Where do you buy your casting lead & what's it cost you?

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Ridersfan

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Where do you buy your casting lead & what's it cost you? I want to get into casting my own bullets, I really do. But when I look at what I pay to Western Metal for Campro bullets vs anywhere that I can ever find casting lead for... it just isn't worth it.

$85 gets me 500 250 grain copper plated 45 long colt bullets. 17 cents each

7000 grains in a pound. If I cast 250 grain bullets, I could get as many as 28 bullets from a pound, but with some waste I'll assume 25-26. Online retailers want over $3.50 per pound. So that's 14 cents each if I assume 25 bullets per pound... but it's still plus shipping and still needs my time to actually do the work.

I enjoy doing my own work on many things... but if it doesn't come any cheaper than $3.50 a pound for lead, I just can't see why I'd want to buy a melt pot and molds.

Where do you buy casting lead from and what do you pay? I'm in rural Saskatchewan, so online would be ideal... but shipping kills that idea. I would be willing to consider lots of spots in Sask or Alta if it gets as low as $1ish a pound. Where do you go?
 
Scrounge lead...$0.00 - $1.00
Stainless pot fro goodwill $3.00
Single hotplate $25. Cheaper if you find one at goodwill.
Mold $30-40 for a Lee mold to start out with.

Litterly your first couple casting setions will return all the money invested
 
Most of my lead is from scrap wheel weights, most i've paid is $40 for a 20l pail full (lots of unusable junk in those, much of the time). On average it's been $25-30, when I'm charged at all.

Currently I'm only shooting a couple thousand pistols bullets a year, so a trickle I'm getting from a certain tire shop for free is enough to keep my larder full to the top.

My brother is pretty good at spotting scrap lead on construction sites, he picks them up for me. Usually soft lead, again for free.
 
yomomma said:
Scrounge lead...$0.00 - $1.00
Stainless pot fro goodwill $3.00
Single hotplate $25. Cheaper if you find one at goodwill.
Mold $30-40 for a Lee mold to start out with.

Litterly your first couple casting setions will return all the money invested
Click to expand...

I'm not even concerned with the price of the equipment... it's the materials. Equipment is a 1 time investment that is around for a long time. It's the materials... if I pay the same for materials as I do for ready made bullets, well it just seems like a lot less mess and work to buy them made.

I have access to wheel weights in my own shop, but they are darn near all zinc these days (at least when I'm over at the buckets with side cutters they all feel too hard to me). Used to be lead wheel weights, we used them to make ballast for our stock cars. A 283 rocker cover of melted lead wheel weights just happened to be a perfect 50 pounds per bar.
 
I just passed up 1500 or so pounds of lead at $0.65 because i have enough and didnt have cash handy to buy that much.

Keep your eyes and ears open and network.

I have well over a tonne squirreled away and only buy know when the price is severly in my favour.

Ps. Never paid more than $0.85/lb
 
Ridersfan said:
I have access to wheel weights in my own shop, but they are darn near all zinc these days (at least when I'm over at the buckets with side cutters they all feel too hard to me).
Click to expand...

The ratio of non-toxic weights is significant and growing, but in most regions it is still very much in our favour. Here is a thread from a couple years ago that discusses what a few people are finding.

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1423629-A-sampling-of-wheel-weights-in-Edmonton
 
fingers284 said:
PM sent
Click to expand...

On the advice of fingers284, he put me in touch with Cactus Plains Cast Bullets out of Carmichael, Sask. I bought cast bullets from them for half of what I've been paying for Campro. Still doesn't get me into casting my own, but for the low price they are from Cactus Plains Cast Bullets, I really can't see why I should try to get into it myself now. It worked out to $2.50 per pound now... and that's already as bullets, not as lead. I'd have to find all my lead for free to make it appealing to get into casting now. Thanks for everyone's advice! I might watch my wheel weight buckets in my shop, but it'll take years to accumulate enough lead to be worth using there's so many zinc weights these days.
 
45Colt & 45acp were harmonized size-wise many years ago. There are scant reasons to use heavy, lead consuming 240 /250/260 grain bullets. LEE makes many 45Colt molds that work just fine in 45 Colt like their 200-225-230 molds. (incidently, there is no 45 long Colt as their never was a 45 short Colt)

Broaden your horizons and seek out gun club members & casters who have suitable one pound ingots for sale at $1.00-1.50 a pound.
Buying a LEE 6 cavity 45acp/45Colt mold will cut your costs to your time & ingot price after your C$85.00 one-time mold investment. The next 1000 are free. Powder coat & size your bullets and your cost is time involved only.
 
I havn't found much of a source for lead it seems like no one wants to give it away. But I have found a used metal yard that sells lead so I will see what they sell for. May start getting my lead collection started anyways.
 
The last batch of lead that I bought was $20 for about 50 pounds, and they threw in about 5 pounds of various types of solder, and a Starrett centre finding head..... Or was it the other way around?
A garage/estate sale, BTW. That was all the lead they had.
 
I’d try the local scrap yard. $1 a pound is what scrap lead goes for. Sometimes you can buy wheel weights for cheaper but you have to sort them. Range scrap is typically free provided you follow your range rules for collecting it. Personally I take all my scrap metals, like copper pipe or cracked range brass, and trade it for lead at the scrap yard. Nothing out of pocket. $85 would buy me 85 lbs of lead x 25 bullets per pound= 2125 bullets. It’s a labour of love though.
 
Your indoor range is your best friend.
Then a turkey deep fry stand, propane tank.
From the kitchen a large stainless pot, never to return, stainless ladle, strainer, spoon.
Some dollar store muffin tins and some princess auto cast iron pans
And you are ready.

This is what I picked up in two hours. 8 buckets of lead, dirt, copper, rubber, etc.
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Here is what it looks like several hours later.
108 X 3lbs muffins
14 x 6lbs plates.

408 lbs approx. Ready for casting.


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Check your local indoor gun range They might be glad to have someone clean lead out once in a while Just harvested 200lb & lots more left to smelt take precautions buy an appropriate mask and such
 
check with hospitals or treatment centers which do cancer tests and treatment. get in touch with the maintenance department and use some discretion if asked what you are going to do with the containment vessels used for transporting radioisotopes. tell them you are going to cast sinkers and jigs for fishing. should be able to get them for free if you tell the guy about your 11 children and getting laid off from your job cleaning portapottys.
 
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