Price of Lead pistol bullets....

[davinci]

I've been doing a lot of shopping lately for cast lead bullets in 9mm and 45acp, i'm looking to stock up this time around so shopping around will save me more than just a few bucks.

I am completely and utterly AMAZED at the price increases on bullets! The cheapest 9mm I've found was $34 per 1000 from brassmanbrass.com and the cheapest 45acp is $46 per 1000 from www.powdervalleyinc.com What gives? I remember paying about $30 per 1000 for 45acp a few years ago. The price of powder is still the same, primers have jumped a little, but not 30%. Primers used to be about $70 per 5000 for cci's... now they're about $150 per 5000 at gander mountain, and about $87.50 for Wolf brand at powder valley.

Anyone find bullets or primers cheaper? Thanks.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

The powers that be are claiming a shortage of metal and the rising prices of metal are causing prices of ammo and bullets to rise too. I doubt this and feel they are just taking advantage of us. One reason I feel this is true, even if metal prices has cuased a rise in bullet and brass case prices what is the excuse for the price hikes in powder?

 

[hawkeye1]

Ever thought of casting your own? Just a little investment in a melting pot and bullet mold and you can pour all you want. The local tire shops will usually give you all the wheel weights you want. I cast my own for 9mm, 38, 357, 40 s&w, 45 acp, 45 colt, and 454 Casull. All with wheel weights. They shoot great and are as cheap as you can find any where.

 

[ReloaderFred]

Scrap prices have jumped dramatically in the last couple of years. About two years ago, I was lucky to get .40 cents a pound for yellow brass, which is what cartridge cases are made of. Now I'm getting $1.70 a pound for the same brass as scrap. Lead has also gone through the roof, which is why I'm not able to get old wheel weights locally at all anymore. They sell them at
$ .75 a pound to the Exide Battery delivery man when he delivers their new batteries.

Prices are up and so is labor. Added to that are the fuel costs of delivering not only the raw materials, but the finished products. The problem is that China and India are running power lines all over their countries. And China has become the battery manufacturer for the world, which means they have a huge demand for lead.

These are the reasons for the increases in prices for bullets, cartridge cases and primers. I subscribe to several industry magazines and in one two week period, brass prices went up 40%, and lead went up 25%.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[wdlsguy]

 

[cdrt]

And you may have noticed the increase in burglaries of construction sites and buildings, such as churches, that are not secure. Lots of copper wiring being stolen and then sold for scrap. It's a big business. We've had several big ones in the metroplex this year.

And powder is going up just like everything else, because the raw materials to make it have to be delivered to the manufacturer and gas is not cheap.

My local bullet maker just had to raise their prices from $50/thousand for .45 ACP bullets to $65/thousand because their last lead shipment went through the roof.

 

[lee n. field]

Ever thought of casting your own? Just a little investment in a melting pot and bullet mold and you can pour all you want.

Yup-o. I'm gearing up for that now, with Lee equipment so far, which keeps costs way down.

 

[bluetopper]

When you cast your own, do you use lead only or throw in a tad of something harder? Tin?

 

[jhansman]

What gives? I remember paying about $30 per 1000 for 45acp a few years ago.

What gives? Demand, inflation, greed, whatever. Costs go up, not down. You think components are expensive? Look at what factory ammo has done in that period.

 

[Travis Two]

Its an adjustment period for all of us. we enjoyed stable pricing for many years and now the market has finally caught up with us. I still prefer to buy my bullets rather than cast my own because I get a better more consistent product that shows up in my shooting. So I go out to dinner a few less times to support my shooting. We'll all learn to manage.

 

[davinci]

what are lead-acid batteries only up a few bucks but bullets are twice the price of what they were a decade ago.

 

[ReloaderFred]

I would imagine that a lot of the lead in batteries is recycled lead, which keeps the price down. Most bullet and shot makers buy virgin lead, tin and antimony, or an alloy to their specification.

As an example, there is a shot making company in Medford, OR, Northwest Shot. He recently told us that to buy 3% antimony alloy in Portland, the nearest smelter, it cost him $33.75 per 25 pounds, then he has to transport it to Medford (about 275 miles), then smelt it into shot and then try to make enough profit to stay in business. He can't do that and keep shot prices below $40.00 per bag, wholesale. He is now working with reclaimed shot almost exclusively, which is enabling him to keep the wholesale price to around $25.00 per bag. He does this by mining trap fields on the local clubs and any person bringing reclaimed shot to him will get 50 pounds of new shot for each 103 pounds of clean shot they take in. He prefers to deal in tons, rather than small amounts, but that's how he's staying in business under the current market conditions.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[woodfiler]

toys

I think some of your bullets are in the paint used on the recently recalled
toys. I don;t understand why its going up either. I thought for the most
part we were trying to avoid the use of lead in almost everything,
except bullets. Batteries are in fact recycled and the lead plates
are use again. Plumbing solder is lead free. Waste pipes are made
of PVC... so where is the excessive demand for lead...that is driving
up prices. Do other countries still use it in there economies????

wood

 

[davinci]

woodfiler: that's exactly my point. we're not using any more lead than we ever were.

Here's another point. The most recycled material in the world is Steel! Why? because you can melt it and alloy it (if needed) to make stuff that's just as good as the original steel or better, just a different shape. Granted, Iron is much more common a mineral than Lead, but LEAD can be MELTED in a garage or even on the stove top. It should be being recycled everywhere!

I find it hard to believe that lead is harder to mine now than 10 years ago, or that there's more use of it than before.... to prove it, the price of things like Batteries haven't gone up near as much. Lead scrap is 60 cents a pound here, and it's pretty much garbage.

If lead's so darned valuable, why aren't the shops that you folks visit reusing their wheel weights or at least recycling them? You know what I think...we're getting the shaft in this deal.

 

[Werewolf]

woodfiler: that's exactly my point. we're not using any more lead than we ever were.

We're not but the rest of the developing world is and that's where the extra demand is coming from.

Increased demand + fixed supply = Higher Prices for LEAD

 

[Travis Two]

Car batteries are certainly somewhat more expensive than they were and with all these high cranking amp capacities the amount of plates in the batteries are up. Add in the increased number of all these Hybrid cars with all their batteries and the growth of China and India's industry and demand is certainly up.
Many of the lead mines operated by Doe Run are shut down due to EPA regs as mining lead is certainly more hazardous than mining iron ore.
In one location Doe Run had to buy up all the local housing due to the lead contamination level; and just about a year ago China bought out a lead mine operation in Canada and now the output from that mine goes to them exclusively.
How many outdoor ranges recycle lead? I'm willing to bet that most of the lead shot thru guns especially shotgunners is almost never recycled at anywhere near the level like steel is recycled. The methods for retrieving lead from shooting is poor at best. I think we are certainly paying for our many years of ignorance and now its caught up to all of us.

 

[lee n. field]

How many outdoor ranges recycle lead? I'm willing to bet that most of the lead shot thru guns especially shotgunners is almost never recycled at anywhere near the level like steel is recycled.

Next time I head out, I'll bring something to sift the dirt on the plate range. We'll see how well that works.

 

[hawkeye1]

In answer to Parasite,
I use almost exclusively wheel weights from my local tire shop. They are more that happy to give me all I want for nothing. They work great for all of my standard velocity pistol rounds. I even use wheel weights with a gas check for my 30-30 Winchester Rifle. I use straight wheel weights with my 454 Casull, also with gas checks. No leading , no problem. However, if you want your bullets a little harder, you could drop them into a bucket of water when you drop them from your bullet mold. That will harden them up some. If you really want to harden them up even more, you can add linotype to you mixture. I have put one pound of linotype to about ten pounds of wheel weights. That will cast considerably harder bullets. But you will rarely ever need bullets that hard.
Straight wheel weights work great!

 

[orionengnr]

I have asked two local Wal-Marts, plus the Pep Boys for their wheel weights.

No go. They have "someone" who is paying them some un-named price.

Maybe another local reloader? Maybe a Chinese consortium? Maybe the pilot of a black helicopter?

There is competition out there. Spelled "demand". And demand drives prices only one way....

 

[evan price]

When I worked in a tire shop there was this fella who had a contract with all the shops in the area to buy their lead. He stopped in on the first of the month. It was great because the manager put the lead money in the pizza fund and we usually knew a free lunch was soon to follow.
Lead is worth money as scrap lead t oanyone who wants to buy it.

I have a source at a local junkyard who sells me his lead cheap. (Usually for a favor fixing his machines)