Lead for cast bullets

ben hunchak

ben hunchak

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Just thought that i would relate to a call I made today to Canada Metals in Calgary requesting price and del. on pure lead, in bulk(large) quantities. I was quoted $2.70/lb.!!!! So I did some cyphering, that's $67.50 for the lead to make a bag of shot, not including labour, and other costs, $11 for lead to make 50 bullets for your 45/70.....my point here is...don't deal with these people, the commodity price on lead is well under $1/lb,, try to find someone who sells it for near that.
I don't even know if it's okay to post this kind of info on here but I thought it would help new people trying to make their own, and the Co. involved wasn't from BC so maybe it's okay, right?
 
Thanks for the heads up ben. It always pays to shop around. Sharing info is a large part of what this site is for. IMHO
 
You can't go by the posted commodity price for stuff though. That's what the mine sells it for. It hasn't been processed into whatever size, transportation costs, profit margin for the retailer.....etc. God help you if you want it alloyed with tin and antimony. I think I read antimony alone is right around $8 per pound now. I'm not too sure about tin.

If anyone is looking for large quantities and you're not a five star scrounger, go to a scrap dealer. They're charging $0.50/lb. You'll be melting it down yourself into ingots, but it's still a heck of a lot cheaper.

If you want pure lead for black powder, look for old roof sheeting/flashing and other soft stuff like that. If you want it for modern rifle, buy wheel weights. With a very few exceptions, linotype is a thing of the past and I wish everyone the best of luck finding it......yea, I know...a few of you have, but you're the exception to the rule.
 
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Wheel weights are too hard for alot of the bullets that folks want, esp. Black powder cartridge, Cowboy Action, target handgun, front stuffers, in addition they a very inconsistent when it comes to weight and composition. I only use wheel weights to make lead shot and it seems to work fine there.
 
WHEEL WEIGHTS work just fine, melt them down, remove junk, add 2-3% tine by weight, voila a very nice and very hard alloy for pistol and rifle....

WW without the tin will NOT give you cosistent bullets, adding tin allows the lead and antimony to mix....
John
 
Follow-up question. Where does one look to buy a bucket of wheel weights? I've googled and found wheel weight companies, but is there a common easier source in most cities? How about Tin? where do you buy it, and what's the recipe for mixing them together? I'm hoping to make 44 rem mag wadcutters.
 
OUCH! Virgin unalloyed lead is $2.70/lb now!?! Wow.

Those of you who can get WW's for semi-auto handguns and some rifle loads... stock up. Around here, the only places that don't give it to licensed recyclers all have lots of guys ahead of you waiting for the used WW's. :(
 
I guess getting WW depends on where you live. The local tire places here have plenty of them they will give away. I even scored about 600lbs of linotype at a local scrap dealer not so long ago.
 
Remember, guys - Ben's talking about producing bullets commercially where lot to lot consistency is important. It's not the same as me woking up a load for whatever mixture I got from my wheelweights this
time.
As well, it's been my experience that quite a number of rifles give better accuracy with straight lead - tin alloys than wheelweight based antimonial ones.
Also, we'd all better start looking for another cheap source of antimonial lead, because my last trip to the tire shop showed wheelweights of different colors, hardnesses and densities - there are strong rumors that some are even made out of zinc.
This is one of those discussions where everyone is right.
Grouch
 
stevenha said:
Follow-up question. Where does one look to buy a bucket of wheel weights? I've googled and found wheel weight companies, but is there a common easier source in most cities? How about Tin? where do you buy it, and what's the recipe for mixing them together? I'm hoping to make 44 rem mag wadcutters.
Click to expand...

First, go by a few of your local garages. The usual price is $20-$25 for a full 5 gallon bucket, if you can find it. If they won't sell to you/don't have any/already have somebody picking them up.........you can almost always get them from scrap yards. The problem lies in that they usually want around $0.50/lb for them....at least around here. Considering that it's basically unsorted, contaminated metal (lead, zinc, steel, plastic, and any other junk the garage threw in), it's pretty expensive. As far as tin goes, you don't really need it if you're using wheel weight alloy. If you really want to mix some in, it's back to the scrap dealer. Look for scrap ends of bar solder. It usually has a high tin content. I've been making bullets for my 44 mag for years now using plane wheel weight alloy with no problems at all.
 
johnone said:
WHEEL WEIGHTS work just fine, melt them down, remove junk, add 2-3% tine by weight, voila a very nice and very hard alloy for pistol and rifle....

WW without the tin will NOT give you cosistent bullets, adding tin allows the lead and antimony to mix....
John
Click to expand...

2-3% tin, but how much antimony, and where would you get it?

TIA

RGD

PS: Current price of lead is 76¢ USD/Lb, and tin is at $6.57 USD/Lb.
 
The old style wheel weights they used for many years had antimony in them, to make the lead harder. I don't know what all is in some of the new ones,
 
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