They've been doing a fair job of it. Out of the last dozen 5 gallon buckets processed we got 1.5 of hard lead wheel weights, 3 of zinc, and less that half of a .50 cal ammo can of pure soft lead strip weights. Hardly worth saving any more. Last two guys that picked up weights to process ended up with back injuries from trying to move buckets themselves. I'm happy to let them process it, since all I want is the soft lead.
When my shooting buddy and I were going to the local outdoor range, he was often picking up lead from the berm. He cast his own bullets. Then he made the mistake of loading up a 5 gallon bucket! No way could he lift that! We started using coffee cans.
Back when I was working they had a large gamma counter, called a rep to take the source out as it was being decommissioned he asked me if I wanted him to take the lead. I said no had a whole bunch of led 25lb bricks of lead. Have a life time supply of lead.
A 5 gallon bucket of brass is about all I want to lift and not even that much. For lead I use a 1 gallon bucket and I don't even fill it all the way.
About a 5 gallon bucket of air is all I want to lift! Your heavy lifting and motivation to lift that much brass is inspiring!
Yeah good wheel weights are hard to come by around here. I've bought most of my lead from scrap yards. I currently have about 1,500 lbs of mixed lead. I'm working on a separator to speed up my mining of the berms at a couple of the public ranges near here.
I pour my lead into old cookie sheets about an inch deep and shoot into that if what I'm shooting will go through that I add a steel plate behind it, I don't loose much lead and it's all recyclable. Even my pellets seem to melt right in but BBs don't bounce the hit and fall off. Waste not.
I worked at an indoor range back in the late 70s. One of my jobs was to clean out the small trench at the bottom of the bullet trap and put the spent and flattened bullets and fragments into a five gallon bucket. In my mid-20s, and quite buff, I did not attempt to pick up a five gallon bucket of scrap lead. Used an ingenious device called a hand truck. The scrap (as if there ever was such a thing) lead was then moved the back room and used to feed the Magma bullet casting machine, which I also operated. That little gem cast about 2500 bullets an hour. It had to use bullet alloy from other sources as well. The spent bullets from the range wouldn't keep it fed for more than a day or so.
When I mined the berms I always had a shaker box to remove most of the dirt. Hand Dolley 3- 5-gallon buckets and a must have are good leather gloves.
What I'm working on is drum shaped. Got the idea from the homemade compost sifters. A little more bulky that just a shaker box, but a lot easier on my back. I fill a one or two gal bucket then transfer that to five gal buckets or a big plastic tub in the bed of the truck. When I get back here I use the tractor to lift the tub and or buckets out of the truck.
Yep, wheel weights are all garbage, these days. If you want lead, you almost have to look at "farming" range berms.....or old lead-acid batteries. Which is problematical, since the acid really should be properly disposed of (not just dumped).
I don't want to get into foolin' with batteries for lead. It's a PITA and you really don't get much for the amount of work involved. At this point most of my lead has come from the scrap yards, and the vast majority of it is pure lead. Which isn't great for bullets as a rule, but works for shot and slugs-I just water quench them. Now if you powder coat your bullets then soft lead is fine for pistols and lower to med rifle speeds.
Soft lead is all I save anymore. Most of my casting is for large caliber muzzle loaders and they like dead soft lead. I probably have all the hard bullet alloy lead that I need. I got a message from a friend saying he'd left me a box by the door. When I tried to lift it I realized it was either very heavy, or screwed to the floor. It weighed 90 pounds and was neatly packed with Lyman lead ingots. He said it was too hard for him to use, and he hoped I might be able to use it.
i have a friend that gets me no# 7 lead shot for 1.00 a pound so far i think i have close to 900 pounds good deal for me as other than making ammo for my smoke poles i also make bullets for 9 other cals. plus i have 10 5 gals. of wheel weights---I,m ready
Problem with lead acid batteries is the fact that the lead sometimes has calcium added for the so-called (falsely) "maintenance free" batteries. Lead from these batteries makes pretty sucky bullets that don't cast well. Too many wrinkles and voids.
The best thing to do with a used car battery is take it to a recycle center and trade it for usable lead. "Maintenance free/low maintenance batteries use calcium metal-doped lead to catalyze the hydrogen gas. The lead alloy used in batteries also contains a bit of antimony and arsenic to help harden and strengthen the lead. When hydrogen comes in contact with arsenic and antimony, the hydrogen reacts to form ammonia analogues called arsine and stibine, AsH3 and SbH3. In World War One, the Germans experimented with these as war gases. As such, they were highly effective since they are deadly in amounts too small to easily detect." I recently processed a five gal. bucket of wheel weights, my neighbor who runs a auto repair / tire shop brought me. I ended up with two #10 cans piled high with usable wheel weights and one #10 can full of stick on weights, the rest was all steel and zinc which I got rid of since I don't cast zinc as some do. As soon as it cools off, I'll be melting those down along with some others I've saved up and I have several Linotype pigs to melt down and make into ingots as well.
