Today was my clubs annual garage sale. One of the fellows I shoot with was relaying a tale of one of the local commercial casters that supply a lot of the pistol shooters use. Precision Bullets is the name I think.. We call him the pig farmer, cuase he raises pigs on the west side of the state
Anyhow he was saying how the cost of cast bullets has gone from $35.00 per 500 to $70.00 per 500. He also said the pig farmers alloy source used to cost him around $388.00 a ton in bulk, now the same alloy costs $3800.00 a ton. Not that I believe the amount cause I know it is around 1400.00 a ton.
He said that China is stock piling copper, lead and other semi precious metals. This I do believe.
If anyone is looking for an inexpensive source of lead look no farther than your own gun club. At mine we mine out around 5 tons a year from the rifle and pistol ranges and we estimate there is around 300 tons scattered over the skeet and trap field since it has never been mined and it has been in service since the early 40's.
Most of the lead from the rifle range is lino or ww. The pistol range is a variety of different alloys.
I have around 2 tons in the garage from this activity and I take the time to separate out the gas checked bullets and that alloy has been running sround 20 bhn, which is good enough to use in competition.
Makes me think about going in the pistol bullet business at 60 bucks per 500... I could afford a new toy that way!