I just got an email from Midway. Lapau is selling lead free bullets. Take heed. If you haven't been gathering lead already, get at it. Something tells me our scrounging days are getting shorter.

Waksupi, I sure agree that sources of lead are drying up. Having spent about $1300 on tires last year I was able to scrounge maybe 25 lbs. of weights. Around here the tire shops are putting out the word that lead is a "hazmat" and that they MUST return it to their supplier or battery manufacturer, or something. Some of the tire dealers give the impression that an untrained civilian can die from touching a single wheelweight, and they seem to be ignorant enough to BELIEVE it. I do not think it is because of a sinister left-wing antigun conspiracy. More likely it is just the same old ever growing and ever more intrusive big government that FDR blessed us with. Regulatory agencies are always looking for another way to "protect" us, for that is their source of tax money, employment and power. Conservatives are not born, they are programmed by too much bureaucracy. curmudgeon

Certainly correct Curmudgeon.....concepts borne of agencies who need mightily to justify their jobs in the face of a currently dwindling tax base.....but I don't think we're headed for a lead shortage anytime soon.....it may be more difficult to find but avenues will appear. In yesterday's WSJ (I haven't lifted my flabby ass off the chair to go get today's) the London Metal Exchange is still quoting $515 per metric ton.....

Regards.....

Conservatives are not born, they are programmed by too much bureaucracy. curmudgeon

I think you mean extreme left Demon-Crats...curmudgeon.

Oh bullshit guys. I suppose the ban on lead shot for hunting federally protected game birds meant the same thing? NOT It was all a lie by anti-gunner, anti-hunters, wacko enviromentalist to take away the most shootable metal which is lead. The story concocted about ducks and geese dying from ingesting lead from pond bottoms is exactly that a story. You guys are putty in the hands of the people that propose such laws and so willingly follow their rule. Enviromentalist have gone overboard, sure alot of things are bad for us and we certainly do need protections from them.
Alot of them are overrated.

Go ahead an jump on and flame me, but remember all this when you can't shoot your guns anymore because the costs of ammo is so high you can't afford it.

Joe

Starmetal, I don't think Waksupi's original post was regarding the regulation of lead....rather the availability of it (or so is my interpretation). Lead is a very common element and can be found at small cost. I'm a hole puncher, not a hunter- issues regarding toxic projectile regulation did not enter my thoughts in my previous post. I simply don't believe that an element so common to a variety of industries could become scarce to the point of being unavailable. Could we be required to sign waivers of liability to purchase lead in the future? You bet.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, government agencies at all levels are constantly under siege to spend less. I can imagine that someone looking to make a career would push legislation through that would regulate the use and disposal of lead...but enforcement would be nonexistent...just too expensive.

If there is to be a danger in acquiring lead from our favorite places it will come from the insurance industry. If Marsh Mac or one of the megacompanies looses a case of lead ingestion and pays out big bucks, insurance companies will issue policies excluding lead contact claims or they won't insure companies that work with lead at all....and I doubt this very much. In comparison,lead is as benign as spring water compared to the toxic soups that many manufacturers use and discard.

In the end, if lead were taken away from us, we'd adapt....just as we did with steel and bismuth.....but I'm not ready to believe that it will happen.

Regards......

BTW...Flame? No. Exchange of ideas....no right or wrong answers at all.....we can predict the future no more than the folks on the various stock boards out there.....

bitsandwedges....you think for one second that this trying of a ban on smoking is because someone in the govt really cares about your health? If you do you're badly mislead. Some liberals sitting around somewhere got a bug in there ass to do it. Just imagine if they succeed and ruin the tobacco industry. With the trickle down effect the effects would be devastating. Anyways back to topic...same thing happening with lead. Both wife and I are engineers. Just about any "heavy metal" is hazardous to your health, not just lead. Nickel, rodium, berrillyum, tungsten, just for a few. Alot of them in common use daily. Like I said alot of this eviromental stuff is highly overrated. Just another infringement on our rights is how I see the lead thing. I know what waksupi meant...I just wanted to point out the real truth behind why lead is getting harder to get. Of course anyone that stands up against the system is out of vogue now. There's an anti group for everything thing now adays. Just saw on the news yesterday the largest of the Supreme Court districts, the 9th, said the second amendment doesn't say we have the right to own guns. It's coming, and soon, you all watch, and be sure to let "them" have their way. Oh don't pray for anything...not allowed, they are taking God out of this country too...don't believe the Lord's prayer is out of the schools and look couple weeks ago in alabama where they removed that stone monument of the Ten Commandments from that federal building.

Hi Starmetal,

Your analogy of big tobacco couldn't be better or more well timed. Altria (NYSE ticker MO) is the parent company to Phillip Morris. Phillip Morris has roughly 1,200 lawsuits pending, but Altria closed with a one-day gain of 10.5% today....truly amazing considering the downside potential. Even though tobacco has been blamed for everything from cancer to people's schwanzes rotting and falling off, tobacco products are as available as candy.....and PM et.al. are making a fortune.

Thanks for a thoughtful post.....

bits and wedges..I'm glad you enjoyed my post. Guys I'm sorry if I'm bitching so much. I guess it's just that I'm fed up with the way this country is anymore and I know alot of others people are, but seems most don't say anything about it. Once again on the cigarettes, I don't smoke, I don't like it, but I do believe in that a person has the right to make that choice. It seems tho the anti smokers are making the choice for smokers. My wife smokes, so when we go out to eat it gets harder and harder to find a place to eat that has a smoking section. I know those of you that don't live ina tobacco producing state are paying mighty high prices for cigarettes. I live in tobacco state and prices are low here. My wife gets her cigs (kook mild 100's) for $23 a carton. Marlboros are about $25. I know marlboros run like $49 in one state to like $60 in another.
Seems like the fun things are getting harder and harder to do or find. Thus the lead issue. When I read Waksupi's post I went to the tire shop and got all their wheel weights and they were glad to get rid of them. I live in state where all the eviromental laws aren't in use. We don't even have a car safety inspection. I think the larger cities in my state have emission testing but most the state doesn't. So I'll stockpile lead while I can.