Lead opinion year 2014

**Copper Head** · 08-15-2014, 07:03 PM

A recent member brought up a question of lead . That spurred me to wonder
first I remember Lead selling @ .25 to .30 # year after year & I sold plenty at those prices and felt ok about the $$ to size .

Then wile prices were still low I got to thinking " Lead might have a future " and it's easy to store .
so I stopped selling . Sure enough with out me even paying attention I saw Batteries @ .30 # and Lead @ .62 # had to say wow doubled .

So is now the future price that selling is key or is lead going higher .
My fear is the attempt to remove lead from use . I am not sure how far it will go .
If car batteries were to be forced converted to other systems .
Could the use of lead diminish that it's value goes south .
Also could the selling of Lead have a stipulation - only by EPA certified companies
Even Ammo one day ? game wardens could issue tickets for hunters using Lead .

I believe there are uses for lead that are completely hidden from my knowledge & nothing else will do. But will us scrappers be aloud to be agents to sell

There are lead abatement courses out there to have certification ( needed to paint home nowadays ) I wonder if an investment in lead abatement course -NOW might be a wise move for the future .

**snapperhead** · 08-15-2014, 07:41 PM

I believe that lead will be phased out by regulators as much as possible in the future.
Lead has a reputation of "hurting our environment" when lost in the soil and waterways.
It has been the catalyst for change in products like wheel weights, roofing nails and bullets.

Lead will always be needed and there are uses for it that will be hard to find a substitute for.
But I do think that regulators will eventually ban the use of lead in products that that can easily be lost to the environment.

Its the new mercury for the environmentalists.

**Evan** · 08-15-2014, 07:52 PM

I have no idea what the future of lead is. I don't really understand why people do some of the things they do in the name of environmentalism. For instance the push to remove lead from solder. It just doesn't make much sense to me. It seems like the surest way to make sure something will end up in the dump, or improperly disposed of, is to make it worthless. I bet there is a lot more casually discarded lead then there is gold. Sometimes I think the whole environmental movement is going down a bad path that is starting to do more harm then good.

**eesakiwi** · 08-15-2014, 09:57 PM

In NZ it is illegal to use lead shot over protected waterways or something like that.

I know lead is used in 'lead bright' steel, around 0.2% lead
Its a bright sorta shiney steel that's easy to machine, doen't need to be polished or machined on its outside surface.
Its sorta easy to weld too. But yeah, easy to machine mostly.

**pjost** · 08-15-2014, 11:23 PM

I'm stockpiling lead at the moment. I have quite the inventory of .22 and .380. look at Fergeson MO.

**Pnutfarmer** · 08-15-2014, 11:53 PM

Game wardens already issue tickets for using lead if you're duck hunting. You are supposed to use steel shot.

**Soobthang** · 08-16-2014, 11:32 AM

I'm hoarding lead too, have alot of battery terminals, wheel weights. Keeping them separate. Also have a stash of ammo I bought one 4th of July several years back, spent $200 on all kinds of calibers, now it's worth at least double. Haven't been shooting lately. The shooting pits up in the hills are ripe for scrapping after the weekends, brass, lead, copper jackets, discarded steel targets, shotgun shells.

**parrothead** · 08-16-2014, 11:23 PM

The real value of lead will come when the above mentioned laws don't matter. If the stuff hits the fan, lead will be a fantastic trading item. It has a low melt point and you can literally cast bullets with it over a campfire.

Run the numbers. You can hoard 100 pounds of lead smelted into ingots in a relatively small space. 100 pounds is a good amount. It can make an awful lot of bullets, but is worth only $50 or so in the scrap market. It is potential income that is small enough that you will not miss it, but if things go awry, it becomes an insurance policy that pays off pretty well. Looking at it in this light makes it an easy decision to keep it set aside.

I am not saying that the world will go into upheaval anytime soon, but weighing the dollar return of selling 10 pounds of lead, vs. the insurance policy that it affords just seems obvious to me.

Take this all for what it is worth. I am not an end of the world guy, I just like DIY and being prepared. I get it from my mom and dad.

**Copper Head** · 08-17-2014, 03:52 PM

No question world gone crazy . Having lead could afford you the ability to know people who can help you protect yourself for your comity .
unless metals hoarders are done in for what they have . SHTF gonna be lawlessness 10 fold .