# A Worse Shortage Looming?



## Ozarks Tom (May 27, 2011)

The article doesn't say which ammo manufacturers in the US the company supplies, but even if they're not major, the effect has to be felt in both availability and price for quite a while.

http://bearingarms.com/pb-clermont-...ammunition-industry-remains-ominously-silent/


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

hhhmmm.. that don't sound good... 

Thankfully I've started buying rifle powders for loading.. just not the other parts I need.. .Guess it's time to get on the ball and start ordering again... stock up on ammo, and on parts...


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## JawjaBoy (Jan 21, 2013)

Well that's not gonna help things a bit. 

Hopefully I can lay hands on some Unique, 4895 and 231 or Bullseye this weekend at the gun show.


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## palm farmer (Jan 3, 2014)

sportsman guide emailed me today brown bear 9mm back in stock 22 cents a round for those that do not reload


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

well if yall can , support ATK the parent company of Federal , Speer , CCI , Blazer.
they were real nice and did a special limited deal for registered youth shooting sports organizations so we could keep our programs going we were limited on how much we could purchase and the program is now closed as of last friday but please thank them and show them your patronage when you can.

without them a lot of youth programs would have been air rifle only this year.


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## hoosier hubby (Feb 2, 2012)

I would be more worried about the closure of the Doe Run lead smelter [in Herculaneum, Missouri being the last lead smelter in the country and the EPA restrictions on lead bullets. No lead no ammo. Restrictions are also being placed on importing ammo containing lead bullets.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

We will be back to casting bullets and swaging our own copper if this keeps up.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

been casting now a while , finding lead wheel weights is becoming harder all the time 

your going to want to start buying all the lead you can now if you can find it in ingots for a good price buy it , for scrap you need to figure out how much you will get per the bucket worth in finished ingots after smelt right now I think i loose almost half of a bucket of wheel weights to clips and steel weights and it takes time and fuel if I can't get wheel weights for free with new tires , brake jobs or other work my trucks already needed they


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## poorboy (Apr 15, 2006)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> been casting now a while , finding lead wheel weights is becoming harder all the time
> 
> your going to want to start buying all the lead you can now if you can find it in ingots for a good price buy it , for scrap you need to figure out how much you will get per the bucket worth in finished ingots after smelt right now I think i loose almost half of a bucket of wheel weights to clips and steel weights and it takes time and fuel if I can't get wheel weights for free with new tires , brake jobs or other work my trucks already needed they


have been picking up a little along, have about 400lbs now, shooting for a ton to keep set back..


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

hoosier hubby said:


> I would be more worried about the closure of the Doe Run lead smelter [in Herculaneum, Missouri being the last lead smelter in the country and the EPA restrictions on lead bullets. No lead no ammo. Restrictions are also being placed on importing ammo containing lead bullets.


Most of the lead in this country has been imported for years.. Doe Run didn't provide that big of a chunk, and what they did provide, a lot went to battery production... 

We can always come up with lead, or another metal for shooting, but it's about impossible to come up with powder if no one is making it..


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

BTW, here's a write up from Doe Run... Notice their mines will still produce ore... They just won't refine it any more.. Also note that they say most all of their lead goes towards auto batteries.. 

They don't state it here, but I read another article that said Doe Run produced less than 30% of the needed lead in this country.. The majority of lead was already being imported.

Too many shooters are getting way tied up in conspiricy theories without doing any research... 

I used to live in that area, and it's been a long long time coming for that plant's closing.. I also used to work for a law firm that represented them, so it gave me a lot more insight as to what they did, and why they were closing... 

As usual, it boils down to money and EPA... Our government would rather it be imported so people in other countries are effected instead of us.. 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SQUXd7cWn.../130812SiloSunsetJaffreyNH18x12tonedM3000.jpg


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

it will be interesting to see how lead ends up , china is cracking down on water pollution, this is part of what is supposed to have killed the late season fur prices this year that and that one of the tanneries got caught paying only import export taxes for processing but were selling them in country , a few heads rolled and everyone of the other tanneries that were doing the same practice suddenly stopped apparently 

any way If the china version of the EPA cracks down on water and air pollution they may be not to far off from costing more than opening a newer cleaner refinery hear


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## hoosier hubby (Feb 2, 2012)

Sulfur salt peter charcoal. Crude but effective.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Got to ask . . . . . .how about industrial batteries. . . melting down the big thick plates. . . and I do not mean "car" batteries with very thin plates . . . .
Yup lots of washing . . . .
The L16 (floor scrubber) size one yard was only offering $15 per . . .

Just a thought . . . . .had to ask........


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

there are many warnings about smelting batteries , they are alloyed with different things apparently and it makes for a bunch of very toxic stuff when you smelt.

I have always wondered if you could set the batteries in a tub and start running clear water into them for a while then try but i keep hearing it is not worth the risks to the stuff you come in contact with 

so saving that for a last resort


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## poorboy (Apr 15, 2006)

GREENCOUNTYPETE said:


> there are many warnings about smelting batteries , they are alloyed with different things apparently and it makes for a bunch of very toxic stuff when you smelt.
> 
> I have always wondered if you could set the batteries in a tub and start running clear water into them for a while then try but i keep hearing it is not worth the risks to the stuff you come in contact with
> 
> so saving that for a last resort


Neutralized (with baking soda)a coupla car batteries and broke them up, not worth the expense and effort. best just to saw off the posts and sell the rest to the junk yard..


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Car batteries have very thin plates.
I am talking about plates that are a 1/4" thick or thicker.
Hundred pound batteries.....


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

you would have to take the chance on the first one and buy it and smelt it and see what you get for lead from it for the work you put into it , and how it casts 

figure you need to get it for 70 cents a pound for finished ingots or about that to make it worth your fuel and time

I did see a very cool smelter built from a steel drum with a pot cut in to the top i think he had a 7 quart dutch oven with a small chimney welded on the back of the barrel then it had a section of dryer duct and a blower motor he would start a wood fire and close up the door he had cut in the front turn on the blower and it would burn hot really hot he would turn on and off the blower to control the heat and shove chucks of fire wood down the chimney he could smelt all day and it would only cost him a little bit of electric to run the blower when he put a fresh bucket of wheel weights in


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

I have been talking about the old batteries that I already have. . . . . not something I would go purchase...

And having over a thousand lbs. of bats is partly why I brought up the idea.......
thats a goodly bunch of lead.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

well then lets get cooking , and makes some lead , run water through them for a while then cut them open with a sawzall and pull the plates and smelt , when you have ingots lets make some boolits , I would expect they are fairly soft 

once you have some in ingot and they have aged 2 weeks you can find someone with a BHN tester and get a good idea of how soft or hard they are , then you may need to alloy depending on what your trying to load them in


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Wish I knew somebody like you here in Michigan, Pete . . .
I have not gotten into reloading...
. . but since that nasty boating accident out on Lake Mich. . .I have nothing to reload for...
Just my old Daisy . . . .

any way transporting that many dead batteries takes some serious thought.
Are you any where near Stevens Point . .which is close to the energy fair . . .considering going this year . . late June.
their web site . . . MREA . . . .


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I am about 3 hours south of Stevens point 
the first test would be to smelt 1 and see how it works if one isn't much good no point in moving all of them


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