I am just wanting to get a feel for what some of you are paying for your lead.

I have looked over everything that Midway has--the different alloys offered by Ney Smelting.

$121 for 30lbs of pure lead
$151 for 30lbs of 20:1 lead/tin alloy
--I am sure there is a hefty shipping cost on each of these too!

Are some of you paying similar prices? What other commercial sources are out there?

For general plinking casts, I bounced around a few tire shops in my area looking for wheel weights. Most recycled but a couple sold to the public. So far the best price was $1 per pound. Is that good? Bad?

I would like to hear from a few of the casters here and see what you are doing to supply yourselves.

These days $1 per pound for decent wheelweights is not too unreasonable. 15 years ago I paid about 35 cents/lb IIRC.

Just be sure what kind of wheelweights you're getting for your money. See the "Wheel weights" thread in Big Game Rifles.

Tin is horribly expensive. Called some welding supply places in town for 50/50 bar solder and the best price available was $20 and change per pound. One place sold it for "$10 a piece". A piece - one triangular strip - weighs about 1/4 pound.

I was just out at our trap club in Coeur d'Alene and they were selling recycled shot for $1.75 per pound, I beleive it was. You might check them on the net and see if they still have any avaiable. That should work for much of our shooting.

The last time that I bought wheel weights (about 18 months ago) I paid 30 cents a pound. I tried to buy them from tire retailers, but they said that state law (West Virginia) required them to sell them only to recyclers.

Here's your best bet - orders over $99 have free shipping for alloys with the green truck icon on them. http://www.rotometals.com/Bullet-Casting-Alloys-s/5.htm

In general, you can buy wheel weight lead already smelted into ingots for about $1 per pound shipped. The last time I purchased some I bought a 50/50 mix of wheel weight/soft lead for $54 for fifty pounds shipped and that was only a few weeks ago.
The best place I have found for decent lead prices is the classifieds on Cast Boolits web site. (I hope nobody gets mad for the referral to another site) Sometimes I'll see raw wheel weights for the same price, but I see no need to buy those when I can buy it already in ingots for the same price. That saves me time and propane money.
If you know someone with a tire shop you might get them free. Another good source is asking friends if they know someone with a tire shop. I have gotten hundreds of pounds of free wheel weights from both of those sources.
I also have a friend who gets hundreds of pounds of free wheel weights but has no place to smelt them due to his small children who are curious. Looks like I'll get some of that in return for smelting and cleaning it for him.
For soft lead, I've been collecting all the car battery cable terminals I can get from mechanics. (The ends on the CABLE, not the actual battery.) I don't get a lot, but in the course of a year, I probably get enough to make my 50/50 WW/soft lead hunting bullets. I just use straight wheel weights for the rest of my bullets.
Hope some of that helps, BAB

I have got a little over 4,000 of WW, pure lead, and linotype. I have got about a dozen pizzas, and maybe a half dozen cases of beer in all of mine. Not sure what that works out to in a per pound price.

Somebody above mentioned laws in WV. I don't know about the laws, but I have been getting WW from WV tire dealers for many many years.

I did buy about 100# of tin bars one time, several years ago for $4 a pound. I thought that was a good deal. I figured the prices were going to go through the roof.

Go scrounging. It is out there. You just have to scrounge for it. And I actually enjoy scrounging.

After a little more thought, I did give a guy $40 one time for 5-50# bars of pure lead. I forgot about that. Tom.

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will try some of those cable ends. Are they pretty soft? BTW that rabbit you missed by a hair(hare) was cheap. Haven't shot a deer with those .357 yet but still trying. BG

Sign up for their mailing list and wait for a holiday sale. Usually 10% off

Thanks for that link to Rotometals, you guys, had never heard of them before. Was looking around their site last night, their prices for 50/50 bar solder are less than half of what they are from local welding supply shops.

Commercial roofers used to get a lot of sheet lead off of flat roofed buildings. Used around edges of roof.

Hey Bobby,

funny running into you here. The cable ends I have used I mixed with some nearly pure lead sheeting that was once used to wrap underground phone cables. I didn't notice any difference. That last deer I shot didn't notice any difference either.

I'm also keeping my eyes open around our marina for any older boat restorations in progress. Some of the engine room sound dampening material I have seen appears to be very soft lead.

BAB

I know this isn't the classifieds section, but I do have more lead ingots than what I need for jigs/decoy weights, so if anyone is interested pm me and I would be glad to sell some. I got them from an estate, so don't know the exact composition, but believe they are wheel weights as there were several coffee cans of those, too. Would be willing to ship 50# in a flat rate box for $1/lb. Might be able to go 60#, but will need to check.

Last time I bought lead, I paid $0.09 per pound - that's why I bought a half ton. I have paid as high as $0.40 per pound a couple times. Last time I bought tin, it was about $6 per pound. I knew prices have gone up and down over the last few years, but it seems to me to be getting ridiculous. I have enough of each to have a bunch left over to pass down to our son . . . when I'm done using them, anyhow.

Thank you so much, EPA, OSHA and the greenies . . .

If you check e-bay, you should be able to get a lot of 50#'s of ww ingots shipped in a flat rate mailer for ~$50. Considering it saves the hassle mess and stench of melting down ww's, that's not a bad deal.

I used to be able to get 5 gal buckets of ww's for $20, which yielded roughly 100#'s of ingots. But then my source stopped selling. My wife got 1 1/2 5 gal buckets just by asking at a local tire shop, saying it was for the kids to cast toy soldiers.

You'll probably find the smaller tire shops are more friendly than the chains, and a case of quality beer for a 5 gal bucket would be a fair exchange.

WW's are my favorite bullet alloy, they work great as is for most applications, and water quenching from the mold nicely hardens them up for special applications.

some sources for lead , i do not pay over .40 cents per pound unless it is melted into ingots and clean soft lead then only .60 per pound max, i look every week as we all know just getting up one day and saying i am going to get some clean soft is not an option unless your willing to pay for it ,

so i look on craigslist garage sales and estate sales, it pops up quite regular, have gotten a lot for free just for asking, another is roofing companies, just stop in and ask, never got any through the phone line , most places just give it to me or if there is a big pile i buy someone a 20 dollar card for burger king or mcd's and it is appreciated, another is boat salvage yards , so just start searching

another would be to just find a metal recycling place, your going to pay a bit more than they paid for it but if they have way too much to transfer out they will be willing to make a deal

you just ask anyone you know and it usually comes to find you after a while

Boy....when I read these prices I am simply relieved that I loaded up on a life time supply about 12 years ago.

I used to buy my lead at junk dealers. X-ray room lead at 20 cents a lb. I expect junk dealers are not a viable source these days. I did the electrical maintenance at two tire shops and the guys in the shop saved wheel weights for me. When they got a 5 gallon bucket full they'd call me. A neighbor was a telephone repair guy and he'd save the lead off their splice containers and give it to me.

From what you fellas are saying those days are gone for good. Darn the bad luck. I hope you gentlemen looking for lead have good fortune.

I used to get sheet lead at the scrap yard. Wheelweights I got for the asking where I bought my tires.
What is 40 lbs of pure linotype I got from a print shop worth now?
whelennut
Has anybody used babbitt metal to make bullets. I have some that was used in a coal burning power plant to make bushings.
It seems to have a high melting point and I'm not sure about the exact composition of the alloy.

Midway is askin $151 for 30# of casting lead? At 5 bucks a pound I think you could just buy cast bullets and save some $$. Do XTPs even cost that much? Good grief!
It seems the going rate for wheel weights is anywhere from free to about a dollar a pound. I think if I had to pay more than than .50 per #, its defeating one of the main reasons I use cast bullets in the first place. I do think though if anyone has plans on shooting home cast bullets in their lifetime they should get it while the getin is good. The enviro-nazis have declared war on this stuff. Who knows if we will be able to find any in 10 years.

I have bought about 35 lbs of linotype on E-Bay in the last week for about $1.50/lb. I don't do alot of casting but I am getting set up to be able to cast rifle along with pistol just in case....

I made my monthly run to the local scrap yard about a week ago,I take aluminum can,steel cans other scarp and old batteries and such to make a little spending money.

Anyways since I cast and WW's are getting pretty scares or end up with more zinc ones than lead I ask if they had any lead for sale. I ended up walking away with a 37 lb. chunk of sheet lead for 30 cents per lb. which I can alloy with some 65/35 bar solder I got for free. Should make some good 20:1 or 30:1 bullets for various handguns I have.