Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting So where do you get your lead for casting?

And how do you test it to see how hard to make it ?

About 20 years ago I bought a big pile of linotype from a local printer.

I mixed that with wheelweights and some 50/50 bar solder to make Lyman #2 according to the recipe in their cast bullet handbook. Finally ran out of wheelweights and they aren't making any more good clip on wheelweights.

So, quality being more important than sheer quantity to me, I now buy pure lead and bar solder from www.rotometals.com. I mix that with the linotype (400 pounds of lino goes a long way) to make #2 alloy.

Lyman #2 runs 15 BHN which I verified with an LBT hardness tester. They show #2 being used for most all of their cast bullet loads from handgun to rifle, so I use #2 for everything as well - .38 Special loads at 800 fps, reduced .308 and .30-06 loads at 2200 or full power .30-30 at 2100 and everything in between.

It's definitely more expensive to buy the lead but it doesn't break the bank, especially when you buy during their sales, and as noted I'd rather work with known quantities and keep a big pile of consistent, quality #2 alloy than try to guess at various scrap metal content and custom mix each lot.

Start with this - big bars of pure lead, 60/40 bar solder and linotype previously rendered into ingots:


To end up with these:


I like the ability to grab any of those ingots and it will be the same hardness and content as any other.

I was reading about using metal dealers, and that wheel weights aren't available anymore - almost didn't believe it so I had to ask.

I can't believe how much the hardness tester costs either. I've got about 40 -50 lbs of lead but I'm guessing it's way too soft. Just got my Lee 4-20 today and now I'm on to looking for lead.

Thanks for the info.

I get my lead from WW's.

I don't test for hardness.

if you have a choice, just get some lead with 1-2% tin and 1% antimony and the rest lead and you'll do just fine.

Spotshooter,

Send me a small piece of your lead and I'll test it for you. I have a Cabine Tree tester. You can get one for about $100.

Jim

I get 55# ingots used for ballast in commercial fishing vessels. I also mine discarded lead line from gillnets and seines.

Some wheel weights but most range lead. My goal is simple. Pick up more than I shoot. If I pick up 30 lbs is "break even" on gas to shoot. Last time I picked up 100 lbs.

I walk through the Walmart parking lot and pull wheel weights off cars with �bama stickers.

Friends,farmers/ranchers and customers I worked for over the years.Never paid a dime for any of this,nice folks and this is only a third of my stash.

I will state that my hardness tester has become a key part of my casting repertoire. But, for about the first fifteen years of my casting, I relied on the old thumb nail method of hardness testing and got along ok. You can easily tell by that method the difference between soft, medium and hard- which is admittedly a pretty broad range and not scientific in the least. But, it'll get you in the ball park and get you started casting.

I am still able to get wheel weights from the local tire shops although there is increasingly more zinc and steel weights in the mix. I sort the weights for lead alloy and render them into ingots. Pure lead and linotype are still available and I purchase as much as I can when it comes up for sale locally. I use a Saeco hardness tester so that I can duplicate my results when batching a pot for casting. As Gnoahhh stated, I too have used the thumb nail method for many years and it worked well. Good luck!

Back in the early 80's I had access, through my job, to a Rockwell Hardness Tester. This was the big fancy do-it-all machine that could test Rockwell A, B, C scales, and the full range of Brinnell Hardness. That machine could do it all, to include wiping your nose and predicting the future! Naturally I snuck in my lead bullets to test them accurately, which was my first break from thumbnail testing. It prompted me to grab an LBT hardness tester when they first came out and astonishingly the Rockwell machine proved the LBT tester to be quite accurate (at least mine anyway). If I had to replace it, I would seriously consider the Cabine Tree.

Sounds like I'm pretty fortunate in that most of the tire shops in my area are still using lead wheel weights. In fact, I just talked to the owner of the local shop, about 4 miles from my house, and he said he had a nearly full bucket that he'd sell me for $30. Assuming it has very little zinc like most of the stuff I've gotten locally it'll put my stash of WWs in the neighborhood of 700+ lbs. Besides the WWs, I've got a bit of linotype and about 50 lbs of plumber's solder of either 40/60 or 50/50.

Terrific idea that.

Most casters are world class scroungers! Talk with roofing contractors, plumbers, telephone linemen/installers, your local tire shop. Most print shops have gotten away from hot type, but check with them and your local newspaper. Visit you local scrap yard, many will not sell to the public, but you might find one that will. Talk with anyone you know in the medical/x-ray field. If you are around a waterfront,some sail boats have lead for ballast. Foundries like RotoMetals sell new stuff of known alloy. Google "castboolits", several members on there sell lead. If your range has no rule against it, you can mine the back stop or bullet trap and recycle bullets. I would stay away from batteries, too many health issues to be safe. There is probably a few more places that I forgot about. Lightman