since I have a bunch from Rotometals. My last Rotometals purchase was 100# of Linotype (not their pure cast stuff, but real old school stuff). I kept 50# for myself and gave the other 50# as a Christmas gift. A couple of weeks ago I started melting down some of the WWs and bullets. Melt, skim the scrap steel and copper jackets, flux, skim the dirt/grit, flux again, skim, flux again, cast into ingots and also a few bullets to be used to test the BHN. I haven't tested the BHN from that smelting session. It was approx 50:50 WWs and range scrap. No doubt it's sufficiently hard for my purposes (45 ACP, 38 Spec, and 44 Spec).
Reloading cast bullets
can be about economy. Just 8 years ago while I was a medical resident with more school loan debt than most mortgages, I picked up every piece of 45 Auto brass I could find. Loading 45 ACP with a Lee hand press with cast 235 gr RN boolits from scrap lead makes for very cheap shooting. The reality of it is that I enjoy the casting aspect. I enjoy the hunt of finding cheap lead. And I enjoy picking up free brass. Even still to this day, long after I no longer have to worry about the economics of it all.
When I opened my practice, the first location I considered renting was a former family docs office. I toured it and my eyes got huge when I saw what a huge X-ray room the guy had. I envisioned spending my evenings after my clinic closed tearing down barrier walls and removing sheets of thick protective lead (I don't utilize an X-ray as a psychiatrist). Alas, the rent was too high and the layout less than ideal so I passed, but I think of it often.
Cheap lead is out there, you have to hunt for it.
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