Reloading Lead? Where do you get your supply?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Reloading Lead? Where do you get your supply?

Posted: 12/9/2016 12:46:59 AM EDT

As the title suggests where does everyone in MN, preferably near the Twin Cities, get there Lead and how much are you paying per pound? Ideally I am looking for the sub $1 per pound or free of course is always a blessing.

Having recently picked up a 45-70 lever action I have no desire to pay the $1+ per round and have decided to finally get into reloading. First step is for me to find a good source of Lead now with MN banning the use of Lead wheel weights my guess is I won't have much luck with that source. I have heard you can scavenge range berms for Lead but does anyone know of a range that allows that?

Any advice or suggestions are welcome.

Thank you

Posted: 12/9/2016 1:00:13 PM EDT

[#1]

Google Up Missouri Bullets they sell lead ingots for bullet casting. Or you can buy 45 Caliber lead bullets from then for reloading

Posted: 12/9/2016 1:10:25 PM EDT

[#2]

They cost over $2 per pound not exactly a great price. Looking for more like scrap lead that i can cast into ingots myself, and then bullets in the pot.

Edit: I should add has anyone tried getting wheel weights since the ban? Was it worth the effort?

Posted: 12/9/2016 11:06:31 PM EDT

[#3]

Scrounge scrounge and scrounge some more. You'd be surprised what you can turn up for little to nothing if you put some feelers out. To buy lead near negates the value of casting bullets to load.

Posted: 12/10/2016 12:06:11 PM EDT

[#4]

Good Rotometals you can get all kinds alloys, there of course at a cost.
Another thought, go to the local ranges and see about their lead from the back stops?
So have lead collection systems (Stock and Barrel), whereas others do not and to have specialized recovery process with separating the rubber etc. (Bill's)
Then there is always Berm Mining!

Posted: 1/7/2017 11:45:05 AM EDT

[#5]

A guy at work said he had a lot of lead back when he was scrapping at a marina. I think he said from the keel weights?

Posted: 3/1/2017 3:07:32 AM EDT

[#6]

I'm a student at Hibbing community college, one of my buddies walked into the auto class and asked the instructor if he had any wheel weights. Gave him a box full of mixed steel and lead. That's always an option. Century college in white bear lake, Hennepin tech in I can't remember what city anymore, dunwoody. I'm not sure which of them have any customer repair anymore. I am from the cities but moved up here and I'm having the same issues.

Posted: 3/5/2017 11:53:56 PM EDT

[#7]

Wheel weights today are zinc. That is a horrible thing to have in your bullets.

I bought PURE lead from plumbing supply places when they still carried it. They dumped as much as they could about a decade ago.

It is possible to use reclaimed shot (usually its chilled shot you get from a range) with high antimony and little if any tin. Adding a 50/50 (lead/tin) to the mix will soften it some and improve fill out in your molds.

Another source is to see if there is a telco service guy in your area who has pulled junctions for phone companies. Those were nearly all pure lead but had to be cleaned up. (messy as hell)

I still have over 300lbs of ingots for casting that I got stashed away for the next time I need a fix. I only cast for revolvers and slugs... not worth it for hi power rifles or autos. (too messy)

Although, slower 45acp loads work quite well.

Posted: 3/17/2017 4:43:10 PM EDT

[#8]

Yup. I agree with Norseman.

There ARE still some companies that get a decent supply of lead / antimony wheel weights, but they are mostly from semi truck / trailer weights.

There are still some good mom & pops style (non-chain) tire shops - focus there. They won't just give them to you or sell them too you. You have to earn their trust first. This is usually accomplished by purchasing several sets of tires from them over time and building a trust relationship.

I brought tires from my former employer to their shop regularly, got to know them on a first name basis, and brought them ~$5000 / year on average for business. Then brought them my personal vehicle tires too (~$500/yr).

After doing that for ~3 years I asked them about lead, told them what I planned to do with it... One of them was a Cap & Ball shooter that sometimes hunted muzzle loader. I bought a couple moulds to cast pure lead for his pistol and alloy for his rifle, and away we went.

I made about ~1000 balls / bullets for each of his guns, and since then he'd sell me a FULL 5 gallon bucket for ~$20 each. Since they needed some "proof" their lead was being recycled I whipped up a small batch of simple business cards... They would then do a cash sale invoice, and staple a copy of my business cards to each receipt.

I stacked up about ~700-800 lbs of lead ingots ready to go, and I moved out of state. As far as I know that company still does a lot of semi/truck tires and still gets a bit of lead in their business. They used to sort their steel & tin weights from their lead/antimony weights in two different buckets - making my purchase much easier.

Won't say the name of the company though. Anybody wants their lead they have to gain their trust just like other people. It's like was mentioned above - scrounge scrounge scrounge. Gotta find your own sources. I have three new sources up here in North Dakota, but I've cut back my purchases of lead because I've already got so much.

These days it's not much worth my time to cast my own - I can just buy Missouri Bullet Co ammo that's already powder coated and runs great.

Posted: 3/17/2017 5:51:55 PM EDT

[#9]

Quote History

Quoted:
I'm a student at Hibbing community college, one of my buddies walked into the auto class and asked the instructor if he had any wheel weights. Gave him a box full of mixed steel and lead. That's always an option. Century college in white bear lake, Hennepin tech in I can't remember what city anymore, dunwoody. I'm not sure which of them have any customer repair anymore. I am from the cities but moved up here and I'm having the same issues.

View Quote

Back when I lived there and asked around town, it was always spoken for already.

Posted: 3/19/2017 1:40:23 AM EDT

[#10]

How long ago was that? Just curious. A fella named butch seems to be hogging all the lead from shops around here. He used to be the diesel instructor at hibbing.

Posted: 3/22/2017 5:21:34 PM EDT

[#11]

i'v asked around at about every tire place. it either recycled by corp policy or spoken for.
the only source I have found for free is scrap range lead.
I have picked up some cheap linotype and even some lead pipes of CL. but they are few and far between

Posted: 3/23/2017 9:09:50 AM EDT

[#12]

You might try making friends with a good roofer...

Posted: 4/7/2017 11:12:10 AM EDT

[#13]

Quote History

Quoted:
How long ago was that? Just curious. A fella named butch seems to be hogging all the lead from shops around here. He used to be the diesel instructor at hibbing.

View Quote

Right up until i left in 2012.

Butch Warner, know him pretty well, great guy. Has or had Northern Shooters Supply.
Knows anyone and everyone in town, figures he'd have it locked down.

But there are also quite a few of the old timer fudds at the range that shoot the black powder matches oo.

We were the only two revolver guys at the Tuesday IDPA matches.

Posted: 4/30/2017 7:00:46 PM EDT

[#14]

Do you know anyone who installs replacement windows? A lot of old double hung windows have big lead counterweights on each side of them that get removed when the windows get replaced.

Posted: 6/9/2017 4:25:48 PM EDT

[#15]

Quote History

Quoted:
Do you know anyone who installs replacement windows? A lot of old double hung windows have big lead counterweights on each side of them that get removed when the windows get replaced.

View Quote

All the window weights in my house were cast iron

Posted: 6/12/2017 3:25:51 PM EDT

[#16]

I think I've met Butch, or at least been there when he was picking up a supply from a couple of local shops.

All shops now use stick on zinc. The guy I know behind the counter at one place told Butch to stop calling as there had not been lead weights in over a year.

X-ray shielding is still lead, but, some places are moving to special kydex plates (???) or so I was told.

I gave up years ago trying to source locally and just get range lead and alloy it when needed.

My secret stash is holding down the end of my dock with 200lbs of pure lead grampa gave us many years ago.

Posted: 6/13/2017 4:36:31 PM EDT

[#17]

I missed out by a couple days when the hospital re-did a couple xray rooms. Buddy of a friend of mine told him after the fact, it all ended up in the demo dumpster or something.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Reloading Lead? Where do you get your supply?

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