Is there a reliable seller on ebay for pure or nearly pure soft lead?

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Geezerhood

Geezerhood

Member
Aug 16, 2022
1,010
1
671
Southern, Utah, USA
Just curious if anyone here has recently purchased from an ebay seller offering soft lead at $2 or less per pound shipped, for casting slugs / pellets that has a large quantity on hand of good quality lead. It would be nice if there was a likely chance of getting more from them maybe 6 months to a year from now but that is not a requirement.

Feel free to message me though the conversation option if you don't want the entire world snapping up the supply! :eek:
 
mercado said:
I have purchased soft lead from ebay.. but most of the time different sellers, as you know those are batches they find... so as a reliable 99.9 lead... I really don't think so.. only roto metal, you could count on the mix .
Click to expand...

Thanks. I figured if I stuck with sellers who provide a Bhn number and guarantee it as such, I should be OK.

I am down to less than 3 pounds of soft lead and was getting nervous. I need it for my Webley MkIV revolver and 30 call slugs. I almost bought some that was $2 / pound shipped for what was stated as foundry pure lead ingots but decided to call the scrap yard one more time and scored some dead soft lead sheets from a hospital X-Ray room for $1 / pound for over 100 pounds. Picking it up in a day or two. That should last me a while, producing over 12,000 55.7 grain 30 cal slugs with some loss factored in for less than 1 cent each. With my new NOE 4 cavity mold I can easily cast 250 / hour while enjoying a movie on the "idiot box".
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
3 pounds? Holey cow. I get nervous if I'm down to 300 pounds. I think I currently have close to a half ton out there, which during normal shooting activities would be about a summers worth. But then I "normally" load like 22 different cartridges and all but the "fast" stuff uses lead slugs. This new-to-me-the-last-couple-years airgunning stuff uses far, far less bulk material.
Roto metals is great, but really spendy if you need any kind of quantity. Ebay used to be a good source and still can be if you watch. No one seller though, just get what you can when you can. Check your local tire shops for wheel weights. You may have to pay them, beer usually works. You can ask your dentist but unless you are on a first name basis with them, I doubt it. Never tried a bribe with a dentist, up to you. I have had good luck with, of all things my local air force base (I work for them), airplanes frequently have to have lead ballast installed AND removed...nice 22 pound lead bricks, love those things. You'll see them used as door stops frequently. Again, beer can help here.
Something else to consider, if your making slugs for a big bore, pure lead is not required, wheel weights (BHN of about 5) work fine. Just size accordingly. I do not even attempt to make pellets for anything for 177, 22 or 25 cal, I just buy those in tins.
FWIW
Chris
 
Upvote 0
I am talking pure lead. I think the most pure lead I have ever had on hand is maybe 20 pounds. I still have lots of hard alloy, but not near 1K lbs, that should last me the rest of my life unless jacketed bullets are no longer available. I used to cast a lot of PB bullets out of hard alloy for IHMSA competition, but in the last 10 years have only cast maybe 1200 PB bullets. Most of the hard lead is now for my 460 S&W and maybe 100 each year of the softest lead I can get for the Webley revolver. Everything else in PB guns I shoot copper jacketed.

This soft lead is for my 30 cal airgun and the NOE hollow points. I don't think wheel weight metal will expand much with that slug. The 100 lbs should last a few years. I may mix in some of my hard cast with it, but I think that my hard alloy ingots straight are way too hard for the airgun as they have quite a bit of linotype on them. Maybe I will try it straight on some. I should get a hardness tester to see where it is. I don't plan on casting anything smaller than the 30 cals. for airguns right now. I get superb accuracy with all of my 22 cals with CPHPs at about the cost of the lead to make them.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
I have something around 100 molds now for danged near every caliber you can name, save 40 cal/10mm, never got into that one. Otherwise, if I load it, for my self or someone else, it has a lead projectile in it. Maybe powder coated, maybe gas checked, maybe both, but it IS lead. Before all this crap started with the loading supply shortages, I was running a LOT of ammo for myself and several others.

Tell me, why do you feel that your 30 cal needs pure lead? I have a 308 and run WW lead thru it all the time. It does not seem to care one wit...size is king. TJ barrel, makes like 175 ft/lb of energy with a 135 grain slug and will cloverleaf at 25 yards. I built it for hunting so... In PB equivalencies, these big bore air rifles are best thought of as similar caliber pistols, a bit more accurate but the energies are about the same. Pistols digest WW lead all day long, no problem.

And oh yeah, do your ingot-ing outside, preferably in a breeze. Don't expose yourself to that crap. Inside I have a vent hood that I built specially for casting in my garage. Kinda ugly, but I'll remove it should I sell the house.

FWIW
Chris
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 450BM and mercado
Upvote 0
ChrisS said:
Tell me, why do you feel that your 30 cal needs pure lead?

And oh yeah, do your ingot-ing outside, preferably in a breeze. Don't expose yourself to that crap. Inside I have a vent hood that I built specially for casting in my garage. Kinda ugly, but I'll remove it should I sell the house.

FWIW
Chris
Click to expand...

With the free aspect of my plentiful, on hand WW ingots, I tried some of the NOE 55 gr HPs cast with wheel weights and they didn't shoot very well, producing. 6x larger groups. They were also extremely difficult to chamber in the Gauntlet which is already too stiff with pure lead, and not that easy with the RTI Prophet 2 which chambers the pure lead NOE 55s with ease. On both guns, it felt like I might damage something, so I will be sticking with pure lead for now for a better chance at expansion, easier chambering and better accuracy. I didn't test the velocity since the accuracy was so bad and both guns shoot every other 30 cal ammo I have tried well to superbly.

Good advice on working outside on the scrap melting. I have been doing that outdoors on a propane burner or an old Coleman stove since the 80s. Years back I had a sheet metal chemistry lab vent hood that I wish I had held onto, but had no place to put it in our current home.

cosmic said:
not e bay but..
www.seabrookfishingsinkers.fish

LEAD INGOTS | Seabrook Fishing Sinkers

Lead Ingots: Guaranteed lowest price on fishing sinkers. Free shipping on all orders. Made from 99% pure soft lead! #Lead Ingots #Pure Soft Lead
www.seabrookfishingsinkers.fish
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. Looks like a great source. FYI, as of yesterday, they had everything on sale at 25% off.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
"With the free aspect of my plentiful, on hand WW ingots, I tried some of the NOE 55 gr HPs cast with wheel weights and they didn't shoot very well, producing. 6x larger groups. They were also extremely difficult to chamber in the Gauntlet which is already too stiff with pure lead, and not that easy with the RTI Prophet 2 which chambers the pure lead NOE 55s with ease. On both guns, it felt like I might damage something, so I will be sticking with pure lead for now for a better chance at expansion, easier chambering and better accuracy. I didn't test the velocity since the accuracy was so bad and both guns shoot every other 30 cal ammo I have tried well to superbly."

I guess I need to remember that I build my own stuff and cut my chambers according to the bullet I intend to shoot. Sorry for my over sight there. If your gun engraves the slug into the rifling when you close the bolt, by all means use the softest material you can. When I cut my chambers, I always size the chamber to the slug in question and taper the leade/rifling forward of the chamber a bit. Thus making the chambering and launch easy, regardless of material hardness (within reason).

Chris
 
Upvote 0
I am a little curious though, where have you sized your slugs? To me, it doesn't make sense that your accuracy should fall off so drastically because of an increase in material hardness (again, within reason).

I'm gonna say it, knowing you have done it. Slug your barrel, use a well lubed slug, oil your barrel and grease the slug. Acquire a size die .001" larger than the the largest diameter you can measure on that slug. I know you have done this, just spelling it out for anyone following along.

Chris
 
Upvote 0
Chris - Good advice. I appreciate it. I have never cast anything for airguns before, but have cast a bunch of PB bullets for handguns and rifles over the last 42 years. I don't know why the accuracy was so bad. Maybe they were deforming under the heavy pressure needed to seat them. The probe left a very deep hole in the base of the slug. The problem is with the Gauntlet barrel. The chamber is known to be too tight for a lot of slug designs.

The hard cast slugs are dropping out of the mold at 0.302 which is 0.001 over the groove diameter on my Gauntlet. The softer ones are dropping out at 0.301, but they were cast at just over 600F with very consistent weight and dimensions, and the wheel weights needed 780F to form well without wrinkles. I do plan on opening up the chamber on the Gauntlet so that the soft lead 55 hollowpoints will chamber smoothly. They shoot so well that I don't want to go too far just to accommodate the hard cast slugs, but once that is done I will try the hardcast again. I have enough soft lead now to last me 5 years.
 
Upvote 0
I was able to test the soft lead and the WW/Lino blend hard cast NOE 55 / 60 grain HP slugs in a borrowed FX Impact M3 Sniper in 30 cal. The soft lead slugs chambered very smoothly, no more resistance than a JSB 43gr pellet. The hard cast had noticeably more resistance chambering, but nothing to worry about pressure wise. The one soft alloy group is pretty typical with the FX and my own Gauntlet. I had some NOE 68 gr boat tails that someone else cast in soft lead, un-sized and they were very difficult to chamber. I only shot one for fear of damaging the very thin walls on the FX 30 cal probe. I forgot to measure the OD of the 68 BTs but might post it later.

I was surprised to see that the hard cast NOE 55gr HPs shot better than the soft lead in this FX, but it did well with both alloys. In the Gauntlet the soft lead was significantly more accurate. The full depth hollow point pin slugs shot better than the more shallow HP pin and the worst of the three for all guns tested was the flat nose pin by a fairly large margin. The ones below are the NOE "55gr" (dropping out at 60.5gr) HP with the shallow HP pin, cast with the hard alloy. The bottom photo is the best group and is actually 6 shots with the one at the top right called as pulled. The FX trigger was sticking when starting to move through the first stage. Not sure why. Everything is at 50 ft from a rest and a scope, as I am stuck at home. Will be trying longer distances soon. I will probably post this same stuff with more details in a new thread dealing just with the NOE 55gr 30 cal mold.

FX NOE 55gr HP Hard and soft Cast.jpg


FX NOE 55gr HP Hard Cast smaller hp pin.jpg
 
Upvote 0
I am thinking .309 diameter bullets / slugs wouldn't chamber even with a hammer on the bolt handle with this gauntlet. The .301 soft lead is a real chore to close the bolt on and the .302 hard lead is spooky tight.

Roofing lead is definitely a good source for pure lead, It is extremely soft. I ended up buying some of the 99% pure lead Seabrook - Thanks for the tip cosmic - from this place at $1.75 shipped, to supplement the X-ray room soft lead from the scrap yard.


www.seabrookfishingsinkers.fish

LEAD INGOTS | Seabrook Fishing Sinkers​

Lead Ingots: Guaranteed lowest price on fishing sinkers. Free shipping on all orders. Made from 99% pure soft lead! #Lead Ingots #Pure Soft Lead
www.seabrookfishingsinkers.fish
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu