Melting Range Lead

[BABore]

Coming up in August, I have the opportunity to get all of the lead I want from a local indoor range free for the hauling. As a newbie, I have an ignorant question. Now I plan to sort the soft 22 lr lead from the big bore and sell, trade, or process it separately. I also will sort out the jacketed slugs that may be the "Green" lead free stuff. My question is what about the copper plated hard cast. I'm assuming the plating will be ruptured enough to allow the lead to flow out, but what about the copper? My thinking is that since copper plating melts approx. 1,100 degrees higher than the lead, it should float. Anybody have some thoughts or experience with this?

[Willbird]

I have done 200 pounds of indoor range lead so far, the jackets and stuff float, the gilding metal has some value so do not throw it away.

WATCH OUT FOR UNFIRED CTG !!!

the range owner warned me of this and MROliver77 recovered an unfired 45 acp ctg. from our last batch.

Myself I would melt everything together, the heck with sorting out 22lr stuff.

I have found that WW/Range lead mixed 50/50 still hardens when water dropped.

Bill

[Wayne Smith]

What Bill said! Everything but cast bullets will be essentially pure lead. Anything else in the mix not lead/tin/antimony will float.

[sundog]

BA, cupple things. First, if there is any chance of having any dust while mining your scrap, consider wearing a breathing filter. Also a pair of gloves could come in hangy to keep from getting shrapnel cuts. Next, separating boolits is so time consuming it will get old after..., oh, about one minute. You could run the stuff over a sifter and segregate the small stuff, or just throw it all in the pot and melt'er down. You might consider a covered pot to prevent 'possibles' from ruining your project. Of course, you do it your way. I'm just rambling through some of the things I know about. I guess that was more than a cupple. Nothing like recycling! sundog

Oh, one other thing. I talked to several bullet manufacturers years ago, and they all told me that with the exception of the large specialty type jacketed bullets, most all of the filler was just plain ole soft lead. I sometimes will keep out a supply of jacketed bullets to do separate to make ML balls.

[wills]

Twar back in the summer of ’73 or ’74 me 'n ‘wunna the compadres at work, Señor Roberto, whose last name shall remain unrevealed, an I wuzza meltin some linotype anna porein it up inta sum 140,000 grain slugs.

Now bein as it were a warm day in August in West Texas, ole Roberto was a quaffin a sody water when he draped it right square onta the heap ‘o lino we was a getting ready to shovel inta th’ melter. Wal, that sasparilly got all over the lino, but we uns thunk nothing of it and persisted shovelin’ lino into the melt.

By an by summa those wet slugs sunk down inta th’ melt and presently we hears this pop pop an’ th’ melted lino comes flyin back outta the melter. After sum ponderin’ we concluded the sody mus’ be turning to steam oncet it got drawed down below the surface ‘a th’ melt, an’ expandin’ an tossin the melt back at us.

Wal, that melter had a door onta’ it an we figgered in a hurry th’ thing ta do was close that door afore the wet lino got down inta th’ melt, an’ shore ‘nuff it kept the flyin lino offen us.

An that there is the story ‘bout th’ hydrogen dioxide in th’ plumbum.

[six_gun]

I have been getting range lead from our indoor range for several years now. Most of the lead is 22 rimfire lead with a very little bit of everything else mixed in. I melt it outside, in a 6 inch cast iron frying pan. I fill the pan with just as much as it will hold and it melts down to about a 1/2 full frying pan of lead. It is very dirty and I skim lots of dirt, jackets, etc from the top. I then flux it and pour into ingots.

I have learned that it needs to be cast hot but makes excellent bullets. The finished product is soft but has cast very accurate bullets for everything I have cast for.

Most of my bullets are used for silhouete shooting. The soft range lead is great because I can use more volicity with less target damage.

I shoot a 22 hornet with a Lyman 225450 gc bullet for NRA Hunter pistol. My load is 4.5 gr of Win 231 and CCI Small Pistol Primers and Remington Brass. I apply the gc, then size to .225 with a Lee sizer and then lube with Lee Liquod alox. Volicity is 1810fps. This is not an average, Every time I have shot this load over my chrony it registers 1810 fps. Groups are one hole at 100 meters from a 10 inch Contender with a 12 power scope, from a rest.

I shoot a Rossi 92 in 357 magnum for Pistol Cartridge Cowboy Rifle. The bullet is a Lee 158gr rnfp bullet from Lees 6 cavity mold. My load is 5 gr of Bullseye and a CCI Small Pistol Primer and mixed brass. These bullets leave my barrel at 1200 to 1210 fps and are very consistant. This bullet groups at 2 inches at 100 meters using a Williams Reciever sight from a rest. Once again, very consistant. I lube these with either a stick lube and size to .360 with a Lyman 450 or just leave as they drop from the mold and use the Lee liquod alox.

I use a Winchester model 94 in 30-30 for Cowboy rifle. I use a Lyman 311291 gc mold and load 31 gr of IMR 4831 with CCI Large Rifle Primers and mixed brass. I size to .313 and use a stick lube. I get 1860 fps with a Standard diviation of 9 with this load. I can consistantly get 3 inch groups at 200 yards with this load using a reciever sight and from a rest.

I consider all of these loads exceptional and have spent lots of time out at the range working them up. I attribute much of the success of these loads to the range lead used in the bullets because it was when I started using the range lead that I started geting successful

My oponion is that the soft lead obuterates better than the hard lead. I think there may be something to do with the fast powders that help also. I did try faster powders with the 30-30 though and got good results but the 4831 srunk the groups from 8 inches at 200 yards to 2 inches and is very consistant.

Take this info on range lead and use it if you can. If you discover something new, share it here.

Sixgun

[Leftoverdj]

There was a feller around who swore by his method of melting range scrap on a shaker screen atop a big pot with a weed burner. The advantages were said to be that the occasional pop did not take place down in the molten lead and the empty jackets could be dumped into a bucket for salvage without skimming them off. I dunno. Never tried it, but I would sure rather have a pop outside the melt than down in it.

[BlueMoon]

Six Gun,

I was interested in your #311291 gc mold and sizing to .313" for the 30/30. Does your sizer do any sizing or just clamp on the gas check? I've been using the #311041 gc bullet and using my .309" sizer until I figgured I needed a bigger bullet for my micro-groove barrel. I now have a .310" and Lee .311" sizer.

I had up and down results using 3031 and use more RL-7, 4064, 4895, or 4320 powder. I have used W760 and H414 with 170 grn bullets but have not tried any 4831.

My Marlin does better around 2000 to 2100fps with gc lead but it may have been bumping up the bullet a little for the micro barrel.

I've been bringing in range scrap from a outdoor range when nobody's around. I take a big plastic jar with a screw-on lid and pick up jkt and cast that wash out of the berms after several rains. After I got a hardness tester, I was surprised how hard some of this scrap tested out at. That depends on what you pick up though and I didn't have any 22's in the batch.


Bill

PS: What's a good tool to clean out the jk's when you melt range scrap? I thought maybe a slotted spoon like you use to stir up purple hull peas.

[Rrusse11]

Gents,
The lead is so thick at the base of the backstop at our club's indoor pistol range, that I need a rip claw hammer to break it up into manageable bucket sized clumps. Smelts down very clean with a minimal amount of flux and fumes. We've got quite an active pistol league and 95% must be 22RF. Dunno if there's a touch of antimony or tin in it, but it's not quite dead soft. Mixed 2:1 with Midway's linotype gives an excellent alloy that fills out, and is eminently water droppable, or shoots very well up to 1600fps as is.
Blue Moon, the best thing I've found is an old kitchen "ladle" which is almost dead flat and consists of a bunch of holes in a 4"diameter disc with a handle on it. Dunno what you'd call it, not really a spoon, but a strainer of sorts.
Cheers,
R*2