Price of lead

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look up on GB or Ebay to get an idea. Don't forget to add in the cost of shipping. USPS has a fixed rate box that might work for smaller purchases. Should be unlimited weight for the size of the box.
 
The ups flat rate box full of 66 lbs of 6 bhn lead can be had for $135 shipped from commercial sellers. That does not included taxes, but does cover shipping . 66 lbs is about max you can fit in the box. Just make sure you know how to pack tight and be prepared to use a lot of the good packing tape!
 
I sold a ton to a local scrap yard. Got a $1.05 a pound. some was a bit harder than pure...got $1.60 pound for 15-1 at a gun show...sold it all in 45 mins...tin is crazy priced.
 
About 2 bucks a pound plus shipping. I don't know how good the market is, though, because it's only good for black powder balls. If you are casting regular boolits, wheel weights can be had for only slightly more. If you add the cost for tin and antimony, pure lead is not a deal.
 
when our local club cleans out the bullet traps, they send the lead to be smelted and refined. The smelter keeps some as payment, an d the club gets pure ingots back. They sell it to the members at the spot price. Our range is rimfire and air only, so pretty pure to begin with.

I saw the assey report for the last batch, and the purity was astounding. They do good work there.
 
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go to Goodwill, Arc, or some other thrift store and look for pewter. Great source to add to pure lead to harden. There are always junk pieces of pewter.
 
Why not offer it for sale here on the forum first? There are many reloaders here who also cast their own bullets too. They will add what they need to the soft lead to bring it to the BHN they desire. Lead is getting harder to come by to just sell it off to the junkyard IMO. Of course you do what you think is best for you.
 
I just set up a bench to mount the new FA X-10 press to. cleaned out the drawers.. Heavy stuff. I have about 150 lbs of nuclear medicine bottles for shipping radioactive isotopes. Most of those "bottles" are more than hard. Hit 'em with a wrench and they ring. No not radioactive...it's still lead. It will need pure lead added to be useable for bullets. The bad thing about USPS shipping in flat rate is the post office.. they have a tendency to drop them...and their insurance sucks. Hard to collect. The last I shipped I got some tempered hardboard cut to fit the box inside...still barely made it. Their costs have even risen quite a bit. The reason I took it to the scrap yard was no shipping charges and work. I had 6 tons too...Oh and most casters want pure or very soft lead...BTW...most wheel weights aren't lead these days..a lot of zinc. I've made a lot of bullets in the past with mag lead shot and tin. already has antimony in it. BTW my FIL was a plumber...why I have the lead. He didn't throw anything away. Another thing..Solder is a good source of tin...some solder is pure tin. I get it for next to nothing at yard/garage sales. A plumber friend here sold me all his solder for a dollar a pound. the least valuable was 50/50 Pb to Sn
 
for anyone shipping heavy stuff, like brass or lead, use PirateShip. A large USPS Flat Rate is 18.95 instead of 21.70, for example. Saves $2.75. Small flat rate is $8.10 instead of $10.20 Get the cheapest USPS and UPS rates | Pirate Ship

Medium and Large businesses can get bulk rates, and PirateShip set themselves up as one. You can pay online and print your own label, and just drop your package at the window at the post office. No need to wait on a clerk.

And you can buy the fiberglass-reinforced strapping tape from Amazon if you plan on shipping a lot of heavy stuff. I found a 3 pack of 1.5" wide for about $10 And ship brass in bags, in case a corner blows out, the bags contain the brass. Grocery bags are perfect. Double them up. I once came home to a trickle of 45 ACP from the curb to my porch. Must have been a musical walk for the driver!
 
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I've been casting bullets for 53 years and the only bullet material I've ever bought has been Linotype! When I moved from Pennsylvania to Texas almost 20 years ago I had 4 tons of lead ingots loaded in the U-Haul van!
 
I have been casting target bullets with straight "berm scrap" for 25 years. If you aren't shooting cast rifle bullets at 2,700 FPS, bullet scrap works just fine. A 1/4 cup of automatic transmission fluid (not synthetic) to 1 quart of melted bullet lube (your favorite recipe) is the magic lube elixir.

I know this is not what is posted on the Cast Bullet Forum, but I'm not arguing with what I found that works easily and cheaply. Why else do you have all that stuff for casting and lubing bullets? Just trying to save money.
 
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I have been casting target bullets with straight "berm scrap" for 25 years. If you aren't shooting cast rifle bullets at 2,700 FPS, bullet scrap works just fine. A 1/4 cup of automatic transmission fluid (not synthetic) to 1 quart of melted bullet lube (your favorite recipe) is the magic lube elixir.

I know that is not what is posted on the Cast Bullet Forum, but I'm not arguing with what I found that works easily and cheaply. Why else do you have all that stuff for casting and lubing bullets? Just trying to save money.

This. I bought a couple hundred pounds of lino a couple decades ago and have used very little of it. Any kind of lead works fine unless you are a competitive target shooter, if you ask me.

I've been experimenting with powder coated, pure lead boolits. We want expansion, don't we?
 
Lead prices were way down in this area. I have never sold lead but sold copper & brass a couple times a year. Lead was always so low I never sold any. I've never had to buy lead. I don't shoot cast in HV cartridges. Lead for revolver and LV rifles doesn't have to be anything special. The main thing is uniformity. I cast 20 lead : 1 tin for target loads. For rifles use 50:50 lead: wheel weights but still add tin in same ratio.
I use to do gas checks. Came to conclusion if I need to run that fast I'll use a JSP or JHP. Run cast in everything except a Ruger SBH and 45acp & 9mm
Don't shoot them enough to go to trouble and I dearly hate to chase empties from autoloaders. Shoot 45AR in the 25s to avoid APCs and moons.
Lucky in the Rust Belt lead & tin weren't hard to come by. I shoveled up linotype from defunct print operation. Got pure tin from tin plate operations. Selling lead and tin around here would be like selling snowballs to Eskimos.
 
Tin has gotten pretty darn high. The last good score I made was at a farm sale. Got 77 lbs in ingots for about 30 dollars. It helps make shot round out of my shotmakers. Lead is even getting harder to find here.
 
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