With copper shortage and last lead plant being closed we will be facing ammo and reloading supply shortage a while .

[Elfego Baca]

Back in the early to mid 90s a neighbor/shooting buddy was a groundskeeper at a nearby university. In a demo on campus he came across some lead covered angle iron free for the asking. About five tons later we completed the cleanup. We sold some and split the rest. That kept me casting and shooting rifles and handguns for the next 16 or so years.

 

[WYMIKE]

It appears that lead will become increasingly difficult to get and prices of any product made from lead will increase at alarming rates.

 

[memtb]

On a good note they only copper plate the pennies now. They are made out of zinc. I have been scrounging lead when I can so I can start casting handgun bullets. We can hope this turn around, but hope doesn't group under an inch at 100 yards.

You can get there with cast.....just requires a good bore and a lot of quality control with your bullets!

I'm pretty close with a few rifles.....and I don't try very hard! memtb

 

[PBramble]

First, that article is from 2013. Second, they were the only virgin lead smelter in the US. Not the only smelter. There are other recovery smelters that recycle lead. If that had been the only smelter, given the timeline, you would have seen the demise of lead much earlier than now.

 

[Philward]

Gonna have to switch to round balls and blackpowder rifles again, start casting my own bullets. Or go exclusive archery. And just think with no bullets or cases available our high powered rifles will be worthless.

 

[memtb]

Most plastics are made from petroleum. I think that's known to cause cancer in California.

Everything causes cancer in Kalifornia.......I think that Kalifornia is a cancer for the rest of America! memtb

 

[Svashtar]

I actually have a lot of lead, but only use it for casting pure lead balls and minie bullets for black powder rifles and pistols. I have no idea how to find pure tin and antimony to cast hard lead bullets, and those would only be pistol bullets anyway.

A local supplier sells bars of Lyman #2 alloy so I was going to rely on that when I started casting for my centerfire pistols, but like everything else that's getting way more expensive.

 

[jpndave]

jackpot I found a couple sheets a lead in the walls of a job we demoed. It's pretty hard already but just needed to add a little bit to make it nice

I have a bunch (tons, literally) of that. Mine is dead soft, probably pure lead. Been scrounging tin and antimony for a while to make it work.

 

[3chester]

Bullet casting, makes lead the best metal ever for a do it yourself recycler. Afternoon spent plinking targets still same price as a day golfN. Magnum lead shot. loading trap shells, wish a guy could make magnum shot at the cabin in the off time. Think the loading components are better than ever and worth the going rates, wether out hunting or just target shooting.

 

[bigbrad53]

There are zillions of gas powered vehicles on our hi-ways, almost all of which use lead-acid batteries & hopefully recycling efforts will sustain lead supplies. Should our nation be in an extremely desperate situation, there are extensive galena (lead sulfide, PbS) deposits in Missouri that could be exploited. Hate to see salvaged lead shipped to China forThey smelt it and send recycling & then returned to USA.

All of our lead ore has went to China for some time now. They smelt it and sell it back to us.

 

[BPollard]

I have a bunch of that. Mine is dead soft, probably pure lead. Been scrounge tin and antimony for a while to make it work.

Check Amazon and eBay for typeset lead

 

[ImBillT]

I think you could sluice the berms of a lot of shooting ranges more cost effectively than most lead and copper mining. Surprised that hasn't happened yet.

 

[A10guy]

I have about 150 pounds of copper pipes, wire and other scrap that I've saved over the years. Should I keep it, find someone with a foundry to make bars out of it or sell as scrap? I also have a lot of brass and bronze, probably 100 pounds as well. Worth keeping or scrap it?

 

[redleg1013]

There are zillions of gas powered vehicles on our hi-ways, almost all of which use lead-acid batteries & hopefully recycling efforts will sustain lead supplies. Should our nation be in an extremely desperate situation, there are extensive galena (lead sulfide, PbS) deposits in Missouri that could be exploited. Hate to see salvaged lead shipped to China for recycling & then returned to USA.

EPA shut them (Hurculeaneum) down under Obama with their crushing regulations. A lot of bullet manufacturers went along with the canned line of using imported recycled lead from Australia and Asian Rim to assuage fears and prevent panic buying... gee Australia is a growing dystopia, and the western US ports have over 100 container ships waiting to offload, that's not looking like a viable plan of action. I don't see American lead producers being able to spin up operations again, in general when a business or industry dies, it tends to stay dead, except ironically, Twinkies.