Help finding source of pure lead in Canada.

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crazeek

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Nova Scotia
Hello,

I somewhat recently bought a p53 Enfield, and a .550 Pritchett bullet mould for it. I bought this mould understanding that in order to get
decent accuracy I would need to use soft, pure lead, and a plug in the base of the bullet to help facilitate expansion into the grooves of the rifling.
My problem is finding a place to buy the lead. Most places I could find online were based in the US, and shipping would have costed a lot. I
understand it isn't gonna be cheap to ship lead around, but I was hoping to find someplace in Canada, preferably close by in the maritimes,
that could supply me with the pure lead I need. Any tips or recommendations would be appreciated.

Cheers!
 
Are there any friendly scrap yards in your area?
You'll have to do some melting in a pit separate from your casting pot if you have contaminants from, say, roofing tar.
If you're lucky enough for them to sell to you. Many won't these days.

Put a wtb add in a local paper.

Find a local muzzleloader club, and see if you can get a few pounds from someone that way.

There's also Rotometals, but that's full retail. On the positive side, you do get pure lead, if that's what you pay for.
 
My workplace recently went through a lead abatement program. We have tonnes of lead sitting on palettes. I doubt it's for sale but I'll ask what the plan for it is.
A few years ago, a colleague had a lead cast into a mold by these guys. They supplied the ingots.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I will ask around a bit more. I already asked a few tire places around about getting some wheel weights (adhesive backed ones, as I heard they were close to pure lead),
but they all said they sold their lead scrap to someone else. I have tried contacting canadametal about buying some lead, but they never got back to me. I will try purityalloys as you have suggested.
 
Go to the Bullet casting forum on this site for lots of suggestions where to acquire what you need...Any sailboats in N.S., one of the fellows seems to have excellent luck acquiring lead from "boat wreckers" in his area.
 
i always find my supply of pure lead from plumbers ,from scrap cast iron pipe joints,or plumbing material supply houses
 
Wheel weights are not lead these days, but some kind of alloy. Even back when they WERE lead, they had a high antimony content, that made them very hard and suitable only for centrefire revolvers or semis. If you are shooting BP, then you need the best and purest you can find.
 
I purchased a 25lb bag of recycled lead shot and use it for many projects, easy to weigh out and melt. I see that some products have 5% antimony in them to prevent pellet deformation. Not sure if this concentration causes problems for bullets.
 
Batteries have cadmium in them which screws things up. Melting batteries gives off highly toxic fumes. Three sources of soft lead flashing X-ray room sheets and the flat stick on wheel weights.Batteries are a very poor proposition. Scrap yards will sell lead but it is not cleaned or in ingots.
 
crazeek said:
Hello,

I somewhat recently bought a p53 Enfield, and a .550 Pritchett bullet mould for it. I bought this mould understanding that in order to get
decent accuracy I would need to use soft, pure lead, and a plug in the base of the bullet to help facilitate expansion into the grooves of the rifling.
My problem is finding a place to buy the lead. Most places I could find online were based in the US, and shipping would have costed a lot. I
understand it isn't gonna be cheap to ship lead around, but I was hoping to find someplace in Canada, preferably close by in the maritimes,
that could supply me with the pure lead I need. Any tips or recommendations would be appreciated.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I don't know what you have for hardware/building supply stores in your area but some may still sell lead flashing for restoration projects, etc. Out here, Home Hardware used to sell lead valley flashing and still have it listed on their web page. Might be worth a shot (so to speak). regards .....catnip
 
If you want pure lead for casting round balls then lead shot, wheel weights and such are not for you because they are alloys to make them harder than pure lead. Scrap metal dealers may have sheet lead flashing salvaged from roofs or from other sources such as old lead water pipe or X-ray facilities. If that fails then check for an outlet of Canada Metals, probably in Hfx as they sell all different metals and may have what they term "recycled" or "returned" lead that is scrap from large orders they sold to a user, who returned whatever he didn't use. The returned stuff is much cheaper than new pure lead and is the same stuff.
 
another source for pure lead that will become more readily available is from water line re-hab in old parts of cities or towns. Lots of political traction is moving municipalities to replace the old pure lead water lines that were buried many years ago and are still being used...thousands of miles of the stuff. Watch the local papers for long duration street closures as they usually signify a major overhaul of the underground infrastructure. A coffee & box of doughnuts for a crew might yield a lot of lead. The stuff I have salvaged weighs over a pound a foot and it saves them having to cart it somewhere for disposal.
 
I bought 50# of 85% lead from Rotometals, a number of years ago. It lasts a long time, and you get exactly what you pay for. Do not use wheel weights, or old battery lead. Your rifle deserves the proper material, and the results will be worth it.
 
Try the local school maintenance yard.
Or a company that demolishes old schools.

The old triple horizontal slider chalk boards have nice big lead counterweights. 25 - 50 pound ingots. All good old pure lead from the 70's
 
Drillbit said:
Try the local school maintenance yard.
Or a company that demolishes old schools.

The old triple horizontal slider chalk boards have nice big lead counterweights. 25 - 50 pound ingots. All good old pure lead from the 70's
Click to expand...

What about downrigger balls?
 
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