Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

well i found a small amount of good old lead weights on craigslist cheap, but i hope someone in my area has some for me, let me know, once again i am NOT trying to scam or make money simply shoot cheap! i appreciate the responses, and am happy to see that there are other people in hampton roads that cast their own bullets, and enjoy shooting as much as i do! there have been a couple people who have made it seem like i want hand outs and am not willing to plod through a junk yard, i would like to say that i wish i had time! i have stopped at a few shops but people seem to think that if i am stopping it must be worth a bunch of money and by the time i sort it and skim out the clips and zinc, it really isnt worth much! i will try the pick n pull as a few of you have suggested, but i figure i need a pretty good block of time or a whole day off to pull a bucket or two, and in the military days off dont come cheap! THANKS EVERYONE!

Kevin

HK91762mm wrote:BE carefull I got a bucket of them from a local garage -half of them would not melt-the rest when melted cooled into crummy sand mixed looking poor alloy-Im glad I didnot let the stuff contaminate my good alloy I have saved>>

TRY a plumming shop for old lead pipe gasketing lead and lead pipe..

You probably got some of them "green" wheel weights...

My adventures in wheel weights have been less than rewarding so far. The very first shop I asked at is the only one that paid off so far. He only wanted a few bucks for the half bucket he gave me, then we got talking guns and one thing led to another and I fixed his mk2 and got the weights for free, and he said I can have them in the future. He only had a little less than half a bucket built up over the last 7-8 months so its a slow replinishing source.

I decided to go on a little shop-tour yesterday to try and fill the bucket I have. 15 tire/auto shops, not a single weight to show for. I'm definately getting trained in rejection, but I gotta say, by the 15th shop I had my "gimmick" down. I found a few that said somebody came through a few hours before me and asked for the weights also, which is funny because they all said they hadn't had anyone asking for lead in 8months to a year. So someone has the same idea apparently and just so happened to be on the same day. I did find a shop that would sell me a full coffee can for $15... that seemed a bit high though. I have one or two shops that will consider selling to me in a few weeks after their salvage guy comes back, just so they can see what the going rate for lead is and know what to charge me. So that can be good, but I have a feeling once these guys think there is money to be made, they might up the price.

I did find out from a local junkyard that China, Korea and a few other small asian countries have been contacting some salvage yards across the country and trying to get contracts for all their scrap lead. This guy wanted nothing to do with helping "them" he said, but he did mention a lot of the other salvage yards are contracting overseas and sending them mass amounts for an apparently good price.. so that could affect some salvage yard digging and what you can find or buy.

Oh well, I cover a 6 county area with my work, so there are plenty more shops out there I plan to stop at.

Rotometals.com is selling 99% pure lead ingots for around $2.00 - 3.00 a Lb.

http://www.rotometals.com/Lead-Ingots-s ... 5Qodainufg

At that price I wouldn't think wheel weights would be much.

That looks like a pretty good site that I'd consider buying from if I were casting bullets. I just created a cart there with 20 pounds of lead and UPS shipping and it came to about $68.00 which equates to about $3.40 per pound including shipping and no running around using gas trying to find what you can find.

They also have the 27 pound pigs (half of a pig) for $89.00 with free shipping which comes to about $3.30 per pound.

http://www.rotometals.com/ProductDetail ... D&CartID=1

Well Kevin, I went in today at lunch, but no luck. I asked if he had any and he straight up said no. But when walking in there, all the cars had them on the tires. He said to go ask at a tire shop. Sorry man.

Ok, now I have to thank you Kevin....

Thanks for getting me in trouble... Not really, but I thought I was getting drilled by an attorney last night. Let me explain...

That scrap yard has a very long driveway, maybe 1/4 mile long. It is all dirt and was quite wet yesterday. It has huge holes that were all filled with water. Well you can imagine what my car looks like after driving down it yesterday. Mud all along the sides, on the windows, everywhere.

Last night, the wife gets home, comes straight in to me and asks "Where have you been today?" But the tone wasn't right, lol. I told her where I went and what I was looking for and before I could get anything else out she came with the "Suuuure, why would you need lead wheel weights? You sure you weren't driving to some secret spot to meet someone?"

I told her it was for the guy on the forums that I sent that map of hunting spots from back home. Then she said "Oh, that was nice of you to do that for him. Did they have any?"

Man, women sometimes, lol. No Offense ladies..

Unkn0wN wrote:Ok, now I have to thank you Kevin....

Thanks for getting me in trouble... Not really, but I thought I was getting drilled by an attorney last night. Let me explain...

That scrap yard has a very long driveway, maybe 1/4 mile long. It is all dirt and was quite wet yesterday. It has huge holes that were all filled with water. Well you can imagine what my car looks like after driving down it yesterday. Mud all along the sides, on the windows, everywhere.

Last night, the wife gets home, comes straight in to me and asks "Where have you been today?" But the tone wasn't right, lol. I told her where I went and what I was looking for and before I could get anything else out she came with the "Suuuure, why would you need lead wheel weights? You sure you weren't driving to some secret spot to meet someone?"

I told her it was for the guy on the forums that I sent that map of hunting spots from back home. Then she said "Oh, that was nice of you to do that for him. Did they have any?"

Man, women sometimes, lol. No Offense ladies..

damn brother i really appreciate the foot work, i am sure we are going to find someone who is a gun guy who will give up some wheel weights, the scrap yard isnt paying JACK for wheel weights, so i dont see why anyone wouldnt give them up, you will only get 10$ at MOST for a 5gal bucket... i like that roto site that a fella put on here, seems like a good source, but i see that is pure lead, so then i will be searching for tin or antimony? not sure how to make that work, but all good sources, seems like casting bullets wont be to hard, but getting a good alloy together to cast them from is going to take some practice! thanks again to everyone, i hope we can keep this thread open, hopefully someone can find us a steady source, i would definately pay a reasonable price for them, or if you reload i would give up some bullets once i get the process down! i am going to cast 38's, probably 158 gr. 45 LC 240 grain, and 44 mags 240 grain, so hopefully i can work something !!

Kevin

http://norfolk.craigslist.org/for/1616121869.html

i am gonna go see this guy hopefully on sunday, i will post a picture, and i will try to cast a couple bullets sunday or early next week and see how it melts and casts, not sure what quantity this guy has but he seems reasonable!

Kevin

well i still havent found the time to get over to suffolk and buy some of the lead on craigslist, but i will soon, and i will let everyone know if those ingots are pure lead, or an alloy sutable for boolit casting! anyone else have any luck, or any wheel weights to donate to the plinking cause?
Kevin

I will ask my father-in-law. He has a home improvement business and knows thousands of people and I mean thousands. I'll see if he knows of anyone that might have a business that would possibly have them.

Here's my strategy: Money talks and BS...... Go into an independant tire store with a $50 peeking out your shirt pocket. Say "I want to BUY some wheelweights". Additionally you might take a variety of what you load for trade if the main guy is a shooter. One shop I visit gave me 5 five gallon buckets mounded over for $100. My Explorer rode pretty low on the way home. Sometimes they say they already sell to someone. Ask if you can buy 1/2 of what they have. That will leave some for the "regular" guy. Generally I give 20 to 25 cents a pound and estimate a level 5 gallon bucket to be about 125 lbs. If they have 2 buckets hold out 25 bucks and ask for one. Be nice, be diplomatic. Are you in a business that can help the tire store???? I'm in the burg alarm biz. Sometimes I'll point out a weakness in their system and recommend they have their existing alarm guys fix it. etc. My goodyear dealer here in town can't wait to see me. I trade bullets for lead. Use your imagination. Good Luck

I live in Luray and travel to Winchester, Front Royal, Berryville and Woodstock on a regular basis. I have stopped at approximately 75% of the shops in these areas and not one would sell me any, they all "had a guy" or sold them to recyclers and wouldn't take money I was practically throwing at them. I had to go crawling back to a garage I worked at out of high school that I knew a few people at. They had 2 buckets I was able to buy, then all of a sudden I happened upon another 2 buckets, now I've got more than I know what to do with. Good to have a surplus considering how hard it's been to come across these. Hopefully you all have better luck or better shops.

25 cents a pound seem a little high to me for dirty lead. You can buy clean lead fishing sinkers for 15 at some tackle stores and those are nice and shiny. Just a thought.

Oh and in response to the stuff someone melted down and it looked frosty and porous, you may have had some bismuth mixed in.

Well if you are near the manassas /gainesville area of VA - I may have what you need
I am helping a widow liqudate her husbands stuff and among the treasures is gun reloading equipment and bullet casting and a large load of lead - currently there is some 100 lbs of lead in 1/2 lb, 1 lb and 1.3 lb ingots. Additionally there is a lot of already cast bullets in 45, 357, and somewhat smaller caliber sizes totalling probably another 100-200 lbs.
This is good lead he got in large pigs from McMaster Carr and melted down for bulletts and poured off the remainder into the smaller ingots.
He has the melter, the ingot tray (LEE brand) as well as a whole host of reload equipment and even a video course for becoming a certified gunsmith (some 300+ videos)
Contact me off line at rich_soby@yahoo.com if interested

Rich

Rich, it might be better to create a new topic in the Marketplace section so that more people see it.

and, Welcome to VGOF

rsoby wrote: Contact me off line at ... Rich

Rich - sent both pm and email as I'm interested in the lead (and the electric[?] pot...)

Cheers
Chris

I have been casting like a fool since I got laid off 2 years ago.

-frosty boolits is an indication of HOT castings. It is harmless!

-I have over 300 lbs of ingots and 20,000 cast boolits. I got all the Pb free from shops. I have had a 50% success rate, and just come back every 3 months. I can't believe how much trouble you guys are having getting Pb. I am almost ashamed to admit that I NEVER ONCE PAID A DIME FOR IT!

- The only thing you may wish to add is TIN. You cannot insert pure antimony into an alloy because its melting point is too high (1500f?). It is already in wheel weights in sufficient amounts, so no worries there. The Tin simply aids in the filling out of the molds.

- you guys would do well to go on the castboolits forums.

- The lubrisizing is a real expense and time consuming. I skip that by casting LEE TL series molds. TL=tumble lube. You just dilute some LEE liquid ALOX lube with paint thinner, take a few deep hits (to taste) untill you see your chosen diety and shake em up. They dry on wax paper and they are done.

- I used to skip sizing even and shoot them as cast. They come out imperfect (out of round) and I think this contributes to increased leading and harms accuracy. I get many to keyhole/tumble due to this. Also, all of the LEE TL molds produce a non angled base, it is a flat base. I am certain that this is also a cause, with slight imperfections allowing gas jets to tumble the boolit as it leaves the muzzle. I don't care, as this is just plinking/practice ammo. I get great accuracy in spite of this up to 17 yards. Then aerodynamics becomes a factor and they go wide. Whatever. I make 9mm for 4.4 pennies a round! You must factor in time and propane, and mold costs too, but as an unemployed fool who enjoys it, I don't worry about that.


-now I bought a lee single stage press and use their sizing dies. 50 all in!