Curious where those who cast thier bullets get thier lead.  I have read up online and the one that seems most obtainable would be wheelweights.  Problem is I'm reading weights are being made with zinc and im thinking its not gonna be long until the lead is all phased out.  Or do you just buy it on amazon?

I was planning on casting my own but never got around to it and with a baby on the way I probably wont start any time soon. I have probably about 60 or 70 lbs of already sorted lead wheel weights and I have 20 or 30lbs of slugs and buckshot (I got from a widow whos late husband reloaded) and I also have a few sections of lead pipe. If you are looking for some lead let me know

some scrap yards will sell to you

I'm curious about this myself. I bought a lead sled and I don't want to buy expensive lead for it.

I was looking into this myself.

 

I used to work at a dealership and the scrap WW bucket was maybe 30% lead. Not worth it. I once stopped by a client that serviced a fleet with lead WWs and their scrap bucket was much better. So it is a crap shoot.

 

I called scrapyards and they either weren't interested or seemed confused. A lot of "lead was banned by the government" nonsense.

 

The crappy part is WWs are a great alloy. Roof flashing, pipe, etc is closer to pure and needs to be mixed with other metals to make great boolits. I try to mix mystery alloy in with my WWs when possible.

 

I would not buy online. You pay for the price of scrap, shipping, ingot manufacture, and profit somehow.

Wheel weight for independent tire shops are where most of mine come from. You have to sort them by hand but once you get a system down it goes fast. You can also forgo sorted and just throw everything in the melting pot at low temp and skim all the crap that floats on the lead.

I tried two tire places and they thought I was insane and wouldn't sell me any.

Keep trying. I have better luck at indy shops than chain stores.

Do they have separate containers of scrap ww ? I asked and they said that they use all of theirs, kinda liked at me like I should get my head checked ...

Do they have separate containers of scrap ww ? I asked and they said that they use all of theirs, kinda liked at me like I should get my head checked ...

They do not. You should take them all and sort out at home

I want asking if they separate the lead ones. But if they all have unusable wheel weights at all. The place I went to said that they use all the ones they have and don't dispose of any. It could be he was just trying to get me to leave ....

What happens to all the captured bullets at a range? 

 

I can't be the only one tossing lead at the target.

I have an unlimited supply of lead from work. I'm constantly cutting out old lead pipe, bends, and joints.

...

 

the range lead gets scrapped.

I've picked lead boolits from the backstop before. 

I've picked lead boolits from the backstop before. 

 

What NJ range let you do that?

What NJ range let you do that?

PA.

 

You can pick from the backstop at any unsupervised, empty, outdoor range. I didn't mine the place I simply picked up the pistol bullets on the surface.

I want asking if they separate the lead ones. But if they all have unusable wheel weights at all. The place I went to said that they use all the ones they have and don't dispose of any. It could be he was just trying to get me to leave ....

 

When I worked in a tire shop I regularly re-used weights that I had previously taken off someone else's wheels.  I checked the balance after applying them regardless of whether the weights were new or used.  As a result we didn't have the bucket of taken off weights - and this was back a few decades ago.  Now I understand most shops use some sort of Zinc weights making this source much less reliable than previous in any case.

 

I have been told that if I were interested in buying scrap lead I should check out a scrap dealer as they'll probably have a very good price.