Battery Lead

[Stoney]

Rightio, I have heard yes, no, yes, no, on battery Lead for cast bullets. I have access to a mountain of scrap car, truck, motorcycle, earthmoving, marine and other batteries for free. So......... is it worth my time and effort to extract the Lead from these for cast bullets for free or NO? If this topic has been covered before please let me know. Cheers.

[bladeracer]

Rightio, I have heard yes, no, yes, no, on battery Lead for cast bullets. I have access to a mountain of scrap car, truck, motorcycle, earthmoving, marine and other batteries for free. So......... is it worth my time and effort to extract the Lead from these for cast bullets for free or NO? If this topic has been covered before please let me know. Cheers.

There's very little lead in batteries these days. I've heard of people smashing the terminals off but it's not worth the effort involved in trying to scrounge such a small amount of lead from batteries. Sell them for scrap and put it toward clean lead.
Bunnings sells rolls of copperised (pure) lead for about $9 a kilo (you'll need to add solder or linotype unless you're casting balls or slugs), or Northern Smelters sells several bullet alloys for around $10 a kilo in 5kg ingots - just melt them and cast. I got 25kg a couple weeks back delivered for about $280. I also buy bulk field loads when they're on special and dump the shot out of them. Mainly I recover all the .22LR bullets I shoot which are also pure lead.

[Oldbloke]

Rightio, I have heard yes, no, yes, no, on battery Lead for cast bullets. I have access to a mountain of scrap car, truck, motorcycle, earthmoving, marine and other batteries for free. So......... is it worth my time and effort to extract the Lead from these for cast bullets for free or NO? If this topic has been covered before please let me know. Cheers.

Sell them for scrap and put it toward clean lead. It's a lot of work. .

[Stoney]

Ok, thanks for that. I looked up Northern Smelters and I think that is a way easier option. Cheers.

[juststarting]

Northern Smelters is very expensive. They are good if you are after linotype to harden lead, but for lead, bit expensive.

Easiest, at least for me in VIC...

1. Local tyre place (last resort)
Don't usually have the quantities that I want and you will need to sort through it, to get lead, zinc and steel out. Pain in the bum.

2. Metal recyclers (my first choice)
Look one up, drop by and buy a bunch of wheel weights. About $3/kg here. $25 goes a loooong way. Still need to sort, but worth the effort if you buy any significant amount.
If you are after pure lead, for BP or slugs, then lead flashing (from roofs) is the way to go, also from recyclers.

Personally, I found that it's a lot easier to buy by 500 to 1000 from http://hrbc.com.au all the common stuff and cast what you can't buy or stuff that's too expensive to buy.

[Stoney]

Northern Smelters is very expensive. They are good if you are after linotype to harden lead, but for lead, bit expensive.

Easiest, at least for me in VIC...

1. Local tyre place (last resort)
Don't usually have the quantities that I want and you will need to sort through it, to get lead, zinc and steel out. Pain in the bum.

2. Metal recyclers (my first choice)
Look one up, drop by and buy a bunch of wheel weights. About $3/kg here. $25 goes a loooong way. Still need to sort, but worth the effort if you buy any significant amount.
If you are after pure lead, for BP or slugs, then lead flashing (from roofs) is the way to go, also from recyclers.

Personally, I found that it's a lot easier to buy by 500 to 1000 from http://hrbc.com.au all the common stuff and cast what you can't buy or stuff that's too expensive to buy.

Thanks mate, that's an even better idea.

[bladeracer]

2. Metal recyclers (my first choice)
Look one up, drop by and buy a bunch of wheel weights. About $3/kg here. $25 goes a loooong way. Still need to sort, but worth the effort if you buy any significant amount.
If you are after pure lead, for BP or slugs, then lead flashing (from roofs) is the way to go, also from recyclers.

I was in two yards this week looking for a piece of brass to make a new side plate for the Uberti, but it never even occurred to me to ask if they have lead, maybe I'll remember next time