I am new to the DFW area, and I need a large supply of used wheel weights to cast bullets. If you have any concrete ideas, I would appreciate it. I have already visited untold numbers of tire stores, and a few scrap dealers. As shoot a lot, this is becoming critical for me. Thanks.
Norm762

It ain't easy anymore. Hard times, lots of shops are reusing them and the scrappers give you a real run for your money. Your best bet is to post a wanted ad on Craigslist and hopefully a tire shop employee can hook you up.

There's at least four of them on every vehicle driving down the road. They are everywhere, ripe for the picking!

use to could get a 5 gallon
bucket for the asking

now it's like kc sez,
the scrap folks pay big
buck to shops now for em

made many a bullet and fish
weight with free lead for
years- what was the slogan?
oh yeah. . ."change"
if i had some money, i'd
bet he gets re-elected

if you find some at a
semi-reasonable price,
you'd best buy it

i can't remember the
last time i broke out
a mold- those days
may be done

Now a lot of the big chains are using Zinc weights too- gotta be careful when you buy new stuff. I actually went through with pliers and pinched the corner of every weight before melting the last bucket I bought. I have a local tire shop that claims to have 2,000 lbs waiting to be sorted, hope they come through.

yep. . . .
some are going away from
weights altogether and
using weight patches.

if you can lay hands on
lead, you'd best do it

I got me a lifetime supply many years ago. glad I did.

i hope you do. . .
i usta think my supply was endless

Ask us roofers, all us roofers, nobody re-uses lead pipe jacks anymore, we replace them with neoprene flashings. Pipe jack lead works great. And sorry, I hoard mine

I have about 3# (guesstimate) of lead bullets that I picked up at the Black Powder range at Whittington Center that I have no real use for. If interested, let me know. Would like to get atleast some of my postage money back.

Mine was endless, and I do mean that literally. Back when lead was cheap and tire shops were willing to give it away, I made friends with a lot of the local guys. Stored it all in my casting buddy's shop in 5 gallon buckets. His crackhead son stole it all a few years ago when scrap value was high. I still haven't gotten over that...

i think that's what happened
to some of mine. the local
tweakers steal anything that
will sell and they got some of
my lead(it hurt bad cuz i already
had made it up into ingots)a
battery core (before i could
get my 12.00 back) and the
lids off my iron pots(why just
the lids?)

I have never melted my own bullets but I am really considering doing that now. I had a thought the other day about using the lead out of car batteries but have no idea if that is a good idea or not. If anyone has done this before please let me know the process that you use to do this!

Car batteries are sponge lead, very soft, not to mention acid soaked. If you could get past the acid thing and melt down and cast the sponge lead, it would most likely be too soft. It's still lead, but you would need some wheel weights or zinc to add to it for hardening. When I was collecting lead, I could get it on eBay for about a buck a pound shipped.

Don't use batteries, there are elements in them that make very toxic gases when you melt them.

That's exactly what I would worry about. Lead is bad enough, but add the acids and other elements, and it would be bad.

What do the Zinc wheel weights look like?? Are they the one's that just stick on the wheels??

They are lighter color, have more rounded edges and less defined markings. You can throw them in the pot with the lead ones, they have a higher melting temp and will float.

Batteries are too dangerous to mess with. The risks are not worth the reward. clipon wheelweights are hard lead alloy and stick-on are pure lead.

I get mine from a medical xray company. They use lead in the walls....and when they tear one down they have a bunch of lead...

May want to call a few and see if you can score some there.

I would not recommend adding zinc to a production pot. The melting point of lead is 621F and the melting point of zinc is 781F. I usually run my pot around 675-700 depending on what mold I'm using, but the controls aren't fine enough to rule out floating a zinc turd in your lead pot and ruining 20 pounds of alloy.

It's also a good idea to alloy out your scrap and just use clean blocks in a casting pot. It saves you time and keeps you from having to constantly flux. Keep a layer of pure clay kitty litter on top of your alloy in the casting pot and it will keep the lead from oxidizing too.


I can tell the zincs by weight. It's pretty easy to spot them- they are almost always painted. When I alloy I always keep a pair of wire cutters next to the pot- when in doubt snip a corner. Zinc is much stronger than lead.

Also- the stick on weights are almost pure lead, so keep that in mind when casting. I keep mine to use for casting round balls, slugs, or fishing jigs.