Range Lead ????'s

[Drifter]

So far I've only used WW's for making my cast boolits and have had good luck with 'em so far. The majority of my boolits are shot in my own backstop and a lot of them can be retrieved along with other boolits that either I or other people have shot in it. The backstop has only been used for pistol shooting and has had everything from .17 to .45 cal. shot at it over the years and most of the boolits are either .22's, plated, cast and a few jacketed.

1. Do you smelt them the same way as WW's?

2. If I remelt and cast them how will they compare to the straight WW boolits?

I will be using 'em for mainly 9mm, .40 and .45 cal.

Thanks, Drifter :drinks:

[garandsrus]

Drifter,

1. Yes. You might be able to sell the copper jackets to a recycler
2. My range lead is similar to WW and I cast from straight range lead

Range lead can hide some water so be careful when adding more material to a melted pot full.

John

[Little Joe]

I just picked up another 1500 pounds of wheel weights and another 475 pounds of type metal so im covered for some time.I do still dig around in the banks at the range when im there for that range lead.A guy just cant have enough lead and Lee Brown Alox.

Out of here,
Little Joe

[quack1]

I pick up range lead from the pistol range. I would guess it is about 50-50 jacketed and cast with a few shotgun slugs. I melt them in one big batch once a year, and they always run softer than wheel weights. I cast them without water dropping or heat treating and shoot them out of my pistols without any leading. I end up with a lot more dirt in the pot when I melt them, compared to wheel weights so be sure to flux several times. I wouldn't go out of my way to pick up range lead, but since I'm at the range a lot anyway, I pick up a few pounds each time.

[Sundogg1911]

the one thing i find consistant about range lead is that it is never consistant.
you can't really say that yours will be comparable to WW's without doing a hardness test. But if you can test it, it's sometimes good by itself, and at worst you can mix it with known alloy to use it.

[Bigjohn]

Most of my cast boolit shooting has been with range salvage metal. I do melt the jacketed seperate from the cast, for safety and always recharge a hot pot only when it is empty. I have had no visits from the tinsel fairy this way.

Hardness of the metal will depend on how much of what is shot down range and recovered. Hence I keep range salvage seperate from other alloys and stamp the ingots with a code which identifies what it is. e.g. 'RS' for Range Salvage.

John

[buck1]

True! It can be anything. But as a rule mine runs softer than WW. But I get a lot of Jacketed in the sift.



the one thing i find consistant about range lead is that it is never consistant.
you can't really say that yours will be comparable to WW's without doing a hardness test. But if you can test it, it's sometimes good by itself, and at worst you can mix it with known alloy to use it.

[Johnch]

I agree , Normaly range lead is softer than WW

I normaly smelt down 500 - 800 lb at a time
So I don't have to play around trying to figure out how hard THIS batch is

But I have been getting range lead from 1 stall lately that is almost Lino in hardness , so I keep it seperate
A group of guys run a freindly shooting match there almost every night after work

Looking at it , it all apears to be store bought hard cast

I run straight range lead ( a little tin if needed ) in all the low pressure pistol bullets

I have also ran into batchs from 1 stall that is almost pure lead in hardness
Not sure what they are shooting

Johnch