It seems to me that one recycled car battery would provide enough lead for one person for a lifetime. 40 or 50 pounds.
No smelting, just melting....
Unfortunately car batteries contain mostly lead oxides, diluted sulfuric acid and plastic. You can’t just melt them into bullets. I cast my own bullets where I live it is starting to get more difficult to get scrap lead... mostly because lead tire weights have now been banned for a couple of years.
The I-66 recycling facility near me has a shed always full of used lead-acid batteries. Might make a good business collecting them for the lead.
“It seems to me that one recycled car battery would provide enough lead for one person for a lifetime. 40 or 50 pounds”.
I can recall reading on various reloading forums that there is a danger of cadmium poisoning if you were to use the lead from car batteries. They recommended against it, suggesting that you contact local scrap yards for recycled lead (lead pipes and roof sheathing from old houses, etc.).