Best way to collect lead for round balls?

[MicahKautchick]

I was thinking of sifting for range lead at my local shooting range. Wheel weights would be good too but are wheel weights made from lead still common? I have no experience with lead casting anything, just looking for advice.

[Fyrstyk]

I would think that most of the "lead" you would recover from sifting a shooting backstop will be hard cast lead used for pistol pullets.  Muzzle loaders shoot best with soft, pure, lead.  I have found the best sources of soft lead is from roofing contractors.  When they strip a house of its existing shingles there sometimes in lead flashing that is also removed.  Lead flashing is very soft, almost pure lead.  It requires some cleaning, but the final product will be good for casting lead balls for your muzzle loader.

[Gemmer]

I avoid the hassle and buy pure soft lead from “RotoMetals".

[Hungry Horse]

Talk to your local recycler. Often they will happily sell you lead at the same price they get for it, or a little more. Roof flashings, plumbers lead, diving weights, leaded glass cane, and keels off of sailboats are all good sources. IMHO buying new is the last resort.

 Hungry Horse

[walks with gun]

   I buy most of my pure lead from scrapyards, sheets, rolls ( for stained glass) and old lead pipe, by far the cheapest way.  I've found some at garage sales and by putting the word out through friends and family that I'm looking.

[Daryl]

Some salvage yards do not know the difference between alloyed lead, which will cast very hard balls, and pure lead. To them
lead is lead.
Dead soft plumbers lead is good, at 98.6% pure.
Lead from X-ray room walls in even more pure than that.

LEAD Tire weights are quite hard & can be used, if quite undersized with a thick patch, like a .562" in a true .58.
I shoot hardened lead in my .69, using a .677" or .662" ball and .030" to .034" patches.

As noted, range pickup lead will be alloyed and quite hard.

Dead soft lead is best, the more pure, the better.

[577SXS]

Range scrap works fine, I used it for years. Jacketed bullets usually have pure lead cores. Just sort out the cast bullets for the jacketed and you will be fine.

[Bsharp]

Just melted down my stach of dental lead, 36#s.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I got into a discussion a few years ago, with a ALR subscriber who insisted that his wheel weights were pure lead.  I was adamant that wheel weights were alloyed lead and too hard for the best muzzle loading rifle ammo.  So he sent me at considerable expense, I suspect, several ingots of lead from American wheel weights, and they were indeed dead soft pure lead, as best I could determine.  Surprised the heck out of me.  Canadian wheel weights are all hard alloyed lead.  At one time, I had two five gallon pails of wheel weights.  Most of it was cast into balls to feed a cannon.

[recurve]

ok wheel weights come in differant metals zinic -z, steel-Fe and lead/lead alloys Mc the weights with clips fall into the lead alloy (with some harding alloy like tin ) the flat lead weights are almost pure lead(look out for th Fe steel ones I use a magnet to help seprate them from the wanted weights)the last group of wheel weights was 2/3rds unuseable other metals

[Sharpsman]

Hornady has a good supply of it!

[Daryl]

MOST or all early stick on wheel weights (for mag wheels) were pure lead or close to it. The crimp-on WW with the metal clamps,  were
alloyed, or today mostly zinc. Canadian WW (crimp-on) were slightly harder than the US WW, something like 12-13 brinel for Canadian &
9-10 for USA alloy WW. Both the older US and Canadian WW had the requisite antimony and arsenic for heat treating/hardening for high
vel. projectiles.

[walks with gun]

      After obtaining your lead and running some ball it's never a bad idea to use some softwood like pine cut into stove wood size as your backstop.  I rick up a wall of it 3-4 rows deep.  Once logs are shot up you can split them up and recover your lead again.

[wolf]

i just got 2 shower pans, they are pure lead. they weigh about 150lbs each. i have large bars of lead that came out of race cars, who knows what they came from. i have a hill of dirt i have been shooting in for 30 years i dig lead out of. most is a mix of soft RB and cast rifle and pistol cast from WW, i tell you the truth, i see little to no difference, they all shoot and shoot good. i really think to much is made over how soft it is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Scota4570]

My most memorable lead haul was from a military pistol range.  The soil was sandy.  A friend and I were able to sift enough 45 bullets in about 5 minuets to bottom out the springs on the old Vista Cruiser. 

A good source is older shooters who have accumulated lead stashes but are no longer interested in casting.  They often want to encourage younger shooters and might make a deal. 

Here in California scrap yards refuse to sell lead.  The state has declared it hazardous material.  ....ridiculous I know.   

Watch out out for zinc wheel weights.  A single zinc one will ruin the melt and contaminate your pot making casting decent balls impossible.