Wheel Weights on the Oregon Coast

[jricker3]

I just responded to a Craigslist ad where someone wants to sell 4 five gallon buckets of wheel weights for $120. I am 250 miles away and they don't ever get inland, so if there is anyone close to Coos Bay/North Bend and needs wheel weights at a good price, PM me and I will send them your email address.

BTW, I do not know these people and there is nothing in it for me. I would have posted in the classifieds, but this is not my ad.

Just trying to keep other casters stocked with good lead.

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[AMProducts]

that's pricey, most tire shops will give you the scrap. Alternatively, if you open the google and start looking for places that make things from lead you can buy scrap direct from them.

There's no guarantee the WW is actually made of lead, there's also usually tons of nasty garbage in there. Smelting WW is an incredibly nasty job.

 

[jricker3]

True, but for someone who needs the hardness of ww and doesn't mind the work, I still think its a good deal. A full 5 gallon bucket of mixed weights weighs around 100 pounds, so you are looking at close to 400 pounds. Factor in 40% loss due to steel, zinc, and clips and you are still over 200 pounds of good hard lead for $120. That's just over $0.50 per pound which is cheap up here in Klamath Falls.

Doing the calculations it comes out to around 7000 bullets at 200gr. If you cast closer to 150gr bullets you are looking at almost 10,000 rounds. That's a lot of shooting for $120!

I have not been able to score any free weights in quite some time, and what I do see coming out of the tire shops around here is well over 50% junk these days.

 

[AMProducts]

The junk is exactly my point, and a major reason I encourage people to spend the time/trouble to just buy lead. If you're getting it for free it's probably a good deal (and worth dealing with) I usually buy lead scrap that's largely oil free, that's either chemical lead (pure) or 6% from santa rosa lead for between .50 and .75/lb. Were it not for the fact that it's not quite ready for casting I could just feed it directly to the casting pot.

Another really good (and often cheap) source of lead is hard magnum shot, it's usually a perfect alloy for casting rifle and pistol bullets. I usually buy reclaimed shot for ~.75/lb and I can buy new for about ~$1.25/lb

 

[deadshot2]

Wheel Weights today are "Lead Free". Those buckets of "Lead" may well turn out to be just zinc.

If you want good casting lead, go to RotoMetal's website. They're located in the SF Bay area and have free shipping on most orders of casting lead. You can order the exact alloy that will fit your needs. No garbage, no unknown levels of zinc, just melt and cast.

 

[evltwn]

Once again Deadshot is um...a dead shot! In my part of the world, Les Schwab is the huge tire franchise...headquartered in Prineville, their stores are all over the Pacific Northwest. I stopped in looking for weights, and they told methe industry had switched almost entirely to zinc. However, there is also a scrap metal business in the valley, with lead available there. I chose to mine my local gun club for range lead...a fairly nasty job to smelt into ingots, but a guy has to do something for fun...

 

[unklekippy]

Spotting the difference between "good" weelweights and "bad" is easy. The good ones are some of the best casting alloy I have ever used. The zinc will ruin your whole pot of metal. I always pry off the lead weights from old tires and junkyards.

You just have to be sure not to get any zinc in there. Anyone that tells you wheelweights are bad should contact the myriad gunwriters, silhouette shooters, cowboy action shooters and those of us that want the best projectiles for the least amount of money. I have spent $2.25/lb. on Lyman #2. A bunch of wheelweights and a cut up piece or two of a soldering metal to harden it has made me perfect bullets for years. It is a lot of fun and while most folks were screaming about ammo being gone, I was quietly casting bullets and swimming in more ammo than I can shoot.