Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Lead Sources

Primarily soft lead.

I know Rotometals, Amazon, Ebay, and the like.

Any other smaller operations under the radar maybe selling scrap lead at a better price? Chunks of old pipe, roofing lead, etc? I'm putting feelers out locally as well but want to have a list of options.

Scrap yard 15 minutes from me used to be my source. Went there yesterday and they changed ownership and won’t sell to the public now. This prompted me to call others all around the city. Called 7 different yards, big to small…none would sell to me. Moral of the story is, watch FB Marketplace and when you find some, buy ALL of it. 500-1000 lbs would last most guys a lifetime.

I was collecting WW's from repair shops before they caught wind of the demand. I gave some away after I made ingots. Impossible to get considering it's zinc now. Dentists have soft lead from xray inserts.

Wheel weights: Walmart parking lot, nighttime, pliers and a bucket.

If local scrounging doesn't work there's always eBay and the classifieds of cast bullet forums.

Take the plunge & order a 1000 pounds or even more.
https://maycoindustries.com/ammunition/bullet-alloys/

Oh, that I lived in a perfect world free of stuff like eating, gas, shelter, and clothing!!

There's a few scrap yards here local. I can stop and ask but I'm not gonna bank on em.

As far as FB, me and Facebook divorced a while back. They're too damn liberal for me and I'm too feral for them. I do sorta miss marketplace though.

Got plenty of wheelweight metal and monotype.

I shoot a lot of roundballs in a flintlock and my one son likes soft lead in his 1858 cap & ball, and we are running low. Besides, I need to dilute some of that monotype to make use of it.

lead has been classified as a toxic metal ,scrape yards won't sell to any body with out a hazmat license . if you live around water cast net sinkers are good same as duck decoys weights

Sometime in the late '80s when lead shot got up to almost $10/25# bag, I started making my own shot for my Trap and Skeet shooting. Back then lead wasn't the horribly dangerous metal that it is now, and 150 pound buckets of old wheel weights could easily be had at tire shops for about $10 each. For 10 to 15 years, I was making about 700 pounds of shot each year.

I have close to 1000# of wheel weight's in blocks. Drove trucks for a living and picked up bucket's of lead whenever I had to get a tire repaired. Hard to do here anymore as Oregon doesn't allow lead wheel weights any more. I think some states do though. Though about going around to local ranch's and getting wheel weight's out of their junk yards. Seems like every ranch around has their own junkyard. Looked at fishing sinkers couple days ago but seems to me they are getting awfully proud of them. Don't know why I still look, what I have will last me the rest of my life and then some.

Talk to multiple roofers. They come across soft sheet lead on their roofing jobs ( from around the chimney). They will throw it out with the shingles. MAYBE they will set it aside for you. Make it easy on them. Maybe a 12 pack of their favorite beer will help develop the relationship.

Dentists X-Ray lead used to be a source, but most use digital xrays now. Find long-practicing dentists. They may have a bucket of old lead from years of being in practice. They have to pay hazmat fees to have it picked up. A bottle of wine could help. As him/her if he has other dentist friends who may have a stash hidden away. I am on a lead pick up list from multiple dentists in the area. Some have called to ask me to take it away. You need a lot of X-Ray films to yield some decent mass of lead. Most I got was ~8-10 lbs. Has been skim pickings the last 10 years (digital xrays).

I'm not casting nearly as much as I used to, and might have enough pure lead to spare some. Will check and see.

I found a trove of dead soft lead last year in a garage right under my nose. I was doing something for my 94 year old friend and I spied a dusty stack of lead bricks behind some junk in a corner. I asked what they were for, he said "I dunno. I got 'em maybe 50 years ago when I witnessed an X-Ray lab being dismantled. Why, do you want 'em? Take 'em." I still gotta muster up the moxie to go and haul them out - eight bricks 5"x14"x3" thick. They gotta weigh around 60 pounds each.

I pulled the trigger on some Ebay soft lead. Seller says it's from pipe and roof flashing, cleaned and fluxed. 50 lbs for a few pennies over $2 a pound shipped. Best price online I've been able to dig up so far. I'll get that in and see how good it is and if it's truly dead soft before I order any more from him.

Still be looking locally though.

Figure I'll have a bullet trap on my 50 yard backyard range to reclaim my lead from now on. Not a fan of this new normal we got now.

The dam EPA is the way they will dry it all up. It’s my fault for not stockpiling a metric ton years ago. Now I will pay a stupid tax for the lesson. Even just a few years back it was dirt cheap and I could buy from my scrapyard of choice.

I DID stock up years ago. My fault was not replenishing it as I used it. I used way more soft lead than my other alloys. So yeah, now I'm paying the price for it.

I've been using RMR scraps from their bullet manufacturering. It's about $100 for a 60 pound box delivered. It's not pure lead but it's pretty soft. I think it has some antimony in it. And is supposed to be a bhn about 10. I add a little monotype or ww lead to it depending on how hard I'm going for.

Bb

Any idea about what that runs for 1000 pounds. I'd be interested in doing that for some good pure lead or an alloy of just lead and tin. I've got plenty of monotype I need more softer lead.

Bb

I’ve been close to pulling the trigger on a shipment from RMR. Do they have enough antimony to harden when water quenched?