Range Lead

[quiknot]

is it necessary to screen thru all the dirt, sand and wood to get the lead fagments clean to be able to re smelt it or can one just add all of it to a melter and just skim off the top layer.....

i am able to collect all the range lead i want (from an indoor range)..as long as i screen it.

thanks

[RayinNH]

quiknot, necessary, no. Left there long enough and the wood will burn away. However getting rid of as much junk as possible is the best way to do your smelting. You'll get more actual metal in the pot and the smelting will proceed much better. A quick sifting job will get rid of most of the sand and catch the bigger pieces of wood, the small wood splinters don't matter, they will be skimmed off with the rest of the debris...Ray

[tomf52]

quiknot -I screen mine and then wash it on the garage floor with a hose and leave it there to dry thoroughly. It makes for a less offensive (smoke&smell) smelting operstion.

[WHITETAIL]

I try to clean the range lead the best I can first. Be it by screening or washing it on the driveway.

[Pepe Ray]

Either way you do it will be VERY DIRTY and NOXIOUS. The dust while screening is scary (if you knew what was in it.) If you smelt w/o precleaning you'll have horrendous amounts of SMOKE & DUST, either way you must have breathing protection.
Smelting with this much waste creates a condition unlike casting. The crap coming to the top must be shoveled off before you get to a step you could call skimming.
Whatever you do , be sure to have a good venting system AND breathing protection.
I've been casting since 1961 and 2003 was the first time I got some range scrap. I'm still working on it. Not because of the volume of lead but because of the trash mixed in. Will I do it again? Not at my age.
Pepe Ray

[Bent Ramrod]

I screen my range scrap to remove .45 hardball and large cast slugs, and can pick out the stones from this fraction, but there seems to remain a lot of pea gravel and dirt among the .22 lead fraction. I just melt it all up, stir it until I can't see any more mushroomed bullet shapes in the dirt and then use one of those cooking spoons with the slits in them to skim the dirt off. The dirt protects the surface from oxidation to a point, so it isn't all bad. Once the dirt is down to a level where the spoon would get too much lead if I went further, then I add Marvelux and use a regular teaspoon to skim the resulting gunk off. Subsequent fluxing I do with a wax candle.

[felix]

Get range lead after a rain. Take it and dump it at a car wash. Shovel it back into buckets for a big melt down. Don't have a melter large enough? Give Sundog and me a call. We can use all the muscle we can gather, and you can have your lead cleaned up in a jiffy. Got a couple thousand pounds? No problem. ... felix

[NVcurmudgeon]

A powerful argument for screening and washing range lead is that it gives you two more chances to eliminate dud .22 RF cartridges from your smelting.

[mag_01]

Range scrap that I pick out of the back stop is put in glass jars and filled with water --let sit for 4 or 5 days---the shake vigorously--and rinse and rinse and rinse ---then set on bench to dry.---Mag

[1Shirt]

I just wash what I pick up on the range in the kitchen sink in a collender and put it on concrete to dry for a day or two. Not real classy, but works fine for me.
1shirt!:coffee:

[mooman76]

I've done it before. Screen what you can but you don't have to bust yur hmp doing it. You do need more lead than scrap though or you cna't sperate it well when it melts because the lead is up above the melt. Helps to start out with some extra lead so you have something to melt the bullets with and I wouldn't wash it because to much chance of water in lead explosion! But if you do make very very sure it is absoluely dry!

[jonhluk]

I did have a few interesting experiences with range lead... watch out for FMJ bullets.. seems to be mostly in 9mm.. They get hot in the pot and explode with a real good pop and spurt of molten lead in all directions.. happy I am that I wear a full face shield, leather apron and welding gloves.. and the other thing that may happen if you are not looking out is the rare but again, interesting live rimfire round which also pops off dramatically,, though I reckon it may have been just the case of a rimfire that had not fired, as we have a habit on our range of pulling the head of recalcitrant .22's that refuse to go bang..