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?

That gives me an idea. I'm gonna investigate costs for significant quantities of tin. I figure companies like Rotometals and solder manufacturers have to get it from somewhere, they don't smelt it themselves. Pure soft lead I have in spades and I care not very much for stuff with antimony in it as I very seldom chase speed with attendant "hard cast" alloys. (Boy there's an over-worked and over-embraced term these days.) I'm happy living in the sub-2000fps world anymore and simple binary alloys serve me just fine for all the handgun and rifle shooting I do.

I'd like to meet a swimsuit model (or her mother) who's old man owns a tin mine.

I haven't tried any quenched. I think you may want to add a but of ww alloy to get some arsenic and a bit of tin too. I've mixed it 50/50with ww and it casts well. I've also done 1:1:1 with ww and mono for a fairly hard cast.

Bb

I had recently picked up lead from the local scrap metal yard. $30 for 52 lbs. most of it was in the form of hockey puck shaped/size ingots. They also had some lead pipe sections with what looks like brass couplings moulded into the lead piping. They also have lead sheeting which seemed pretty soft. Are those sources generally good quality lead sources? I may have to go back and grab that scrap. They are only about a mile from me.

Location????

If you were near me, I would part with some of my stash. Mostly pipe lead, got about 3000 pounds of the stuff. Most is melted down into ingots.

But I am tucked way up in NW WA state, right on the salt water. Port Angeles, WA.

So much "lead" isn't pure. When I was casting I boughtva hardness tester. Seems that pure lead runs $2 a pound.
I had a guy that was hot for my stash but never followed through. Not a lot of bullet casters now.

2,800 miles east of you.

When on a search for somethin here, it might be handy if people listed at least the state and more specific location even better.

Re-read my original post. I was asking for information/contacts on obscure sources that don't show up under the umbrella of a Google search. I was NOT asking for members here to part with their own stashes. In that light, my AO makes ZERO difference to the information I was seeking.

any boat marinas on any lakes mite have a junk small sailboat or houseboat that has lead in the keel ? it shows up here in FLA often

Never thought of that.

But, the overwhelming majority of boats around the lakes here are either bass boats, or ski boats, john boats on the river. Can't recall even seeing a sail boat here.

A lot of dirt track racers add lead ballast to various parts of the car.

Being automotive wonks, most of it is wheelweight metal.

Roofers are a good source of soft lead as has been mentioned. I would add sifting the dirt from the berm of your local pistol shooting range. Jacketed bullets generally contain soft lead as does 22rf. Last batch I sifted and melted tested was 97%+
Lead with the balance being tin and antimony. Easy to get a couple hundred pounds in an hour or so.

If you are near a boatyard check for junked sailboats , they usually use lead for ballast in the keel

my local garage saves them for me for free. My local roofer swaps me lead for beer. My local shooting range lets me mine the berms for lead. In fact after cowboy action shoots there is a lot of lead just laying on teh surface below where the gong targets have been set up. Good hunting!

I'd take wheelweights if offered anyway but I have enough hard alloy to last my lifetime.

Lead use on roofing around these parts isn't too common. If it ever was it's been depleted long ago.

No local shooting ranges to mine lead. There's a couple state run ranges in far off places but the last time I visited them was THE last time I'd visit them.

No cowboy action anywhere around here that I know of.

If you are looking for soft lead you are going to be looking mostly at roofing lead, plumbing lead, X-ray room shielding, stick-on wheelweights and cable sheathing. Those are the most common but there are others too.

Contact any local roofers, plumbers, demolition contractors, contractors that do hospital or medical office work, telephone co linemen/installers or local tire shops. Small shops in small towns seem to be the best chance. Start with the one that you buy your tires from.

Most scrap yards have quit selling to the public but it would be worth the effort to check with any local yards.

My buddy got in on the lead shielding from an X ray room. Dead soft and about 1 inch thick. He cast lots of sinkers of all sizes. He says that is his retirement lead. He got it for a bucket of sinkers already cast. The contractor tore down the old X ray room and all the walls was covered by this lead. Most roofer keep the lead soil pipes and flashing to sell for alcohol. Good luck with your search.

We tore apart an old x-ray machine that was being sent to the dump and it had 2 Bars of pure lead weighing 100 pounds apiece...Score ! I still have one to reduce to Ingots .

Good score over the weekend.

My hunting/shooting buddy called me Saturday and said get up here to the house and get this stuff off my tailgate. He'd been given two large totes of old reloading stuff. Mostly old brass ready for a ride to the scrap yard, but a bunch of cast bullets and 3K of new unopened Beeman air rifle pellets, and 2 Pringles cans full of lead shot.

Gave me most of the brass and all the lead, and some old corroded ammo I can pull down and get bullet cores out of. Most of the lead bullets are 7 BHN and the air rifle pellets are as dead soft as it gets. The bullets are nothing I can use so they'll get melted down with the pellets. I'll save the shot for muzzleloader shotguns.

All in all I'd guess there's 30 or so pounds of soft lead there.......

Your location would be helpful in case guys as myself are sitting on a bunch

Sailboat keels work for me. Just awkward until you can suspend over a 55 gal barrel of water and hit it with the burner.

Sailboat keels work for me. Just awkward until you can suspend over a 55 gal barrel of water and hit it with the burner.

I could use a good source for soft lead in East Idaho.

Bb

If in the Colorado Springs local, I have couple hundred pounds of lead I could get rid of. At my age, I don't think I will be casting anymore bullets. I also have a Lyman electric pot.

I wish I could take you up on that but I'm too far east of you. I've been getting some in since I made this thread, so I'm not hurting for it like I was.

If any of you guys in Jefferson State need lead, you're welcome to contact me, free to you, 40 miles west of Mt Shasta. I would prefer that you plan to use the lead rather than resell it though.

So now that I am casing bullets for my Springfield Trap door, I need to be casing a 20-1 mix of lead and tin. Local scrap yard did have some lead pipes and roofing sheets. Are the lead pipes normally pure lead?

I'd choose the roofing lead over any pipe if I had the choice. Potential problems with pipe, lots of nasty inside that you'll pay for to get them and extra work to clean when you smelt, and, there could potentially be moisture trapped inside and you WILL get a visit from the Sparkle Fairy if that moisture makes it to your pot.

Neither is a total deal breaker, but just be aware of how to deal with it.

yes they are yes they are

So I melted down the lead roofing sheets. Lots of blues and purples at the surface as I fluxed it and the ingots still have the colors at the surface. I then melted down the sections of lead pipe and there were no colors, just nice shiny lead. The ingots remained shiny silver. Both are finger nail soft and make a dull thunk when dropped. Why the difference in color? What would the lead pipe have in it that would be different? If it had tin in the mix, would that cause it to remain silver? I have them separated, but have at least 50 lbs total.

I had some lead about a year ago that was the same
way. All iridescent and weird.
Trying to make a few round balls, and it wouldn't
pour properly. Soft when cool, but not like
ordinary run-of-the-mill lead you find everywhere
as far as trying to work with it.

Never did find a satisfactory answer, and just
discarded it and moved along

I’ve been using some sheet lead from the X ray wing of a hospital lately and it has the gold to purple sheen on the pot. Cut 50/50 with clip on wheel weights the sheen goes away along with some minor mold fill out issues.

So I have read that higher heat will cause the lead oxides to create the blues and purples. I maintained the same heat from the fead sheeting to the lead pipes and the pipe lead never got the colors.

If that’s the case I’d guess that the pipe or sheeting or both are alloyed with a pinch of something making them behave slightly differently.

I melted down 35 pounds of roof jacks a couple days ago and cast them into ingots. They should have been pure lead, probably, maybe. They exhibited no odd colors but the sheet lead I mentioned earlier does at the same temp. I don’t know 🤷🏼‍♂️